Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I spent an entertaining evening yesterday with Dick Hahne, late of Daytona International Speedway and now with MUSCO Lighting. Phoenix International Raceway has been given a facelift with a revised configuration and new paving, and Dick was there to check out the lighting on the revised layout. Derek Muldowney and his team have done a great job of improving the track without losing its unique character. It will make for some interesting race lines when NASCAR comes later this month.

In other news Kevin Magnussen continues to impress by topping the time sheets on the first day of the FR3.5 test. Vergne is to get a run in FP1 for Toro Rosso for the remaining races so looks set to take a seat from one of the regulars next year. Robert Wickens is tipped for Virgin next year, but is looking for Canada's corporate world to get behind him.

VJ Mallya has finally owned up and confirmed he has sold part of Force India despite his vehement denials of recent rumors. The Indian Sahara Group, go figure, has bought 42.5% and now we have another team who wants to change its name to Sahara Force India. Watch this space for the rest of the sale.

Other than that it is pretty quiet with F1 stooging around Asia prior to the Korean race this weekend, and the MotoGP boys on their way to Phillip Island. 13 degrees and windy is the forecast so the riders will probably complain again. Let's see Casey wrap up the title at his home race.

Yesterday Nico Rosberg was concerned about the lack of pace with the Mercedes, and today Michael tops the timesheets at Jerez, go figure. It seems he had no less fuel than Massa when he did his quick time, so did they find something in the car or is Michael back? Two of the new boys had big offs and bent their toys. Perez and Maldonado both hit something hard, so Maldonado in particular is having a baptism of fire. Alguersuari took note of Helmut Marko's comments that Torro Rosso was not a boarding school, whatever that means, and he is more than ready to replace one or both of the current drivers. Strangely it is not Ricciardo he is favoring but Vergne, but most of what Helmut does is strange. No one answered my question about two Australian drivers by the way.

Button had his go in the new McLaren, but they are still basically doing systems checks, albeit fast ones. Lewis declared he found the car better, which you would hope he would say after all the time and effort gone into it. Lotus had another troubled day, but at the moment the field is covered by just over two seconds, so better than last year. Way too early to judge anything though. Heidfeld gets to drive tomorrow, and Boullier says if he is quick he will sign him. He needs to do something, Petrov is not setting the world alight at the moment. The news on Kubica continues to be encouraging, with Robert vowing to be back before the end of the season, but you would have to wonder why, unless his replacement is not doing well.

Ron Walker, the Australian GP boss is softening everyone up for Melbourne losing the race. Bernie is apparently upset by the remarks of the Mayor. A man not easily upset by personal comments I would have thought. Now Ron did throw in a more telling line that Bernie is concerned that for the first time in 40 years someone is questioning the value of his product. The King's new clothes comes to mind.

Over in Abu Dhabi Ferrari protege Jules Bianchi beat Grosjean off the line in the Asia GP2 race, and kept him there for a maiden GP2 win. He beat a class field, so despite being the winter series this is for real. That other series, Superleague, the one with the soccer team cars, says that it is the best alternative to F1 because it has so many ex F1 stars. Narain Karthikeyan, Sebastien Bourdais, Antonio Pizzonia and Robert Doornbos? Not exactly a stellar cast, and all cast offs. Yes they can drive much better than I, but that is not the point. Let's see someone come through this series to F1, not from it.

After watching as much as I could take of the ALMS offering of the race from Mid Ohio yesterday, which was not much, I asked my mates Tony Dowe and Tom Kjos their view, just to make sure I was not over-reacting. Most of you were saved this latest idea from the brains trust. It looked and sounded like a movie, aimed at the complete idiot who knew nothing about the sport, and mimicked a NASCAR offering featuring the team radio traffic. As Tony said "They are trying to attract the “casual” viewer that has little or no knowledge of what racing is about for the lowest possible cost, they will kill it!"

Following my comments in yesterday's blog about Dorna and Moto3 I had to ask is motorsport dying as a spectator sport? Tony in his usual fashion was blunt. "Yes, thanks to the suits and accountants who think they know what the public wants." It seems they most care about what their bottom line wants, what the TV wants, what the manufacturers want, and least of all about what we want to watch.  With even NASCAR struggling to fill the stands you have to ask where is this going? OK, some will say it is the economy, but can they tell me that soccer and football attendances are down? What about the TV figures, it does not cost most folks to sit at home and watch.

Is motorsport turning into a "hobby" for enthusiasts? For years the joke has been that to make a small fortune in motor racing start with a big one, but it is true for almost everyone except a fortunate few, and very few, who make money at this, so yes it is a hobby. That would account for the rise in country club tracks to cater for this growing number that want to drive fast and not go racing, at non-spectator tracks. For most series you may as well say they are non-spectator events now, look at Grand Am.

FOTA has just staged a fan town hall meeting so at least they recognize the need to address what the fan wants, but their hands are tied for most of the changes that we want by the "powers that be."

There seems to be general agreement that the Czech MotoGP was a pretty boring event. So what went wrong? Motorcycle GP's used to be the most exciting form of racing. We know what went wrong. The manufacturers wanted four strokes, Dorna wanted to make it "cheaper" and no one invested in young talent, so now when the Doctor retires it is basically done. Oh Yes, Valentino and Yamaha et al confirmed what we all knew, he is going to Ducati. That will spice things up for a season, maybe, but what then.

In other news Mr. Schumacher is blaming the car for all his woes, I guess it steered itself into Barrichello? Bahrain is to revert to the original track layout for next years GP, it seems you can have too many corners after all. Korea has delayed the obligatory race meeting prior to the F1 GP, so they are cutting this fine, although with a street race like Adelaide we had no "dress rehearsal." Jean-Eric Vergne clinched the British F3 title with a win in the third race at Silverstone, so presumably is free to go off and try his hand at something faster.

Saw TV footage of the desert race that claimed the lives of eight spectators. To say it was totally out of control would be complimentary. It looked like a cross between Spring Break on Daytona Beach and the Portuguese round of the World Rally Championship. People right next to the course  and on it, not that the "course" was defined in any way. How do the organizers, and I use the term loosely, live with themselves?