Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Not sure what to say today. Murphy The Bear's latest offering in the rumor department does not make for pleasant reading for ALMS. You have to really wonder how long this can limp along outside of Sebring and Petit. Makes you feel even more depressed at the state of racing in North America. IRL are sounding all gung ho about how good this year was, except drivers like Tony Kanaan cannot get sponsorship. It's going to be a long cold winter, well everywhere except here in Arizona. Interwetten has dropped out of MotoGP, so how many bikes on the grid in 2011? Has anyone got any good news? Maybe the election results will cheer me up?

At least HRT is positive about 2011 and have purchased the gearbox from Williams to go with the Cosworth and avoid this years hydraulic and gearbox problems. Let's hope they have a car to put them in and some money to run them now that Bernie has dubbed them "cripples" and should go away.

Ferrari plans a "very careful" approach to the last two races. Let's see how Massa likes that at this weekends Brazilian GP. And how careful can Alonso be, he does not have that many points in hand he can drive around in fifth. Not in his nature either I would think.

Robert Kubica refuses to predict on how he will go in Brazil this weekend as he predicts it will be unpredictable. Aren't there a few too many "predictable" comments? Sounds as if rain is predicted, which is predictable in Brazil this time of year. I predict it will be interesting whatever the weather, it usually is. They have made the last turn safer by putting in a "soft" wall after a driver was killed there. That last turn and pit entry have always scared me, they need to change the track, not mess about with "soft" walls.

Bernie says that the three new teams have been an embarrassment this year, and should go away, except Lotus, and, as I have been saying, Bernie thinks maybe Sir Richard needs to tip bundle of money into Virgin, like Red Bull, or go away.

It looks like Chevrolet is going to win the World Touring Car Championship against the likes of BMW and SEAT (VW), and no, not with a Corvette or Camaro, with a sedan, the Cruze, that I do not see much here in the US, and I doubt most people here have ever heard of the WTCC. Well done GM, now tell the US about it.

Decent weekend of racing coming up with the Brazilian F1 GP, Intercontinental Cup from Zuhai, and Valencia for the MotoGP final round.

Getting sorted to go to the Professional Circuit Owners and Investors Forum in Cologne in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to meeting up with Dick Hahne, ex Daytona VP Operations, and now with Musco lighting, and some guys from England with a potential new series. Should be a great week.

So Carlos Checa managed half the race at Estoril, that was a really good move putting him on the bike. He "worked" his way up to 11th, maybe that was because three guys fell off before he quit. Well done Lorenzo, beat the Doctor in a straight fight, and very good to see young Bradl winning, I was a big fan of his Dad.

Sounds like Talledega was its usual mess, and Jimmie is still in front for the chase. DTM put on a show in Adria in a shortened race due to Premat's huge crash, I'd like to see more of that. Hard to see but did he hit the end of that safety fence?

Spent a wonderful day with my wife Xan exploring this great State of Arizona. Some spectacular scenery. Sol Real very quiet at the moment, analyzing some different sites. Reconnected with a great guy from my past, the TV Director from Sanctuary Cove, Phil Olsman. I thought of Phil while writing the chapter of my book on Sanctuary Cove and thought I need to find him, and there he is on LinkedIn, ain't the internet wonderful.

Slow news day, I guess we will have to get used to this as we go into the winter break, but who knows, there may be more gossip then.

Portugal qualifying washed out. Phillip Island is not looking so bad now. It must rain a lot in Portugal, although I always thought of it as a dry country like Spain. I remember Senna's great win there in '85 when it was a washout.  So Lorenzo on pole by half a second and Hayden, Rossi and Stoner all close. I bet Pramac are glad they drafted Checa in to improve their performance, he is last and over 5 seconds off the pace. Who thinks that was a good move? There are only two races left with this one, what was the risk of giving some young guy a chance?

V8Supercars will not be returning to Bahrain next year with scheduling around other events as the reason, but I suspect since no one turned up to watch it may not be worth what the V8's were asking. Now Abu Dhabi is a stand alone race which cannot be a cheap exercise, so you wonder how long that will last, but I guess they have to put something on at this billion dollar mausoleum.

Peugeot ran a test hack at Monza to prepare for next year's Le Mans. Not sure I like the sharks fin, I know it is there for safety reasons, but it does not look right on what was surely one of the most beautiful sportscars ever built.

The driver silly season goes on, with Hulkenburg getting a big rap from Sir Frank Williams, just when he was about to get the axe for Maldanado. D'Ambrosio is rumored to be close to signing for Virgin, so who's out?

Why is Max Mosely getting air time lately? First there were the rumors of a coup at the FIA to bring Max back. Pretty poor security if you really are planning a coup? Then there's Bernie on his eightieth birthday singing Max's praises and saying it would be good to have him back and how he is sure the teams would not mind. Really? Now here is Max saying that "He (Todt) must be given a chance to get on and run it in his own particular way." Well why shouldn't he, he was elected after all. It sort of smacks of "give him enough rope," or Todt only has a certain amount of time to do something before we take over again. Why should Max even comment? All very strange. I would have thought after the prostitute business he would want to keep his head down in the bunker.

It seems the rain does not only fall on the plain in Spain, it rains on its way there in Portugal. Usual suspects top first practice, which was actually the second as the first was canceled. Nicky Hayden ahead of Stoner, let's see if he can keep that up after his good run at PI. Lorenzo seems to want to show his rightful ownership of the title, so let's look forward to a good race.

Rumors of a Bulgarian F1 race in 2012 have resurfaced. The head of the country's motorsport body, Bogdan Nikolov says that the contract could be signed next month, and that the circuit would host both F1 and MotoGP"s. Now a Bogdan from Bulgaria was entered for one of my MotoGP's, I remember as we were trying to find a flag and anthem should he make the podium, but he was a no-show. Is this the same guy, or is Bogdan a Bulgarian "Joe" or some other common name? There are rumors that Rome may not be such a done deal, only a letter of intent which is good to the end of the year. Still, how is Bernie going to squeeze all these races in. He says that Europe is finished economically and that is why he is looking east, but I never knew Bulgaria had an economy, and isn't Russia in Europe? And Italy last time I looked and we possibly have two races there. We have two in Spain, so it cannot be all bad.