Bob Barnard Track Engineering

So the attorney for Austin says that it is not true that they will not be ready for 2012, but they may not meet the 90 day inspection requirement. That is cutting it fine, two years to go and you can tell that closely that you will not make it? Personally I would feel happier if the construction manager told me it was going to be finished, not the attorney. I have never had two years to finish a track, or needed it. My last construction job was a $3.5 billion oil refinery that was built in just over two years, so what's taking so long? Adelaide was a year, Phillip Island nine months, Eastern Creek a year, Road Atlanta six months, and Daytona 364 days from first contact to done.

Korea was not quite the success some people want to paint it. In this weeks Autosport is an article about the "challenges" facing the track. It seems they "papered the halls" to use the industry term for giving away seats to make it look full. The F3 Superprix scheduled for later this year has been canceled due to "force Majeure," some objections have caused the Korean Motorsport Authority to cancel the event at the track. I'd like to know what that is all about. If you would too go to http://ht.ly/19NGTp and read.

Closer to home Dover Downs has closed their track in St Louis, Gateway International. " We are simply unable to operate it with an acceptable return," said Denis McGlynn, CEO of Dover Motorsports. This oval was built not that long ago, 1997, and I never understood how they thought it would work without a NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Dover are lucky to hold on to their race at their main track "The Monster Mile" seeing as how the France or Smith families do not own it, yet. Making money with spectator events in the US gets harder every day. The Milwaukee Mile has gone through promoters trying and that track is in the center of the city.

On a completely different subject it seems Jorge Lorenzo has learned the secret of turning the mind games Rossi usually employs around to his advantage. Riders are commenting on how in the past they would have crumbled after Valentino took a commanding lead like he did at Estoril, but Jorge not only caught but went by him. Valentino said afterward, " I had no way to fight with him. I tried to stay with him but he was too fast." I just love the mind games of riders particularly, and watching the eyes, they are the window to the mind. If you look at photos of Rainey, Gardner and Lawson you will read the determination written large there.

To close, who thinks that if Alonso wins the Championship it will be "tainted" by the actions of Ferrari in Germany. Answers in a closed envelope please.

It seems tracks come and go. Austin is coming, but not quite as fast as was predicted. The latest report is 24 months to build, and they are not scheduled to start until December, and there are planning issues hanging over that date, so that puts us into 2013 for the first race. The way Bernie is going there will be a race in Bangladesh by then.

Edmonton is going, or gone according to reports. It seems the airport wanted to keep one runway open during the IRL race and this required a couple of million to be spent to adjust the track layout. It seems the IRL and the promoter assumed the City would just roll over and cough up, but no. In the US and Canada getting Governments to pay for racetracks is much harder than say Mongolia, or Spain.

McLaren and Red Bull will both let their drivers race this weekend, so we will see if Massa will roll over for Alonso at his home GP. What will we see if Massa is in front of Alonso?

The anticipated shuffle of engineers and team bosses appears to be underway at Mercedes with new race engineers to be brought in to the team next year for both Nico and Michael. Ross Brawn's role is to be "defined."

The rumors are that De La Rosa is going to HRT, with Williams gearbox, next year, and they say they now have a chassis "based" on this years unraced Toyota. HRT must have found some money.

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.

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.

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.