Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It seems in motorsport, and maybe in life, it pays to have a rich or famous father, or preferably both. Now I'm not saying these guys should not be out there, in most cases they are good enough, but so are many more who never get the chance.

Two news items today prompted these thoughts. Paul Menard has signed to run with Richard Childress in 2011. Now this is not so much Childress signing a new driver as Menard Senior taking his bag of money from one team to another, as Childress is adding a car to its team for Paul to race. Ed Carpenter is also back in IRL, courtesy of step-dad Tony George, late of IRL and part of the Hulman family that owns Indianapolis Speedway.

Over at the US F1 track and promoter Tavo Hellmund says that the race could be in Austin for forty years. he needs to hope so as then he may finally make a quid. But how did Hellmund get the rights, well his dad promoted the Mexican GP way back when.

Then there are all the famous sons in racing at the moment, Alex Gurney, Nico Rosberg, Jacques Villeneuve, Joylon Palmer, the Mansell and Taylor brothers, Tambay, Brundle, Piquet, Magnessun, the late Henry Surtees, Damon Hill, Derek Hill, Conor Daly, Prost, Nicholas Todt, Paul Stewart, Bruno Senna(I know he is a nephew), Scheckter, and I'm sure there are a lot I missed. Let's not even start on that family business, NASCAR.

Bernie must be reading my blog as he has decided that he and Tavo need an American driver for the US race, but who does he pick? Rossi, Newgarden, Summerton? No, Danica Patrick, the driver who is doing so well in the Indy Retirement League and crowd favorite, personality of the year. C'mon Bernie at least do your homework and look past the face and the gender. She might get some column inches but is unlikely to make F1 popular in the US. I guess if you think Schumacher is a good advert for your sport then Danica could be a good choice.

Another great presentation session last evening for the Sol Real project. We are getting great response and the word is spreading. I was contacted by the SCCA to inspect a track in the same region, but the owner knew of this project and my role, and was concerned about me working on a track that might compete with his. He might be questioning my integrity, but he confirmed his.

So, Mr. Rossi is feeling a lot stronger following his three week break, and he is not talking about his leg. Seeing as how he was fighting for a podium before the vacation the other boys should start worrying now about their chances at Brno this weekend. Interesting suggestions for a Rossi/Ducati/Fiat link up next year, with Fiat's sponsorship of Yamaha ending. That would be a marketing persons dream come true. Also in the news, Ducati just bought the MV Augusta name back. Apparently Harley Davidson had it, who knew? What works of art those bikes were, so with Ducati can they reclaim that lost glory? Hard to improve on what Ducati already sell, but I'm sure some genius will think of something.

Elsewhere Murphy The Bear's latest rumor blog seems to be painting a negative picture for sports car racing, although it is hard to tell as some of it seems to be semi-positive. The common thread seems to be that GT racing is on the up, which is  no bad thing as that is where the best racing is at the moment. The ACO who runs Le Mans and the Le Mans Series is talking about not allowing manufacturer teams to race in non-Intercontinental Cup events. I like the idea and lean toward not allowing manufacturers to run teams at all, just make cars to sell to privateers. Unless there are a lot of Manufacturer teams then the racing is very lop sided. Yes the Peugeot/Audi contest is great to watch, but it puts everyone else in the shade. What if they were all Oreca like teams? Much more even competition as we see when the works teams do not run in LMS. Same problem in MotoGP, no one can compete against the works teams.

Bruno Senna has come out and told us what we already know. HRT has no money to develop the car and who knows if they will be on the grid next year. Virgin is looking to finish tenth in the teams competition by virtue of one race finish higher than the other two new teams have managed so far. Not much of an ambition, but they way they have been performing a pretty tall order, and it only needs Lotus to crack a point and they are done. Tenth is vitally important for a team as it is a money paying position for next year. Suggestions are that the FIA may not accept any new teams bid for 2011. Getting a bit late for a decision if you are going to build a car from scratch, so the prophesy becomes self fulfilling.

I guess everyone is on vacation as there is not even much spam! Very tough keeping you all entertained when there is so little to prompt the mind. It is like when I worked for Kenny Roberts in Spain and I was warned that everyone went on holiday in August, so do not plan on getting anything done. Did not treat that advice the way I should, and was pretty shocked when everything, and I mean everything, "cerado por vaccasiones" or something like that in Spanish on the door.

Great race between Montoya and Ambrose at Watkins Glen yesterday, even kept me watching. Good clean hard racing, Ambrose must have enjoyed that, like being back  in the V8Supertourers. Pity Marcus missed out on second right at the end, he deserved second. Nice to see Montoya win again, now we need him to win on a speedway.

Elsewhere Franchitti won at Mid Ohio, not that I watched. Chip Ganassi had a dream weekend, Grand Am, NASCAR and IRL victories. I had that lazy day reading a book apart from NASCAR. Vergne continues his winning ways in F3 and must be winning himself a seat in an F1 car the way he is driving. Spengler won the DTM race, and BTCC  saw Plato win a couple of races and retake the championship lead, and in a Chevrolet.

Even the motorcycle world is quiet, I guess because it is run by Spaniards and Italians and they are on vacation.

I'm off to the printers to look at the business cards and pick card stock, looking to get the video updated again with the casistas added, and the web site is also being updated. Next presentation tomorrow evening, so we roll on.

You know there is little to write about when the headline on Autosport's web site of "Montezemelo hails Ferrari fightback" has not changed for a week! Yes we have had the ALMS race from Mid-Ohio which ALMS has deigned to let us watch next week, and Dyson not only finished a race but won. Nice going, now let's see you do it some more. Four cars do not make a race for me, especially these four.

My mate Marcus Ambrose won the Nationwide race and I hope there were a few more people to watch than there were at the Grand Am race that followed. I can't imagine they all left? Piquet made his debut and did well, but I bet he never expected his life to end up trying to make it in NASCAR. Villenueve also did well, but you would expect that from road racers at Watkins Glen. The Grand Am was the usual Ganassi benefit with little to excite me in the time it was on. If the rumored takeover of the ALMS classes and cars does happen let's hope it spices up the races and we do not have one boring series instead of two. I agree with the view that we should just run the GT2 class.

The only other news of interest is that Adrian Newey crashed in a Ginetta single make race in Britain, but was not seriously hurt. Nice to see the top designer still has the passion to go out himself and have a go. Pretty good he is too.

On the Arizona front we are updating the web site with latest renderings. Check out the Casitas. For those not familiar with the term Casita, it is a garage with accommodation above, and these are exceptional, especially the ones right on pit lane.

Whatever happened to days off? With all this new technology and communications we were supposed to make life easier. All we've done is make it 24/7. Thought I could have a quiet day, read a book, watch some racing, but what arrives in e-mail this morning but another lead for a track . Should not complain really as a commission is a commission, and hard to close out, but that put paid to this morning, and now I'll be thinking how to lay it out all weekend. It is fun, but not very restful.

About the only exciting thing happening actually. IRL, NASCAR, ALMS and Grand Am all racing this weekend, but no great surprises yet. Following my review piece yesterday and comments on Peter Sauber not carrying the team much longer it turns out that he is in discussions with the owner of Telmex about investing in the team. Telmex backs the Ganassi Grand Am car, so has a background in racing, and there are a couple of handy Mexican drivers out there, so it could all come together for Sauber. As I said, De La Rosa and Kobayashi may not have a seat next year, we may be watching Perez & Gutierrez, both doing well in GP2&3. Mexico has produced some excellent drivers, who can forget the Rodriguez brothers, if you are old enough to remember them in the first place!

Let's hope there is something interesting for tomorrow.