Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Another terrible accident mars the MotoGP world this weekend with the death of Shoya Tomizawa. Much like Indy last week the track had nothing to do with the accident or the injuries, he was struck by other riders, but the manner in which the incident was dealt with has rightly caused outrage amongst motorcycle enthusiasts.

Anyone at any level of competition deserves the very highest standard of race management and officiating. Obviously a MotoGP event is operating under a high level of pressure, but that is no excuse for what we saw today. The race should have been red flagged to give the safety crews the time to deal with the riders properly, not drag them off the track, dropping Tomizawa at one point, so that the race could go on. The World Superbike race at Nurburgring showed how it should have been handled. I personally do not like red flagging races, too often I see it for no good reason, but when you see that crash it is impossible to think Shoya was not critically injured. How the message was put out that he did not have life threatening injuries is beyond me.

The TV coverage clearly showed a level of care way below what should be expected by riders. If you have a "spade" stretcher, as they did, it is made to come to pieces to slide under a fallen rider to prevent possible spinal damage, not for the rider to be rolled over and dumped on it! Thankfully Redding did not have serious injuries, but no thanks to the medical crew. I saw a comment that it was not the marshals causing the problem, but the medical team. In Italy, the home of Clinca Mobile and Dr. Costa, I am astounded at their performance. As a race organizer I have always made it my business to make sure I had the best available people working the tower and the track, and have made myself very unpopular for it.

When I went to Laguna to promote the Bike GP the medical was one of the high priorities to improve. I took the excellent Medical Chief to another GP to show him his job was to manage and train the medical team, not treat patients. I found the best corner workers, even talking to the SCCA at one point, yes the car guys. When I ran Phillip Island I brought in the pit lane crew from the F1GP, as the local motorcycle marshals had no experience of running a pit lane in these situations. In fact I really annoyed the first motorcycle club to use PI after I restored it. They ran that race very "loosely" as it was "only a club race." I asked where the switch was in their head that they would throw when they walked through the gate at the GP? They walked off and said they would not be coming to the GP, thankfully. Marshals and race officials need to run every race as a GP, that is what the riders are doing, they are learning their craft, and not going that much slower with less experience while they are doing it. It heartened me that after the GP this same club had the guts to come and say that they now understood, and could they please have another chance.

Then there are the corner workers who only turn up race day. Sorry, you need to be here all day every day to learn what to expect under stressful situations. Practice just like the riders. And no moving around to different stations during the week. I don't care if it is more fun, but learn what happens at that station and be anticipating it. Channel Nine used to have their cameramen out there covering the practice from the first turn of a wheel, even if they were not filming, just so they got up to speed. They understood.

What we saw today at Misano was unforgivable, and the FIM needs to take action. If the promoter cannot organize it better than that then he should not have a race, or the FIM needs to step in and train these people and manage the medical.  I am continually amazed that in this day and age when we know so much about how to stage a race properly, we continue to see a lack of care about reaching the highest standards, whether it is track construction or management. There are knowledgeable professionals out there, but too many would be track owners and promoters think they do not need to know, or think they can do it better. Who is enforcing the standards?

Oh yes, Tony Elias won the race, extending his points lead in Moto2, and Pedrosa won the MotoGP race from Lorenzo and Rossi, keeping his championship hopes alive. At the WSBK at Nurburgring the interest for me is not who won, but why Corser was suddenly so far off the pace, and why Leon Haslam is struggling after a great start to the season?

No one seems very impressed with the state of the Korean GP track, with Bernie joking that it will go ahead, even if they have to use tents. That will be the day. Now you could sell tickets to that!

So Chandook did run on asphalt, with the treaded tires, and if that is the finished surface the piece I saw did not look great. Chandook liked the garages and buildings, and said the track will have some good passing points when it is finished. The shots show crews putting up guard rail and lots of unfinished dirt, so the buildings are done but the track is not. "The track itself needs a bit more work on the asphalt and the kerbs, but the organiser's think it's all within their time-lines and are confident that it will be ready on time. And the location's nice, we're overlooking the sea." That's nice. Why do people forget that the only thing that is really important is the track? When I rebuilt Phillip Island we spent $5m, crazy eh? But as Wayne Rainey said, "you spent the money where it is important."

Daniel Ricciardo won the FRenault 3.5 race and hoisted himself closer to the points leader, and did himself a lot of good for the future I'm sure. Daniel said that after the long break "It is good to know that I still have the ability to drive a race car." No problem there Daniel.

Pedrosa took pole for tomorrow's race, it seems he and the Honda have come alive for the second half of the season, although his team mate is struggling. Lorenzo is second and Stoner got it sorted to take third, while his team mate Nicky Hayden is way down in 14th! Does not seem to be much love lost between Rossi and Casey, could make for some interest next year. Toni Elias took his first pole for Moto2 and his championship hopes look good.

In Germany Max Biaggi took Superbike pole from Checa, but Troy could do no better than 14th! What happened there? In the Supersport class Mark Aitchison maintained his tenth position in qualifying.

Superleague is at the Adria circuit in Italy if anyone cares. I am a Tottenham fan since birth, I can still name the 1961 double winning team, but have no interest in a car racing with the team name, even if they are vying for the championship. Why does someone think that the two are compatible? I never understood the rational for A1GP, or Superleague, or the other odd open wheel series. In today's world there is not enough money to go around for all these and GP2, GP3, F2, F3, FRenault3.5, FBMW,  and I'm sure I missed some.

Sorry folks, Tuesday was very hectic and hence no posting. Sol Real became "real" last evening, sign on the door and open for business. Not the track of course, but our "office" come toy store in the hanger. It looked great with a couple of special motorcycles and cars, posters on the walls, an RV to look like a paddock set up, and projection on the wall. An invited audience of twenty from a cross section of racers, tuners and enthusiasts were treated to the first showing of the promo video and a presentation on the project and memberships. All were excited by what they saw and heard and fired up to find a way to become involved, so a great "kick off." Now we will fine tune some things based on the feed back and move forward with one-on-one sessions and more group presentations.

On the wider scene there was not a lot from the motor sport world to make ones juices run and stir the pen. We enter the enforced F1 shutdown period when the factories close, but you can imagine they cannot shut off the brains. They will be going full bore with ways to catch up or stay in front.Last Turn Club has some great scuttlebutt on Grand Am's moves to take over the sports car world here in the US, "The World Turned Upside Down." Check it out on their web site.

In the motorcycle world the worst kept secret is out with Valentino Rossi going to Ducati, that's according to Ducati. Nice chance to sell a lot of merchandise Valentino. Biaggi has apparently re-signed to ride Superbike next year. They will have to have wheelchairs to get these guys to the grid soon , and trainer wheels. Soon the rookies are going to be in their mid thirties by the time they get a chance.

Bob Varsha was in fine form today during practice for the Hungarian GP. As he said himself most of it was useless trivia, designed to show his extensive knowledge of things none of us actually care about. And then there are all the promos for things coming on Speed, which if I really cared about I would go to the guide to find. In between this we did get a bit of the practice. Bob needs to learn that if you have nothing to say then keep your mouth shut. Commentators do not have to talk all the time, we are quite happy looking at the pictures. If not we would be listening on the radio. I particularly liked his put down of how Andrian Newey designs his cars. Oh my gosh, he still uses a pencil, like a "cave man drawing on the cave walls with a stick" to quote Bob. So what does Bob use? I happen to use a pencil to draw my tracks, it is a process of creation, it is a tactile thing. The "design" that the two hundred guys behind Adrian are doing on computers is pure mechanics, if they could create what Adrian does then they would be doing it. Inspiration comes in its own ways.

Whatever Adrian is doing it is working much better than anyone else at the moment, the Red Bulls being in a different class to everyone except the Ferrari, and you suspect there was a bit of sandbagging going on there. Lotus again had hydraulic problems. C'mon all you tech guys out there, how can that continue for all these new teams. Mike Gascoyne is no newcomer to this, so why all the issues at every race?

Interesting to hear Ron Dennis say how ticked off he is to hear his drivers complain about lack of speed in qualifying. According to Ron, McLaren have purposely gone for race speed not qualifying, and seeing as how they have both won races and are leading the Championship, then he would like to hear a lot less complaining thank you.

Cypher have announced they are not pursuing their F1 entry, no money. Not surprising given the USF1 debacle, they cruelled it for anyone following for a while I suspect.

Nice piece on www.lastturnclub.com about ALMS and Lime Rock, well worth reading as it raises some broader issues with tracks being selected on purely commercial grounds despite their unsuitability, and the lack of any centralized or coordinated licensing system for tracks in the US.

World Superbike at Silverstone this weekend, and nice to see someone other than Biaggi on pole. In fact five different makes in the top five grid spots, interesting.

Here in Arizona the project web site is due to go live tonight, so watch for the address here tomorrow. Another overseas approach for a track overnight, and another here in the US. If only a couple of these come about I am in trouble, busy enough as it is.

How sweet it must have been for Mark Webber to win the British F1 GP  yesterday. "Methinks they protesteth too much" is how I would treat Red Bull's continual assurances that Vettel is not getting preferential treatment. Team Principal Christian Horner insisted that the differences between the two wing versions were minor, and only affected driving characteristics. If that was true why risk having a problem with Mark by changing it over to Vettel's car after Vettel's wing had broken in practice? Sources have revealed that there was both a lap time and a weight difference between the two versions. Mark commented that the car felt better with it on. Horner saying that they gave the wing to Vettel because he was ahead in points makes more sense than "there were minor differences." It's like the Turkey deal all over again, they cannot stick to a story. So, if Mark wins the World Championship are we going to see a Champion walk from his team again? You have to love him for his honesty and lack of PC!

Not that winning the Championship is going to be easy. They said that Jim Clark could just drive around a car's problems, as did Senna. Now I am not yet saying that Hamilton is in that illustrious company, but you have to admire his ability to take a car that is not well set up and putting it fourth on the grid when  his World Champion team mate can only manage 14th and says it is undriveable. Then he runs a strong second in the race, setting fastest times. Cudos to Button to take that ill handling car and get it up to fourth, he has a different style to Lewis but is still very effective. You do not really see how he does it. McLaren have a great team with these two and of course the engineers and mechanics, and yes I am biased.

Ferrari are again exercising their selective memory and "the rules do not apply to us" mentality. Do they not recall Spa three years ago and that great duel between Raikkonen and Hamilton? When Kimi pushed Lewis wide at the "bus stop" and Lewis did pass Kimi, let Kimi back past him again, and then overtook him, only to be penalized for not letting Kimi by far enough! Lost the race and the Championship. So why was Alonso's pass on Kubica any different?

Nice to see Williams up there again, and the Cosworth is obviously not too shabby. Yamamoto ran around last, must have been weighed down by his wallet! Well done Nico Rosberg, beat your elderly team mate again. Michael is not driving well and cannot be enjoying his time back in the car. Even the TV commentators are now comparing his age with every other driver he gets passed by.

Did not get to see the ALMS at Miller, but well done Highcroft, and it seems that the Drayson car ran well. Keep Emmanuele in the car so we have some competition for Brabham and co.

Did not see WSBK either, but it is turning into a Biaggi benefit. Pity about Corser and the BMW's. Did anyone see the accident in practice? Brno is a safe track so I am surprised at his injuries, was it just a high speed get off?

Congratulations Spain for the World Cup. I lived in Spain for a year and love the people and the Country, so if England could not win I am glad Spain did. Hard to believe it was their first final and win.

Sad to see Lance Armstrong having such a tough time on the Tour, but I guess when your luck runs out. He is still amazing, but in a way he is finding out what Michael is finding out, the current crop of riders are pretty damn good! I know I am an Aussie, but I think Andy Schleck is who I would like to win.