





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.
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.