Bob Barnard Track Engineering

A couple of odd pieces of news today caught my eye. BMW is "considering a V8Supercar entry." As far as I knew, and I would think most motorsport fans are concerned, the V8's are a closed shop. Toyota have even tried court action to get an entry, so why should BMW, a yuppies car not liked by your average aussie race fan, think they can just apply? Well lo and behold, the V8 Supremo said in response, "We would love a brand like BMW to be involved," V8 Supercars boss Tony Cochrane told AUTOSPORT. "We're very open-minded about working with them and trying to find some common ground. We're talking about quite a few manufacturers at the moment and we're trying to be as accommodating as we humanly can." What an odd way to put it, "accommodating as we humanly can." What does that mean? Is it a Japanese no? The success of the V8's is built on the Ford/GM rivalry that borders on fanatical, that is where "fan" comes from. There was a time when the Touring Car series, as it then was, had BMW, Nissan, and Toyota, and Ford's were Mustangs or Sierra's, not quite the fair dinkum aussie Ford. Then there were two series, one with 2 liter super tourers for the BMW's etc to win, but we know who won that battle. So, are we going to see a real BMW out there, even a DTM silhouette car, or are we going to see a spec racer with a BMW badge on the front? At the price of BMW's in Australia I am amazed they sell any of them.

The other odd news was that Jeff Gordon, who has Dupont paint in his veins, is to lose them as a major sponsor and replace them with an ARRP Foundation "Drive To End Hunger" campaign sponsorship. ARRP Foundation ultimately expects the sponsorship will help raise far more funding that they will actually spend, estimates about the foundation's investment being between US $10 and $15 million per season. Is that all? You can feed a lot of people for that, or buy a lot of lobbyists. I dislike most of what ARRP does, it seems to me as a past member they are more interested in selling insurance than anything else, and this smacks of desperation on the part of Hendricks, and a stunt on the part of ARRP to promote their insurance in the guise of a worthy cause. If NASCAR wants to help this cause get each of the drivers and owners to drop a percentage of their prizemoney in it. It is like the NASCAR "jeans day" deal, buy a pin and wear jeans to the office. This is one of the wealthiest group of people in America, you donate the money.

I apologize to all my faithful readers but there is nothing today I find interesting enough to comment on. I am busy writing my memoirs, so I will use the time wisely.

In the absence of much else, and after reading Murphy The Bear's latest missive, my thoughts turned to Audi. Now Audi ran in the ALMS for most of the last decade under various guises of teams, mostly Champion from Florida. Audi now say that it is not likely to race in ALMS next year as it needs Audi North America to step up with some money. I can understand Peugeot not bothering with anything but Sebring or Petit, they have not sold cars here for years, mores the pity. It is only when these two turn up that ALMS really draws a crowd.

Now stop me if I'm wrong, but Audi seems to sell a  lot of cars in the US. So why is Audi NA not interested? They can sell enough without using racing as advertising? Maybe now they are one company they do not want to compete with Porsche? Americans do not like diesels? They should, and perhaps showing a diesel winning is the best advertising. Anyone from Audi NA saying anything publicly? It seems we are not even to see the Audi R8 in GTC next year.

We have the Portugese MotoGP to look forward to this weekend and Capirossi is to ride. These guys are tough. Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo breaks his collar bone and it sounds like he is out for most of the season. GP riders would just plate it and be back in a couple of weeks. It's not his throwing arm. I know, he will get hit and hurt it again, but so could the GP rider. Doohan rode with a broken leg for most of a season, shades of Bret Favre.

So, Korea gets full marks because it was better than everyone feared? Jean Todt said that "It is easy to be very critical in this situation. I think that the essentials are an admiration for all the work which has been done." So full marks for trying. If it had been Silverstone Bernie would be canceling the contract by now. You cannot have traffic jams and muddy parking lots it seems unless you are paying Bernie $40m. My final comment on this mess is that one journo said it was Tilke's best track yet. Now it is time for me to retire.

Red Bull say they are "hopeful" about Vettel's engines lasting for the next two races. Not the way to approach them I would have thought. Do the teams announce which engine they are using and how many kilometers it has done?  That would be good to know, but I doubt they want their opposition to know. Since when do engine manufacturers apologise? It seems Red Bull are not yet ready to let Vettel help Webber, with only two races to go when will they be? Barring an engine failure, always possible, it looks as if Alonso is going to wrap this up.

Elsewhere the V8Supercars put on their usual "crash fest" at Surfers Paradise and it will be interesting to hear what the real attendance figures were. My sources in Oz tell me that there were lots of hotel rooms available up to the last minute. But I'm sure it was a record crowd. There are lies, damn lies, and promoters attendance figures.

Is everyone happy now? We had an exciting "race" in Korea. Maybe I am too much of a purist, but all this needed was a tent and elephants to be a circus. Someone can help me out here, but didn't there used to be a rule that if it had not rained all previous sessions then a short practice in the wet would be added? Then there is this stupid parc ferme rule about not being able to change the set up on the car. That is a safety issue in these conditions. I know why they are doing it, it is just how they are doing it that is wrong.

The surface seems to be just like the one we laid in Adelaide in 1985 when everyone was paranoid about the track coming up. Very hard and very tight, like slate, so all the dust sits up on it in the dry and all the water when it is wet. That was why Adelaide was stopped a couple of times in the rain. It is funny that after having complained about the track Friday and Saturday David Hobbs said today how great it was. Some direction there? I loved Steve's comment that the water was sitting above the oil. Not the last time I looked. Engage brain before opening mouth.I know what you are trying to say Steve, just think before you say it.

I wonder if Mark Webber is still "clutching at straws" to find anything to critisize? Wall too close was I think what he said, and he would be right. I was waiting all weekend for someone to spin out of one of these corners and hit those inside walls. And I loved the fact that they drove the crane across the track to move his car when it was right next to an emergency gap. Petrov's accident was entirely predictable, and how Button kept the car off the walls in that Turn 17 I don't think even he knows. I loved the fact that like Singapore and there being marshals right where he stopped, Vettel had to grab an extinguisher and put the fire out himself.

I said a month or so ago that the eight engine rule was about to bite. These next two races will be interesting, but can someone explain how repairing a water pump in an engine can be done without penalty? Is the water pump not part of the engine? They had to take the engine out to do it.

I guess we should be happy this is the Championship no one wants to win. Every time we get a new leader he throws it away. I don't know where Button's head was at, he did not seem like a Champion trying to defend his crown.

I would love to ask the Koreans who paid for this debacle if they think it was worth $250 million to get bad publicity? Shades of Dallas. I was never interested in going to Korea anyway, but nothing I saw and heard would make me want to rush off to this new city. They need to get rid of the snakes first.

The only people who can really be happy about this race is Alonso and Bernie. It certainly was not a weekend worthy of the pinnacle of motorsport.