Bob Barnard Track Engineering

It struck me after posting yesterday's blog that "Unlimited Racing Championship" is actually a very odd name for a spec racing series. By it's very nature it is "limited" to what they give you. So who are they trying to fool?

Casey Stoner wasn't limited by anything in Spain, winning the MotoGP race at Aragon from team mate Pedrosa with Lorenzo keeping his title hopes faintly alive in third. Dovizioso is doing his chances for next year no good at all, crashing again early in the race. Capirossi dislocated his shoulder in a crash, time to hang the helmet up? Rossi finished an unhappy 10th. This can't all be the bike, his team mate and a privateer beat him again. The Moto2 race was a five way battle with Marquez finally breaking away while points leader Bradl slipped to 8th. His once seemingly unassailable lead is now down to 6 points.

In Motegi Dario Franchiti continued his bad run with a uncharacteristic move that resulted in a blocked track, damage to his car and a penalty. Team mate Dixon won the race from Will Power who takes over the lead in the Championship, but it is still anybody's title between Power and Franchiti.

At Laguna non-points scoring cars won the race and the GT Class. Last year's Aston driven by Fernandes returned to the ALMS as this year's car is worse than a dog, and won from Chris Dyson and Guy Smith after their sister car obeyed team orders and sat in the pits long enough for the Dyson car to pass them at the death. Just why the team sent Steven Kane out to chase down everyone in that last hour I don't know, it was pretty obvious to me that he should have just driven around at a pace not to trouble the number one car. That would have been a lot less obvious and insulting to the crowd, what there was of it. The hybrid Porsche 911 carried on from where it left off last time we saw it and put in a stellar performance. Should be fun to watch at the Petit. Now I am not a great fan of KERS, but the engineering in this car shows how it should be done. Risi had a "dry run" for a repeat performance of running out of fuel on the last lap as they did last year at the Petit, throwing away a race win for eligible cars to the Porsche of the Flying Lizards. As usual the GTs put on the best show.

I have no idea what happened with Grand Am at Mid Ohio as no one seems bothered to report on it, and I did not watch it.

Sunday's FR3.5 race was another thriller with American Alexander Rossi beating home Daniel Ricciardo with Vergne third. Canadian Championship leader and team mate of Vergne, Robert Wickens, had a bad day and the title now goes down to the last race with Wickens just two points clear of Vergne. As part of the show Grosjean and Prosts Senior and Junior drove F1 cars at this previous F1 circuit. A prelude to France having a GP back?

As predicted by Murphy The Bear ALMS CEO Scott Atherton announced at Laguna yesterday a new series to support the ALMS, and it needs a lot of support. Not sure who is supporting who here as it is a remake of Can-Am with spec racers. If it is half as good as the original it will blow the current ALMS away. Car "owners" will get two 30 minute races at each ALMS event, for only $485,000 a season. No mention of how many cars will be available, but more important will be the number of gentlemen racers with $485,000 to spend a year.

Not that I think this is a bad idea, could be a good way of reviving sports car racing, if it gets any TV coverage, which even ALMS doesn't. But spec racing is not what Can-Am was about, no-rules was the original idea with innovation being the key to its success. Personally a GT series is where I would go, but I'm sure there are plenty who would disagree.

In Spain the lights and A/C were back on and so was Stoner who ran away with pole, despite laying the main bike down. He then went out on the spare and went quicker! Pedrosa is second with Spies recovering from whatever ailed him or his machine yesterday to complete the front row. Lorenzo is next but not confident for the race, while Rossi is playing with his aluminium frame which necessitates different engine bolt up points, so he has exceeded his six engines despite having two unused of the original. Not doing him any good though. Nicky Hayden and rookie privateer Karel Abraham qualifying ahead of him on their Ducatis.

The Dyson team have taken the two top spots for the Laguna ALMS race later today, with the works Aston Martin and the Muscle Milk sister car on the next row, but not by much. A whole four LMP1 cars, this should be exciting, roll on Petit. BMW are on pole in the GT class, but as usual the gap from second to ninth is less than a second, so this is where the fun will be.

In Paul Ricard the FR3.5 continues to put on a show with Vergne winning the first race and Wickens third, so Vergne is still in with a shot at the Championship. Further back Ricciardo and Rossi, Alexander that is, had a good fight with Ricciardo ending up in front but being penalised post race for putting four wheels over the track edge. He must have been watching the Monza race last week, but of course he was there!

On the cover of Autosport a few weeks ago there was a piece about Kimi coming back to F1. I looked to see if it was the April 1st issue just late, but no. Now Joe Saward reports Kimi as having been to see Williams, as has Sutil. Now I would love to see Kimi back in an F1 car, and Williams will have a Renault engine next year and a new design team, but somehow can't see he wants to put up with the BS and the travel again. He declined to fly to the Australian WRC Round, so how is he going to put up with the F1 schedule? Peugeot in the odd WEC race seems much more likely, but I have been wrong before.

No not Will Power who is in Motegi with the rest of the Indycar gang, enjoying the road circuit as the "ring" was damaged in the quake. They were treated to a 6.2 aftershock, but that was tame compared to one that did the damage. And oh yes, Power was quickest in first practice.

Not horsepower either, as the teams could not use it at Aragon thanks to the electrical kind being out, so the practice for MotoGP was delayed and then cancelled for the day. Perdrosa was fastest in the morning with Lorenzo and Stoner next. Rossi is trying some aluminium sections of chassis on his Ducati, but it has not helped, yet, he is still 8th, 1.5 seconds off the pace. Ben Spies was way down in 11th.

A lot of racing this weekend. ALMS at Laguna, Grand Am at Mid Ohio, Indycar in Japan and MotoGP in Spain if they can find some generators. Let's hope there is more to write about tomorrow.

The Baltimore Indycar weekend has been run and won as they say. As an event it appears a success. As with most street races they had a great party atmosphere, which it should have given the location. Not sure they really needed an Indycar race to show off Camden Yards ball park, I would bet there are a few baseball fans who might have seen it anyway.

The races were pretty much non-events for me. Very few cautions, no red flags, and not much action. We were treated to lap after lap of the second and third place GTC cars during Saturday's ALMS race. That tells me the boys did not like the look of the track much and were running to avoid contact. No one as much as brushed a wall that I saw. It is a typical US street track, built down to a price and not up to a standard. The track was designed to avoid the obstacles rather than the other way around. You really could not move that traffic island at Turn One?

We had the manhole cover come up despite being welded and/or bolted down, but I have to give them points for fixing it in a timely manner. More than I give for the coverage. When we were first treated to live streaming of ALMS on ESPN3 it was great. Very few ads, the Le Mans radio boys commentating, and a lot of racing. This weekend may as well have been Speed. It was clearly shot to allow the minimum editing for Sunday's highlight show on ABC. We were three laps into the race when they went to an ad, except we did not get an ad, just a blank screen, and then after what would have been an ad break we got the ad. It carried right along with infomercials and repetitive ads and annoying commentary.

Over in Misano Mr. Lorenzo has kept the Championship interesting by winning in MotoGP with Stoner demoted to third by his team mate. As I say no team orders in MotoGP. The Moto2 race again sounds like the one to watch with Marquez beating Bradl to close that title race down. Scott Redding and Ianonne added to the fun. In the 125cc event Terol won by 22 hundredths passing Zarco on the line. At the Nurburgring, not Brno as I incorrectly said, Biaggi withdrew from both races due to a foot injury in practice, leaving Checa to win the first race, and coast in the very wet second race to eighth. With a 72 point lead it looks all done and dusted for Checa this year. Staying with motorcycle racing, Indianapolis announced it has extended its contract with MotoGP until 2014. So, are we to see three US MotoGP's after all, or is Laguna in trouble?

In other racing Josef Newgarden looks like he has wrapped up the Indy Lights Championship, while in British F3 Kevin Magnussen won the final race but team mate Felipe Nasr won the title. It will be interesting to see where these three go next year.

Formula Renault 3.5 was at Silverstone this weekend, and with the talent in that field it looks like it is becoming the main series for stepping up to F1. As I've said before, GP2 looks like a series for guys who are very good, but not quite good enough. Grosjean will wrap up that championship at his second coming and will probably get another crack at F1 with Renault. But there are a lot of drivers that won't progress.

F3 has traditionally been a great breeding ground, and drivers like Senna made the jump to F1 on the basis of a great season in it. Not sure that is likely these days. But back at FR3.5 you have Canadian Robert Wickens winning both races to take over the lead in Championship over fancied French driver Jean-Eric Vergne who finished sixth in Sunday's race after a bad pit stop. Second was American Alexander Rossi from new F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo. You get the picture? This is a field packed with talent and winning here means people are going to take notice. Watch out for these guys. And it is likely to get better with Grosjean demonstrating the new car, more horespower, better downforce, lighter and more adjustable.

We had a few races this weekend as the summer break is nearly over, Spa F1 next weekend! That Aussie Marcos Ambrose won again on Saturday in Montreal in the Nationwide series. Another road course to show off his talents, but winning becomes a habit. I saw an article about where are the next generation of NASCAR drivers coming from, Australia perhaps? Still in Montreal the Grand Am boys shared the bill and for once Ganassi's team did not have it all their own way, but can still wrap up another championship at the next race. Dan Gurney's son Alex won for Gainsco with Wayne Taylor's team, trying to catch the Ganassi boys, second. The big news is the test of the Grand Am Ferrari 458 at Daytona for next year's championship. I wonder how Ferrari are going to like losing to Mazda?

At Road America we had the ALMS 4 hour race with four LMP1 cars of which only two are contenders, and one LMP2 car. Sad. GT's were where the action and interest was at, with the Risi Ferrari 458 taking its first win of the season despite a few glitches. Nice bit of synchronised spinning at Turn One with the Corvettte. Nice driving actually by both drivers to avoid serious contact and keep it on the track and not lose a place. Not sure I like the safety car procedures. I know it is the interest of fairness, but who said life is fair, and it extends the yellows and makes for boring periods for spectators. And opening the pits for the LMP1 &2 cars? There are only four, let all of them come if the pit lane is long enough as Road America should be. I can understand it at Lime Rock, but we saw the weekend where yellows went on for lap after lap when the car that caused the yellow was long gone.

Finally, there is an article on Autosport about how F1 can maybe learn from MotoGP. Now I think it is mainly aimed at the pricing and access, but seriously, have they really looked at the state of MotoGP? 17 bikes at the most and some of these are make weights, and moving more and more to street bikes and spec racing. And as I said the other day commentators like Mat Oxley are worried that the lack of overtaking is looking increasingly like F1. Yes F1 needs to look at its business model as it does not look sustainable, but let's not go down the MotoGP road where the manufacturers wag the dog. Although having said that we almost got there with 4 cylinder engines!