Bob Barnard Track Engineering

What a busy weekend. I have asked before, who schedules this stuff? F1 qualifying on during the first stage of the Tour de France, and then the race on Sunday, not to mention the Wimbledon Finals and the World Cup. Crazy weekend, made worse by Daytona being rained out and run on Sunday so trying to watch Indycar from Pocono and Daytona. Tried to fit in a life between all this. Thank goodness for a long weekend. 

So Indycar at Pocono for a second year, and the race being extended to 500 miles did nothing for the size of the crowd. No wonder they reportedly do not want to finish the contract, there was no one there. Best part of the race was Montoya winning. It was sad to see the footage from back in the 80's when CART raced there to packed grandstands, but then it was Danny Sullivan winning and not a Columbian beating a Brazilian and Australians. Americans love to see Americans winning, look at the US Soccer team and how America stopped to watch them at the World Cup. When asked how to fix Indycar Robin Miller said remove pit speed limits. Really? The racing on the track is boring so let's see them race in pit lane? Is that the best you can come up with? Paul Tracy said when asked on air that he could not say or he would get fired. By who? He works for NBC as a commentator, or is NBC the series promotion company as I suspected. Come on guys, no one wants to watch spec racing with a bunch of drivers no one knows or cares about. Yes it costs more to go back to what worked, but you would then have an audience and sponsors would follow. Someone needs to invest.

Nice to see that Mercedes can share the problems around and keep the Championship alive, but it would be better if the could change Lewis' wheels at the same speed as Nico's. Good race and a full house. The English want to see their men win just as much as Americans. Nasty hit for Kimi though and it would be nice if for once the bridge was built long enough so that the verges do not have to neck in to accommodate it. Personally I would have placed a stack of tires in front of the damaged guard rail and got on with it. The chances of having that accident again were pretty remote. And dare I say it, once again Vettel is beaten by Ricciardo, who did not have to whinge and moan his way past other drivers.

Formula One returned to the A-1 Ring in Austria. Call me old fashioned but I am old enough to remember when they raced there before and Red Bull Ring does not do anything for me. This sign of obvious consumption has become somewhat odious to me. So quite happy when their cars failed to perform. It is strange that they were so far off the pace at a track with high speed corners that you would think would suit their good aero and road holding.

I have always liked this track, I guess due to the good use of the topography. Tilke did not do too much damage to it except to provide acres of asphalt and gravel run off. Pity he did not use some of that asphalt on some access roads by all account. Still, the crowd arrived and it was good to see, a bit like the Hungaroring in the early days. I expected overtaking to be difficult and limited to a couple of spots, but no, we were treated to some great moves. The best has to be Hamilton on Alonso at Turn 8 on the first lap, massive commitment on a fast corner. This track with 9 corners showed that you do not need 20 corners to provide a good race.

I do have a couple of issues though. Pit in should start before Turn 8, not after it, and there were a few close calls. Repainting the white line was like changing deck chairs on the Titanic. And then there is the asphalt emergency access strips at the exit of Turn 9 which almost caught out a couple of cars and launch them into the barrier. Shades of the BMW at Mid-Ohio.

Surprising that Mercedes struggled with overheating again. I expected a team with such an engineering base would have got on top of that immediately after Canada, and they had announced they had. Back to the drawing board.

Crazy weekend, and the next few weeks with the World Cup, Le Mans, and then Tour de France, without mentioning MotoGP. F1 and NASCAR races. Made it through the Le Mans 24 Hour again! What a great race. As they said, a lot like old times with cars not running like clockwork and some great mechanics keeping the Audis, Porsches and the Toyota in the race and in the hunt. Made it a lot easier to stay awake with so much going on. Close racing in every class, and for a while a race no one seemed to want to win. Every leader ran into trouble, but then fought back.

I heard Gary Lineker has said that football, the English version, is eleven men running around after a ball for 90 minutes, at the end of which Germany wins. Watching them defeat Portugal today you would not bet against them winning it all. At Le Mans lately it seems it is a race in which 55 cars drive around for 24 hours at the end of which Germany wins. You have to admire Audi for their preparation and ability to keep cars in the race. Completely building a new car at the track in a day, to end up second. 20 minutes to replace a turbo, not once but twice, crazy stuff given the temperature it must have been at. Toyota got the 8 car back to finish third, and Porsche were unlucky for their first time back in LMP1.

So who is going to beat the German cars? Porsche will be stronger next year, but so too should Toyota. Nissan is joining them, but it better not be a gimmick like the Zeod. What a joke. They are behind the real cutting edge cars in the Audi, Porsche and Toyota. The same speed and distance with 25 - 30% less fuel. Like F1 we are the real winners in this amazing technology race.

On other matters Marquez keeps winning, as does Jimmy Johnson. The new kart track opened to the delight of the members at the Monticello Motor Club. and there are some more interesting projects in the wings.

Going back to the Canadian F1 race, I cannot get over the way in which Perez could not overtake Rosberg, but as soon as Ricciardo got passed perez he soon dispatched him to win the race. Some how this did not compute to me. Perez has the Merc engine with full power, and Ricciardo has a Renault supposedly down 30 - 40 hp. Shades of Perez not passing Alonso when he had a Sauber with a customer Ferrari engine?

Good news on Michael, let's hope it continues.

Sorry readers of my blogs, I have had a busy time in May with three weeks away. Spent a week in Orlando at an Expert Witness conference and training sessions, and then two weeks in Monticello NY trying to finish paving the new kart track at the Motor Club. A combination of circumstances made this a less than perfect experience, and then the weather forecasters added to the delays by telling us it was going to rain when it did not. So spent Memorial Day weekend holed up in a hotel.

Still, had plenty to do with a request for a concept master plan for a motorsport park in Cambodia, and some alterations and upgrades requested to be looked at by the Motor Club on their main track. We finally laid the top course on the Thursday so I could drive home Friday. Turned out nice in the end.

 I was joined for the start of the trip by MSI colleagues Jonathan Clark, and Jono Voudouris from Australia. We spent time walking the main track and going through the theory and practice of track design and construction so that they can carry on the good work. Jono has returned to Australia where he already seems to have a project. 

Motorsport continues on without much change. Marquez and Mercedes are still winning, Bernie is still on trial, and crowds for NASCAR and Indycar are sparse. Still, we have Le Mans to look forward to and an exciting prospect of Audi, Porsche and Toyota going head to head for 24 hours. The Canadian F1 race could be interesting with Massa getting in amongst the Mercs. Canada looks to renew its contract while new races continue to join the series. Baku has a GP next year and I was interviewed over the phone on my way back from Monticello about F1 by a Russian web site. Interesting who finds me.

A few days ago I wrote about the demise of the LMP2 from the Tudor Sports Car Series. Well it did not take long. We now have the news from IMSA that they are looking to replace DPs and LMP2 prototypes with a "spec" class which is in essence a carbon tub replacement for the tube frame DP. Designed to accommodate a variety of engines, as the DP is, and able to accept different body styles a la DP. This is the article from Racer Magazine.

http://racermag.kinja.com/talks-continue-on-2017-spec-prototype-chassis-1566231732?rev=1398199229

IMSA wants a car that can compete in a variety of series, including Le Mans. LMP2 anybody? Don't say I didn't warn you.

On a different note, literally, there is an interesting article on F1 engine noise in the April 3 issue of Autosport. I know it is old, but I have to wait to receive it. Apparently it comes by ship. It shows that yes, the new cars are quieter by about 11 dB, which is significant, but they are still louder than NASCARs! The real difference is in the frequency, which due to the lower revs and the turbo is lower pitched. The human ear relates to more higher frequencies, that is why the readings are not actual but scaled to mimic human response, the dbA scale. I always had a theory about that when I worked for Panoz. Anyone who heard that car would know it was LOUD, but being a big V8 it was all low down on the scale. The only way I could see it would pass the noise test was due to that absence of top end noise, and it seems I was right. 

The other point is of course those of us listening at home are not hearing the real sound, only what the TV decides to give us. Positioning of the microphones around the track, and the filtering have an effect. That is why Bernie changed his tune a bit when hearing them live. So, come on TV Director, give us the real deal and we can turn the sound up.