Bob Barnard Track Engineering

People write blogs for a variety of reasons, but I do it as an outlet for opinions I have on current events, not as a news source. So, unless something moves me to put pen to paper, or hands to keyboard, then I do not post every day, especially when I am busy building a track or writing expert opinions as I have been the last couple of weeks. Moooresville is ready to pave and will be done next week weather permitting. Then to install curbs, barriers and striping and we are good to go!

So, with a lull in proceedings I thought I should at least post some thoughts, although not much seems to change. Bernie is still waiting for the shoe to drop over the Gribkowsky affair, staying away from Germany even though he was supposed to meet the guys from the bankrupt Nurburgring there over next year's contract. Mercedes are reported to be holding off signing anything to do with the new Concorde Agreement until they know something, or do they already know it? The teams are still bickering over the Resource limitation agreement and Red Bull still trying to manipulate the engine mapping. McLaren keep shooting themselves in the foot, although I guess Lewis' puncture cannot really be their fault. The rumors about Massa continue and that dog of a Ferrari cannot help winning.

Over in the MotoGP world Spies has given up on Yamaha, or is it the other way around? Rossi seems likely to give up on the Duke, despite Hayden seeming to be able to get something out of it. Not enough to keep his seat next year though. So who's left for America, and if Casey retires, Australia? How the world changes from the 80's and 90's. CRT's are here to stay, otherwise Dorna would have nothing to put on the grid.

The whole state of GP racing on 2 and 4 wheels is not healthy. Joe Saward has a piece on the business model in F1 which supports what I have been saying for a long time. It is not sustainable. When Hockenheim with 5 German drivers, two of which are World Champions, cannot fill the stands then there is something very rotten in the State of Denmark.

The GT world is not immune with Ratelli dropping out as promoter next year, and the ELMS being cancelled. ALMS struggles along with three LMP1's, only two of which can compete, and two LMP2's. Without the grid fillers in the LMPC and Porsche Cup it would be a very thin field indeed. Too many Championships here and overseas for the current economy.

I have been away all week working on a new State-Of-The-Art kart track, Mooresville Motorplex, just north of Charlotte. Now State-Of-The-Art is an over used term, but in this case just happens to be true. The 4000 ft track is modelled on the famous Parma track brought up to modern standards by Jarno Zaffelli. It will feature the latest TECPRO kart barriers, Tracksa marshal light system, and Club Speed software for facility management. We have completed the track earthworks and will be running an off-road kart around on Monday for a final check before completing the earthworks and starting the rock base. Owner Justin Marks hopes to have the facility operational in August once the first building is ready. 

Meanwhile we have still heard nothing more about the Beijing F3 track, and what we hoped would be a fund to back us on the Georgia project has come to nothing again, but there is still hope there.

Stayed awake for the Le Mans 24 hour last weekend. Pity the Toyotas could not last, it would have been a good fight with Audi. It does show that a properly funded petrol car can compete with the diesels. Well done the Rebellion team though. It is a testimony to the design of the Audis that not only are they strong enough to withstand a crash, but they can be repaired so quickly. A good GT race as always, and LMP2 seems to be getting their act together to put on a show. Not sure what all the fuss was about the Delta Wing. There is no new technology on that car that I can see. A different design for sure, but I still say it looks like a Morgan backing up or a GP sidecar. The 4 cylinder 1.6 liter turbo engine is nothing new, and Audi have had lightweight cars for the last couple of years. All that effort to run around with the LMP2 cars? And if the non-race fraternity were getting excited over how it looks, what about the Audis and Toyotas, far sexier to me.

I see in Autosport that the ACO has accepted a hydrogen car for garage 56 next year, now that is new technology and the car looks the goods. Go to:

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2011/06/15/electric-greengt-lmph2-leman/#.T-c0V_W8jbw

Watched the Valencia F1 race this morning. As I have said before, that dog of a Ferrari cannot be as bad as the team keep making out. Jenson has totally lost the plot, as has McLaren. They cannot get the pit stops right, not all of them anyway, or make the tires last. Lewis looked like he was driving on ice that last lap. The smart move would have been to let Maldanado through, but Lewis is a racer, that's why we love him. Has Red Bull come up with the latest smart design?

Indycar returned to Belle Isle last weekend, and it turned out not so "belle."  As these photos show the "repairs" to the track did not last the race and caused a two hour delay that meant the TV went away and cars were damaged. Not the show piece Roger Penske or Detroit was hoping for. I do not know what they used but I suspect a rubberized asphalt. It clearly had no bond to the concrete, and why wouldn't they have just cut out the crack properly and use a non-shrink grout? One of the lessons from Adelaide was if you are going to stage a race to show off your sport or your city then you need to be TOTALLY sure it is going work, both structurally and operationally. Not what I expected of an event staged by "The Captain." The track remained as bad as it was in 2008 when they stopped. Why would you not revamp the whole thing, including a complete repave if you intend to run this for several years? I'm sorry to say the US builds tracks down to a price and not up to a standard.

While all this fun was going on we had the Le Mans Test day, and Toyota it seems is going to give Audi a run for their money, if they can be reliable. Peugeot and Audi have always said that their deisels were not winning because of an unfair advantage, it was just that they were out and out factory cars, and no one had competed on that level with a petrol car. Well now Toyota has, and we can see by the times they can compete. Should be great. The GTE Pro is going to put on a show as always, with all the cars seperated by just 2 seconds! Roll on the 16th.

The Canadian F1 race is next weekend, and they are already responding to threats of disruption by cancelling the Thursday pit walk. This could get nastier than Bahrain.

We saw a good MotoGP race in Barcelona, which managed to stay dry much to the annoyance of the Rossi fans. Lorenzo continues to show us that he and the Yamaha are the real deal this year, despite his team mate being nowhere in sight. Where to next year Ben Spies? Back to WSBK? Nice job Cal Crutchlow, but sorry to hear about the crash today in testing. I bet Herve is not pleased.

When I first arrived in Australia the Premier of Queensland was one Joh Bjelke Petersen. If that sounds like he should have been running South Africa then you get an idea of his politics. Joh loved to have press conferences, "feeding the chooks" as he called it, or feeding the media a line of misleading information more like it. Bernie seems to have gone to the same school of media management. He is famous for putting ideas out there to get a reaction or put pressure on someone.

This week we have seen him question the New Jersey F1 race, saying they are behind in some of the contract requirements, presumably a payment. Now we all know Bernie has been waiting for a race with a view of Manhattan for years, so I doubt he is serious, so what's his game? He played the boys in Texas well too to the extent of a reported increase in race fees of $10m, and he is dangling the Mexican GP as a stick to beat anyone not living up to his standards.

We also have Bernie blaming KERS for the Williams pit fire, without any reports to back that up. Now, that is a possible cause, but why say that now? Bernie does not like KERS or the other energy recovery systems, electric motors in pit lane etc, and is presumably putting pressure on the FIA to back off on these.

We also see reports today that the float is to be delayed due to market unrest. But I thought this was a golden goose that anyone would want to invest in? Didn't they just sell $1.6 bn of shares without floating? As Joe Saward says today, we have seen this before, a delay becomes a change of mind. I've asked before why Bernie would want to have the books open to public gaze. Was this just another ruse to get the big teams into line on the next Concorde Agreement? Or was Mercedes too big to fight? One thing is for sure, Bernie will come out smelling of roses.

In other matters the opposition to the Canadian GP looks more serious than Bahrain. Perhaps people are waking up to how much these ego boosts are costing the country. How many university places would a race fee pay for each year?

Over in Barcelona Casey Stoner has shown impending retirement has not dulled his competitive spirit. How about Bradl and Marquez on Hondas next year?

Finally, it is June 1, and I hope you are well rested. We have the Euros kicking off in a week's time, Le Mans test day this weekend and the race on June 16, Five F1 races and the Tour de France all before the end of July, not to mention MotoGP and WSBK. Phew!

You know who I mean, bullshit artists. Sorry for the expletive but BS does not quite convey the strength of feeling. You know who they are, they are all around us, at work and especially in motor sport.

In a not surprising move Dany Bahar has been "suspended" from his role of driving Lotus Car Group into the ground. Despite harrasing Joe Saward for saying what was obvious the inevitable has happened and proved Joe correct, and the rest of us with any common sense. I'm not picking on Dany, he is just the latest to be shown up. But do not fear, he will show up again somewhere, that is the nature of the bullshit artist. It is never their fault, and the fact is they have spent most of their time making sure they have that next job instead of doing the one they have. Just look at the guys who persuaded the regional government around the Nurburgring to let them turn that great track into a circus, for hundreds of millions, and who have now handed the problem of making that money back to the government after alienating most of the original clients of the track like Ron Simons. Of course one of these geniuses has already turned up somewhere else as a manager.

Who would hire them? Why other bullshit artists, that's how most of the people in charge got there in the first place, so why would they want someone who was going to tell them the truth instead of what they want to hear. Yes men are in vogue. Just look at one of our major series. Many years ago I was taken to a city in Oz by the local enthusiasts to meet the Mayor and to try and persuade him to spend the money he was going to spend on a street track on a permanent track so it could be used all year round. Total waste of time, he bought the bill-of-goods a bullshit artist had sold him, and when I pointed that out he said "Oh I know he's a crook, but he has great ideas!" What could I say? That person is still around.

So when Dany told us he was going to build five new models and went about spending money on sponsoring anything on four wheels did we believe it for a minute? No, but the owners did until they sold it to someone else who just maybe do not fall for the bullshit. The Indycar engine debacle has to rate up there with one of the greatest farces in motor sport, and to cap it off both cars using it were black flagged early in the Indy 500 as not being able to reach the minimum speed! Nice one. Oh how Colin Chapman must be turning in his grave over what has been done in his name. Not that he was not above pulling a fast one, but at least his cars won races.