Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Who can question whether motor sport will continue when you read an article from our National Public Radio, NPR, sort of BBC but more independent, about women racers in Palestine! Yes there is a Palestine Motorsport Federation. I would have expected just owning a car in Palestine would be a big ask, let alone risking it in racing! And there is a female team. Where there is a will there is a way. How can you say motor racing is going to die when you see it growing in the most unlikely places. We will always race something running on some sort of fuel.

I know NASCAR is not going to die, but it is going through some pain. The second biggest race at Daytona and the back stretch grandstand is not even open. Even the Budweiser Porch, where they took out seats, was empty, and the RV parking next to it empty as well. Now, it is still attracting probably 150,000, not too shabby, but the glory days seem to be over. I was sucked in by the promise of seeing all the green laps, presuming Coke had paid for the broadcast and there would be no ads. They manage to go 45 minutes of a soccer half without them, so why not. Wrong, while we had picture in picture, it turned out to be one long commercial, if possible more annoying than if they had ad breaks.

If you want to see a sport that draws a crowd tune in to the Tour de France. 450,000 yesterday in Rotterdam, and many, many more on the route today. The most amazing thing to me is that they stand there for hours waiting just to see them go by once for probably less than a minute. How do we explain that or learn from it for our own sports. And this is a sport that they keep saying is a bunch of druggies! I do not think the average Joe is buying that. These guys are real athletes and heroes of sport.

Jean Todt thinks we should worship Michael Schumacher like that, "He demands respect." No one demands respect, you earn it. I do not care what he won, I still do not respect him. I respect his skill, but not the man. Stirling Moss never won a World Championship, but who could have more respect?

Our Japanese stand ins at the MotoGp certainly are not winning any respect. Akiyoshi managed to beat Dovizioso, but only after Dovizioso had fallen off!

As I said a while ago, who arranged this timetable? Tour de France, World Cup Soccer, MotoGP in Spain, Daytona, IRL at the Glen, you get the picture. I'm trying to do some serious writing, and I'm not talking about this blog. I guess Wimbledon is finishing as well. Glad it is actually a holiday on Monday, but the Tour goes on.

Mark Webber did a promotion with the Red Bull F1 in Parliament Square, London, and wowed the crowd. There is nothing like seeing a F1 car on streets you know and where you can get close to appreciate just how fast they accelerate and brake. That is what is so astounding about these cars that sets them apart from say NASCAR, where the top speed is the same but it takes them two laps to get there. That is why I love street tracks, provided they are done right.

Elsewhere the other Schumacher finally seems to have come good in the DTM with his first pole. The Norisring track is interesting, it is on the old Nazi Party rally grounds. Looks a bit like the old Avus circuit in Berlin. If you have never seen that check it out, it had an amazing banked 180 degree corner that puts Daytona to shame. Over at Daytona Brian France is talking about going green with a bit of ethanol, provided Sunoco agree, and possible changes to The Chase again to include some sort of knockout. I had that idea a while ago, to make sure they all go for it. Start with the top ten and whoever is the last of those ten drops out, so even for the last race you do not have to win it, just finish in front of your competitor. What do you do if they both crash?

Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Formula Renault 3.5 race in Hungary and still leads the Championship. The next Mark Webber? Joylon Palmer returned to the winners circle in the F2 Championship and is leading that handily.

Big crash during practice at The Glen. Viso ran over the curb at Turn One and could not get it back in time and hit the wall on the exit head on. I said a few weeks ago that I was unhappy about some aspects of that track when there seems to room to move barriers back, and that is one of them. It is also down to the asphalt run off behind that curb that allows drivers to try and drive out of an off without lifting.

Been a long week with a lot of late nights, but very productive. Some of the sessions with the clubs turned into "the great lie telling sessions," you know "the older I get the faster I was." Projects have a life of their own if they are going to happen, and this one is certainly gaining momentum. More meetings next week including the first real test of the County's reaction and what they are going to want for a planning proposal.

Plenty to do over the weekend, mainly writing and some cash flow projections, and preparing for the County meeting. That is between the World Cup and some racing, and the Tour de France. Lance has said this is definitely his last, so he wants to go out with a win. Big ask, but with Lance never count him out, he is a role model for not giving up. I have good friend in hospital in Australia with bleeding in the brain. Out of the blue had a really bad headache! Should be dead or paralysed, but hanging in there, so get yourself well Dale! Once you're out I want to see you as trim as Lance. Dale had been waiting a year to start a new job in the US and was due to come over this coming week. You never know in life so grab every minute while you can.

Our "new" riders in MotoGP, Mr's Yoshikawa and Akiyoshi, are in a race for last at Barcelona, both 4.5 seconds off the pole man who is Lorenzo of course. Yoshikawa says he will treat the race like a test. Well I guess that's what he knows to do, but not quite sure the fans paid to see a test.

F1 is actually asking the fans what they want, what a novel idea! FOTA had a fan session, a "town hall" as we would say in the US, and let's hope they listen better than our politicians. In the end it is the fan, at the track or at home watching on TV that pays the bills, through the gate, TV audience that generates ad revenue, or the sponsors by buying product or services, so let's see what he wants to spend his money on. At some levels racing is an end in itself, people who can afford to indulge their hobby, but they should not expect people to pay to watch. At the top levels it is entertainment, and a lot of series had better relearn that if they ever knew it.

The DTM, German touring car series, believes it is doing it right, with BMW ready to join Audi and Mercedes, and talks in progress to have some equivalence with the Japanese and US series so that cars can compete in more than one. I for one would love to see more of the Japanese series with some great cars from Nissan, Honda and Lexus. Not quite sure how they fit with Grand Am, I think they would blow their doors off.

Just watched the Brazil-Holland game. Pretty ugly. It seems unfortunate that for South American teams the "beautiful game" goes out the window if they start to lose. Very sad when you know how they can really play, but as we have said many times, winning is largely in the mind. Lose control of that, and you lose.

Happened to see the end of the New Hampshire NASCAR race yesterday and was shocked by the number of empty seats. Can't all be watching the World Cup? It occurred to me on my drive over that if NASCAR is removing seats as they have on the back stretch at Daytona, not covering them up, then they cannot believe that this is a short term problem. If they do not have confidence in their product then where is it headed. OK, there will always be a large audience for NASCAR, but it seems the growth has gone, another fad. Always seemed to me that it was a mistake forgetting their base fan and go chasing New York yuppies. Must be a worry for future TV negotiations.

Very busy day ahead. Great meeting with architects yesterday to discuss the theme for the club, and looked at a similar clubhouse we can base ours on, 20,000 sq ft with restaurant, gym and spa, and pro shop. Meeting other race clubs and potential partners today.

You've got to love Mark Webber, has a huge crash and says "let's just bloody get on with it." New car being built for Silverstone, and he sees the season as only half over, so he is still going for it. What else would you expect from and Aussie?

His boss, Christian Horner, is complaining that they are down on power and Renault should be allowed to upgrade it. Yeh right, and give you another second a lap, and I do not notice that Kubica is running too shabby either. Nice try Christian.

Lots of concern and negative comments on the movable rear wing, so suggestions that it may not fly, so to speak. Martin Whitaker of McLaren and FOTA says that if it does not work it is easy to take it off! It's only money.

Do not forget Tour de France starts Saturday, now that's some real tough men. Used to kill me riding my bike to school over a railway overpass, let alone the Alps!

Putting in the fee proposal for the track in Saudi Arabia, so we'll see how serious they are.

How did you like the beer bottle on the track at Valencia? Promoter said he did not think anyone threw it or it would have broken, now there's a nice image! So it rolled out there through the wall? Or was one of the marshals drinking it? "It could happen anywhere" he said. Well I have been watching GP's a long time and I've never seen it. When I have run races I made sure there were no bottles on the site and most times try and stop cans. Sell sodas and beer in cups, harder for the people to get drunk that way anyway, and stops the potential for some idiot to throw it. I annoyed the beverage sellers of course, but Oh Well, that 's just me. It seems they are more concerned about the track not providing much in the way of overtaking, as they should be. It will be interesting to see what their proposed solutions are.

The fallout from the weekends race continues, with the Spanish press beating up the story about Alonso's and Hamilton's comments. They really do not like Lewis do they? Lewis should not be beating their favorite son. I lived there for a year and never felt that there was a racist element, but after what happened at Barcelona a couple of years ago, and the continuing jibes from the press you have to wonder. Ferrari should look at the Rosberg incident at Singapore the first year where of my memory is correct he crossed the blend line on the pit out and had to do a drive through, but like Lewis he had a few laps to build up a cushion and did it without losing a place and finished well up.

FOTA is working with an environmental audit group called Trucost to reduce the carbon footprint in F1. No surprise to me but the actual racing is a very small component and while they are looking at more efficient engines for 2013, the main thrust is in how they work as a whole. The target that they have at the moment is 12% reduction by 2012. Maybe that will keep the greenies happy, but I doubt it. The nice thing was that, as I have been saying, Trucost acknowledged that racing is already about efficiency and the teams are already doing well.

Interesting that Melbourne F1 GP has announced a bigger presence for the V8Supercars at next years GP, with three races totaling 500K. Maybe they have just worked out that Adelaide is pulling a bigger crowd for the V8's than they are getting for the GP?

Talking of Australia, it seems my mate Wayne Gardner has spoken up about the state of GP racing and current riders. http://www.waynegardnerapproved.com.au./wr14.htm. Stirred up some comments, like he should keep quiet he's too old to know! I for one totally agree as you will know from reading this blog. When Wayne speaks people should listen.

Phil Hall has also been conversing with me about new tracks being built in the US, and "rich men's playgrounds." It is an unfortunate fact of life that the spectator event driven business model for tracks no longer works. The sanctioning fees and cost of staging races is higher than the potential spectator draw for those events. The model that does work is to build a facility for members, yes rich guys, who want to drive fast and not necessarily race, and can pay for the privilege. Now, once you have the facility, then you can look to accommodate clubs to come and race, renting the track and enjoying the nice facilities a country club offers. Some tracks here like New Jersey or Virginia Raceway also stage spectator events, but that is not what is driving them, if you excuse the pun. At the moment it is a US phenomenon, but there are a couple in Spain, and it will spread. The only two spectator tracks built here recently are Miller Park and Barber Motorsports park, both built by rich guys, who then put their name on it, what does that tell you. Other than that you need a Government to pay for it, shades of Eastern Creek.

That is why we are building a Country Club here in Arizona. Had a great meeting last evening with the local Corvette Owners Club and everything we do confirms that the location and the type of facility are correct, and the demand is there.

To finish off today, why is it that there is so little news on a daily basis other than for F1? Where are the series promoters? How can you expect the public to know when events are happening if you only promote the week before, and lose interest between events, especially for a series like ALMS that has not had a race for two months! When will they learn that you have to work at this 365 days a year, put out stories and information. I know I harp on Adelaide and PI, but they were great models of how to do this stuff, not just because of my involvement but because of the other great staff. Terry Plane at the Adelaide event had a story in the daily paper every day for a year. Did not appreciate him at the time but what he did was amazing.