Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Watched the Australian V8Supercars from The Circuit of the Americas this weekend. With Texas paying for these events wouldn't you think they would want Texas somewhere in the track name? Texas International Raceway perhaps, as corny and over used as that is, but perhaps some 1/4 mile drag strip or oval already has that. Goodness knows what it cost to fly that circus to town, and I hope Texas thinks it got its monies worth. The size of the crowd was never going to pay for it. Cars no one knows driven by people they have not heard of is not a recipe for success, ask Indycar. If possible there were even less people at Indy for Pole and Bump Days than at COTA. Does no one watch what goes on elsewhere in the world? Why do you think V8Supercars do not go to Bahrain any more, and Bahrain has more money to waste than Texas. This incredible white elephant cannot survive.

Talking of white elephants and people paying for them, Bernie is so determined to have a race in New York, or at least New Jersey looking at New York, that he is willing to pay for it.

http://www.pitpass.com/49086-Ecclestone-ready-to-buy-New-Jersey-race-promoter-to-get-race-off-the-ground

As soon as I heard the news of Long Beach and Pook I could see this coming. Well at least the race will happen, as long as Bernie is on the outside. The German Authorities seem to have other plans, but his mates at CVC say they will stick with him, as long as he is outside. And why not, they are on a "nice little earner" as they say in the classics.

Just returned from a quick trip to Beijing to present on a new race facility there. I went to China twenty years ago, and the change since then is amazing. Then there were millions of bicycles and the odd truck, now there are millions of new cars of every make you can name, and I mean new! The only old cars were taxis. And then there were the car showrooms next to the hotel, every performance brand you could want except BMW, but there was Schnitzer, and Rolls and Bentley.

People seem happy and prosperous, and the buildings very impressive. Did not seem like a communist country to me, born capitalists I would say. I think the US and Europe are in trouble.

Not many motorcycles though, they seem to have gone straight past them. Interesting to read Mat Oxley's piece in this month's Motor Sport about Dorna the MotoGP rights holder looking to break the manufacturers hold on the series by bringing in the CRT, the street based bike. Kenny Roberts and I talked about this twenty years ago, how the manufacturers will race what they want to sell and not what fans want to watch. Where are the two-strokes? Kenny building his own machine was part of that, but he was on his own at that time. It now seems, almost too late, that Dorna has woken up.

Kenny and I used to look to F1 where the teams were their own manufacturers, and the cars were built as pure racers, not something "relevant" to what is sold. Gone are the days, as we can look forward to 1.6 liter V 6's, because that's what the manufacturers wanted just before they bailed out of F1. Racing is better off without the manufacturers as team owners, look at Peugeot. They come and go as they please without regard for the sport. It is people like Ron Dennis and Frank Williams that have made F1 what it is, not Mercedes or Honda. F1 should just look at Indycar, and even NASCAR, to see that fans will not watch what they do not like, whatever you call it. 

On a similar note, it is interesting that Nissan is entering V8Supercars. I believe Toyota tried to do this a few years ago and even went to court over being refused. V8's are popular in Oz because it is Red against Blue, Holden against Ford, it is a tribal thing. In the old ATCC days we had Nissan, BMW, Toyota involved, and yes it was big, but that was because of the personalities. Brock v Moffat and then Johnson, but still essentially Holden against Ford. If Nissan starts beating these two brands then V8's could have a problem, but now it is owned by a venture capital group they probably just see the dollars, for now.

The first days of F1 testing have come and gone with the usual suspects at the top of the time sheets, joined by Lotus, but we saw that last year didn't we? Apparently Kimi is giving the team great feedback and all seems well. Let's hope so, we would all enjoy Kimi mixing it again. But oh, aren't they ugly this year. It seems hard to me, as a non-aerodynamicist, to see the reason for the step in the nose, but they nearly all have it so it must do something. And have McLaren got it wrong? Doesn't seem so by the lap times. Let's see what Mercedes wheel out as their new car, time for them to perform. The new boys in Toro Rosso seem to be doing well, but it is all too early yet to really now who is doing what.

Over at the MotoGP tests Stoner and the Honda started where they left off last year, in front. Rossi is happier with the Ducatti and even talks of podiums, but no wins you notice. He is still about a second off the pace, which is a lot better than the CRT teams who are 5-10 seconds off. So much for equalizing the performance, no one is going to want to claim these yet. At those speeds a Moto2 might be the machine to have.

No not the vegetable drink but the Australian Supercar Series that is now going to Austin in 2013, having raced in the Middle East the last few years, although no one came to watch. I was told when Austin was first announced that ISC, i.e. NASCAR, were not likely to give them any races, so no NASCAR, Grand Am or AMA Motorcycles. So what were they going to run at this expensive facility to justify it other than F1, which is unlikely to make money for anyone but Bernie? The answer is to bring in other overseas series such as the V8Supercars. I bet Tony Cochrane is laughing all the way to the bank. Can you imagine what it costs to air freight these cars? They weigh at least twice what an F1 car does and cannot be broken down to a nice size to put in a plane. Volume is as big an issue as weight for planes. So this cannot be cheap for Tavo and the boys, they had better hope they pull a better crowd than the Yas Marina Circuit does.

I also heard a suggestion that the new World Endurance Championship US round might go to Austin rather than Sebring or Road Atlanta. Another great series, and one that can pull a crowd as we have seen at Road Atlanta. Sebring pulls a crowd even when the race has been cancelled, spring break and all. But again an expensive deal to put together, so a hard way to make a dollar, but I guess if you've spent the money you may as well use the place.

Martin Whitmarsh says he thinks that the US should have two F1 races, just like the old days, one on the east coast and one on the west. Not sure where that leaves Texas. Martin said he "had nothing against Texas and hopes they have a successful race,  but the natural hinterland for us is us the east coast and the west coast," which does not sound very supportive, so good luck Tavo.

It must be a very wet summer in Europe as it seems just about every MotoGP has problems with wet tracks. In Mugello hardly anyone went out in the second session due to the rain. In the morning dry session Simoncelli did his usual by now fastest lap, very closely followed by Stoner. Rossi broke down and is way down the field of only 16 bikes.

Imola seems to have missed the rain and the ILMC teams had dry conditions, Peugeot and Audi sharing the top four places with Pescarolo fifth but 3.5 seconds adrift. Look out for live streaming of the race on one of the European sites, and Radio Le Mans for live commentary.

Strange goings on at HRT, and not just in the driver line up. Colin Kolles is apparently leaving/being squeezed out, but he is the one that has the team and the workshop, so how is this all going to play out?

Not good. That is the prognosis of Murphy The Bear, and he should know. His latest blog is as always to the point, but depressing for North American fans:

http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/19/190-assessing-alms-and-grand-am-prospects/#more-1089

It seems the ALMS "Game Changing" TV package is so good their chief of TV got fired for it. It is also a sad day for racing when Audi can sell more cars from plain old ads than from winning on a race track. "Win on Sunday, No One Notices Monday?"

The blog also picks up on the plight of NASCAR. As my readers will know I have been saying this is not just an "economy thing," but a lot of people do not want to believe it. On a similar note, I suggested that the VIR Grand-Am race could have been a fix for the Ganassi team to get beaten, but even I did not realize that the winning car is  associated with Daytona, so the money went from one pocket to another as Murphy points out.

The Bahrain saga continues, with the June 3 deadline being real now apparently. The latest is for India to move to December and give Bahrain it's October date. Is this more because India will not be finished by October?

I had to laugh when I read that Bathurst is "secure" until 2034! Who knows what we will be racing by then, and whatever it is Bathurst will always be secure. V8Supercars needs Bathurst more than Bathurst needs them, so who is securing who?

Checked out actually. That is what Carlos Checa did in both WSBK races at Phillip Island today, with Biaggi settling for second in both in front of Haslam Jr. and Melandri in race 1 & 2 respectively. Greg Sarni scolded me for calling Checa and Biaggi geriatrics, and as he rightly points out they can still beat the youngsters, so why should they stop? It is a sad reflection on the state of racing that they can still beat the field. Where are all the next great riders?

There were a few in the race of course, just not at the sharp end other than Haslam. Australian Mark Aitchison started his first WSBK event after limited time on the bike, and as Kenny would tell him, stayed on it and improved. In race one he was over a minute behind the winner, but halved that deficit in the second. Now there may be reasons for that but as we in the US do not actually get to watch the races until this afternoon I guess I will have to wait and see.

Not much else going on. More quotes from Bernie's story, "No Angel," about Alonso who sounds like no angel himself, but most of us knew that already. Not to be outdone by Jenson running a V8Supercar around Bathurst it now seems Lewis is going to swap cars with Tony Stewart at Watkins Glen later this year. Has Lewis ever driven something with a roof?