Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Chaotic seems to be the word of the day for race reports, with lots of last laps crashes, mechanical failures and lead changes. The GT world served up the best racing at both Laguna Seca and Brno. Roman Grosjean won the FIA GT race at Brno in the Ford GT despite a poor qualifying, but the first 5 cars were covered by just 1.76 seconds. Sounds like the GT class at ALMS 6 hour which lived up to its billing, the result in doubt up to the last lap. If you did not log on to the live web cast as I told you to the other day you missed a great race, and one that the highlight reel next Saturday will have trouble capturing. The eight cars from four manufacturers were in line astern for most of the six hours and it seemed their times were so close whoever had the front could lead. That's not to say there was not a load of overtaking, just no one could make the break. In the other classes they tried to make a race of it, but the interest was all with the GT class. The Dyson Mazda powered Lola showed that qualifying was not a fluke and kept the pressure on the Highcroft team until the last ten minutes when it seems the gearbox failed. Let's hope this form can be carried forward to the next rounds.

The French Moto GP was similarly a good battle with the Yamahas on top, but with Lorenzo beating home Rossi on this occasion. Kenny Noyes was holding down third behind the much more experienced Toni Elias before crashing out in the Moto2 race.

The sons of other famous fathers were successful elsewhere, with Kevin Magnussen winning in Euro F3 in Valencia while dad was pushing hard at Laguna in the Corvette, and Joylon Palmer wrapped up the F2 weekend in Valencia with a win in the second race. There must be something in this gene and DNA stuff, or is it nurturing? For every son who is successful there are also obvious exceptions. I've had some personal contact with sons of famous fathers who had absolutely no interest in or ability to follow in Dad's footsteps.

Pole day came and went without creating too much of a ripple in the Barnard household. I was trying to work out why it was not as interesting as when F1 had single qualifying, and I think it is the absence of split times during the lap? I know IRL has multi loops in the track, and the commentators are getting the feed, as they would occasionally tell us a car was speeding up on the second lap etc. NASCAR does a better job, and the four lap average at Indy makes it harder, but we the viewer need to see the progress around the lap, not just at the finish line, as you cannot tell whether the car is doing a tenth faster or slower by looking at it on the track. Perhaps I just have more experience with road courses, but it seems to me that it is easier to tell who is on it even when they are on their own.

I had a similar problem with the Tour of California Time Trial from Los Angeles yesterday. No, it is not a car or motorcycle event, but I love bicycle racing in the Tour de France style. I don't know how many of you have watched any of this week's stages in what is in part a tourist promo for California, but I would shoot the person who chose the route. We were treated to brown open plains and cattle feed lots, and Kern County with more oilwell heads than the rest of America it seemed.  Friday was spectacular through the ranges behind Los Angeles and Big Bear Lake, but then we had the Time Trial in lovely downtown Los Angeles, which closely resembled a construction site. The road surface was awful and scenery non existent. Not much about this tour would make me rush to California to see it. But that is not my main beef. The coverage is bad, even though they apparently brought the Tour de France camera crew. We get the last two hours a day, which in itself is not so bad, except they have no footage from the rest of the day. Towns like Nevada City hoping to get some exposure as a start point received nothing more than one commercial! But I stray from my reason for mentioning this at all, which is the lack of split timing. In Europe we have at least three intermediate points with the times and positions up on screen at each, with commentators having live positions available all the way so we can know how each rider is doing. A time trial is like Indy, one guy goes at two minute intervals, so unless you have feedback you cannot tell who is winning or losing time. So what should have been the most exciting stage of the week long race was actually boring, with of course the obligatory infomercials thrown in to provide even less coverage of the action.

So the wonderful Australian police have decided to charge Mr. Hamilton with having "accelerated heavily and lost traction to the rear wheels." When I lived there that would describe half the male population, and I have trouble imagining that is described in the Road Traffic Act. His case comes up August 24. I can't wait for the Police to try and prove that Mr. Hamilton was not capable of controlling a car in that situation! When we ran the Motorcycle GP at Phillip Island I recall Christian Sarron being stopped in his car at about twice the speed limit without this sort of heavy handed approach.

Mark Webber must cringe when he sees this sort of attitude, but he probably has other things on his mind as he is reported today as not being wedded to Red Bull for next season. His recent form has obviously increased his value, so why not make the most of the opportunity, although it is still unclear to me why he would move to somewhere like Ferrari, which is the only other car worth moving to, McLaren presumably happy with their pairing.

Elsewhere in F1 land the tire decision has still to be made. With work starting on the 2011 cars it must be difficult for the designers not knowing what they are going to bolt on next year. To further complicate matters there are rumors that the ridiculous front wing will be made smaller and some of the underfloor airflow taken away. I for one will be happy to see those accident prone front wings reduced, and hopefully the overall downforce reduced allowing closer racing.

I know you have all been waiting to hear how Lord Drayson got on yesterday. He managed to get through four corners before beaching it at the fifth! "Don't keep a dog and bark yourself" is one of the finest sayings in the English language and should be inscribed on every rich entrepreneur's heart. If you have Johnny Cocker and Emanuele Pirro as drivers why would you do it yourself? If you want some fun go buy a Formula Ford and race at Snetterton or Anglesey.

No, it is not Robert Kubica's birthday. It is of course that annual soporific exercise called Indianapolis Pole day. One car on a 2.5 mile oval doing 225.345mph or 225.346 does not make for entertainment. Who can tell? I certainly could not the only time I went. It used to be exciting when they had more good cars than places on the grid, but these days?

Elsewhere, and there is a fair bit of elsewhere, some surprises on pole. Dyson Racing finally seems to have sorted their Mazda powered Lola and put it on pole for the 6 hour race at Mazda Raceway, aka, Laguna Seca. Call me suspicious but that could just be a nice little promo for our sponsors? I hope not and wish them good luck. Rob Dyson and his son Chris have put a lot into sports car racing for a long time and deserve their success. It could spice up the race for us in the absence of the Aston Martin. Lord Drayson's absence from his Cabinet duties does not seem to have helped the team any, being the slowest of the prototypes when at Sebring it was racing against the Peugeots. Perhaps Lord Drayson should be voted out of the cockpit?

Valentino Rossi scored his first pole of the season at Le Mans in a Yamaha 1-2. What's surprising is it his first pole, he has been so dominant for so long. In the Moto2 event young American, Kenny Noyes, is on pole. Most of us will remember his father Dennis, a successful rider and journalist who lived and worked in Spain for many years and was part of Dorna. Dennis moved back to the States a few years ago and has obviously schooled Kenny well. Our next World Champion? One worrying point for the Championship must be that it is down to just 16 motorcycles, and some of those are well off the pace.

Joylon Palmer, what sort of name is that does anyone know? Anyway he is the son of Dr. Jonathon Palmer, former F1 driver and now successful businessman and track and F2 series owner. F2 is racing at Monza this weekend and young Joylon put it on pole and won the first race, so again following in Dad's footsteps. There are suggestions that with GP2, GP3, F2 and F3 etc, the driver gene pool is stretched pretty thin so Joylon is not beating too may other good drivers, but he is still winning so let's see where he goes from here.

Elsewhere the GT's are racing at Brno with Maserati on pole, and who could forget that annual demolition derby, the NASCAR All-Star race from Charlotte, where qualifying was washed out. Just how much money is spent and wasted to win $1 million?

It has been confirmed that, as I suspected given the proximity of events, the loose manhole cover caused Barrichello's accident at Monaco. The FIA is going to teach Monaco how to weld down the covers properly. Given that Monaco is the oldest surviving street race I am very surprised that they did not invent how to weld down covers, but did that person pass away and no one else knew the trick?

Following on from Monaco, it seems "The Lord Giveth and The Lord Taketh Away." Flavio was seen on his yacht in the harbor and the FIA relented and let him back in the paddock following the Singapore incident. On returning home the Italian Authorities have chased and impounded the yacht. It seem it is registered as a charter to avoid some tax, but only Flavio seems to have chartered it.

Finally, Lotus and Williams have both come out and said they are happy with the Cosworth and are not contemplating a change to Renault. Rubens and Nico Hulkenburg have been doing pretty good with the Cossie considering where Williams have been recently so sticking with the Cosworth could be the right move. They have a great history, which I know means nothing in the end, except that they do know how to produce a great engine, and you do not easily forget that stuff. With so many being used it has to help with the rate of development and spread the cost.

Unlikely as it seems being a Friday and with a number of events scheduled around the world this weekend , there is even less to talk about today than the last two!

Speaking of unlikely, that is how Autoweek is commenting on the Monticello Motor Club's release that they are in talks with Bernie about staging the USF1 GP at their private members only club track in the Catskills, 90  minutes from New York City. "A most unlikely venue" is right. New Jersey may have been a stretch, but at least you can see Manhattan from there! "It is like winning the Olympics" the Club President said. Too right it is, and who pays for the Olympics? Let us know how you get on with those discussions with the State and local Governments. I am totally at a loss at the lack of understanding about what it costs to stage an F1 race these days, and how impossible it is to make any of it back, so why do these guys persist in wanting to chase one? If Indianapolis could not make it pay, how is anyone else?

I just love headline writers. Don't let the content of the story get in the way of a good headline, as I have found out to my cost. Most people read no further than that anyway. Practice is underway for the French Moto GP, and there beside each other were two headlines: "Rossi trounces rivals," and "Ducatti expect GP10 to suit Le Mans." I expected Rossi to be a good two seconds a lap faster, but imagine my surprise when I read he had a tenth of a second from a quick lap he threw in at the end over, yes, the Ducatti. So perhaps that headline was right, but "trounced" is not a word I associate with one tenth. The best American was Colin Edwards in sixth followed by Nicky Hayden. I commented the other day about Max Biaggi still winning in Superbike, but here's Colin (really and Australian, just born in Texas) still going strong. I first met Colin at the Superprestigio in Jarama in late '92 when we took Kenny Jnr. to Europe for the first time. That is a long career for a motorcycle rider at this level. As  I said, are the bikes easier to ride, the competition less, or is the fitness training better these days?

Yesterday was a test day at Laguna Seca for the ALMS boys. Not sure what to make of the times other than it was set up day. Klaus Graf was quickest in the Porsche Spyder ahead of Clint Field in the Intersport Lola, neither a front running car lately. Third was the Highcroft Honda with David Brabham. Bruni led the way in the GT class with just over 0.8 seconds covering the usual suspects. It will be interesting to see what today's practice brings. The race can be watched live on the American Le Mans web site from 5:30 EDT tomorrow if like me you will have forgotten about it by Saturday 29th!

With the Laguna Seca ALMS race starting tomorrow we finally have something to read about it. Lastturnclub.com has a preview and analysis of the competitors on its home page so check it out. To add to my question yesterday about the lack of coverage, do not be looking for it on TV this weekend. No, CBS is running it on May 29th! As if there is not enough racing that weekend we have to compete with, and is anyone going to care or remember by then! Way to go ALMS. How much did you pay for that prime coverage?

Grand Am is unfortunately the other half of our US sports car racing scene. I say unfortunately in the sense that neither series is doing well. Grand Am has about as much coverage as ALMS, and in their wisdom have decided to run a race at Lime Rock on Memorial Day. Is the All Star race, also part of NASCAR, The Turkish F1 GP and Indy 500 not enough? Most of us will be divorced if we watch all that. I believe Greg Sarni has been publicising the Grand Am cars on the streets of Boston today as a pre race event. Just looking at the map I would have though New York was closer, but I guess they know where their tickets sell.

The Canadians who are subsidizing the poor F1 teams are now concerned not only about the $4-5 m shortfall and lack of sponsors, but also about the age of the water system and the likelehood of them bursting during the race. Seems they have been having a lot of problems with this lately. Could be as much fun as if it rained. Could be the missing element to put a spark in the racing. A bit like musical chairs, who is going to be at that spot when it blows!

Aerodynamics, don't you just love it? Most of the overtaking problems are put down to it, the cost of wind tunnel time to refine it to find that nano second that will win you the race is enormous, and yet we see, as with Massa in Barcelona, you can damage that million dollar part and the car goes faster! Now we hear that Red Bull had to revert to an older diffuser at Monaco after McLaren disputed the one on the car, and it went faster! I know we will never "unlearn" this stuff, but there has to be some common sense brought into this sometime.

Common sense I know is not very common. So do we really believe the continuing rumors that the VW Group, now the world's largest car manufacturer with a great stable of makes, really needs to spend the money to go f1 racing? Most of its brands; Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, even Skoda, have a history and reputation as performance vehicles. They are in sports car racing, touring cars, desert raids and rally, and their engines are the "moteurs de jour" in F3. Maybe as an engine supplier it makes sense, but unless they are really that mad about racing I cannot see where the benefit is. The penalty for not succeeding is extremely high.

Bit of a slow day on the news front. Which fits where the ALMS Sportscar Series is at. Despite a month layoff and a race starting in a couple of days there is no coverage of it except on its own web page. Sort of tells you something. Without Audi or Peugeot the series is about as interesting as a bread sandwich, no offence to the Highcroft boys. It will be interesting to see if they can pull off another win against their LMP1 rivals Aston Martin and the Drayson Lola, not now distracted with running England (into the ground). GT2 will be the best class to watch, but let's hope we see a better end than last year.

Renault announcing it will provide engines to two more teams next year. Considered the engine not to have last year it has come alive as apparently the most user friendly engine for cars and drivers. Is this the Renault factory or the team badged as Renault? Does anyone know the deal there? Is the team now building the engines or is Renault a supplier to them as it is with Red Bull?

Toyota have come out saying F1 is too elitist for their brand. maybe they should have run as Lexus? They are now considering entering touring car racing as more fan friendly, putting the recent Nurburgring 24 hour as an example. Maybe Toyota could do better being more car owner friendly?

Last but not least on this, yawn, no news day, the Singapore Grand Prix announces it is ramping up the excitement! Are they improving the track to allow overtaking? Putting a section through the harbor as in Peter Ustonov's classic Grand Prix of Gibraltar? (If you have never heard this you must find a copy!) No, none of those. They are setting up a stunt motorcycle display and bringing in some Brazilian macho's to do something. I was so excited by this I could not read any further. Wow, that is going to make me rush to the computer and book a plane right now, not. Obviously racing under the lights just ain't enough, us fans actually want to see some racing, much to Bernie's disgust. I know we just clutter the place up and make it hard to get in and out for his traveling circus, but we do actually provide the reason any of this exists.