Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Spectator motorsport in the US is dying, and I suspect that Europe is not far behind. OK, NASCAR can still fill half the stands, which is still a big crowd, but it is not what it was. Look at the Nationwide and Truck series and see who turns up. And then there is the Daytona 24 hour, arguably the best field of drivers put together for a race in the US, and it used to be a serious world wide event. I couldn't be bothered to watch most of it, and even less spectators turned up despite the best efforts of the SPEED Team to beat it up. So what happened? ALMS/Grand-Am combined is not going to change the series from a "back gate" supported basis, i.e. those that race pay entry fees to go race. Rich boys toys. IndyCar is going nowhere, and let's not even talk about motorcycle road racing. Supercross and Monster Trucks are what people seem to want to watch.

We saw the announcement today that the once mighty British F3 series, what was THE proving ground for young talent, is down to 4 rounds this year for lack of entries. The Italian F3 is cancelled altogether. Marussia let Timo Glock go because they have no money to pay him, they need a driver to pay them. How long can they go on?  So Glock is off to the DTM, which seems to have a clue how to make this work. Perhaps it is the three manufacturers paying for it? The Australian V8Supercars also seemed to have a formula for success, but now a venture capital firm owns it watch out. They are off the bill in Abu Dhabi, and the entry of Nissan and Mercedes will not please the Holden/Ford faithful, especially if they win!

Bernie for once is faced with a less than full calendar due to promoters and Governments not willing or able to meet his price. Are the cracks in the business model starting to show?

So what's wrong? Motorsport is expensive. It costs a lot more than a tennis racket and a pair of shoes to go play. Would be professionals, their families or sponsors, have to spend millions to get anywhere near the top and make money. Even at the top, F1, very few drivers are earning and not paying. Compare this with the three major, and successful sports here in the US. Football, Basketball and Baseball. All have systems in place to develop talent, either through colleges or minor leagues, knowing that their success depends totally upon new players coming in to keep filling the seats. Players get there on merit, not money. Motorsport, apart from a few schemes, has no such succession planning in place, not even for Bernie! The money gets sucked out, and nothing is going back to make people want to watch.

Now this is somewhat simplistic, as there are other social and generational factors going on, but that is the point. The game is changing and no one in charge is doing anything to make sure motor sport survives, and electric racing is not the solution.

I have been away all week working on a new State-Of-The-Art kart track, Mooresville Motorplex, just north of Charlotte. Now State-Of-The-Art is an over used term, but in this case just happens to be true. The 4000 ft track is modelled on the famous Parma track brought up to modern standards by Jarno Zaffelli. It will feature the latest TECPRO kart barriers, Tracksa marshal light system, and Club Speed software for facility management. We have completed the track earthworks and will be running an off-road kart around on Monday for a final check before completing the earthworks and starting the rock base. Owner Justin Marks hopes to have the facility operational in August once the first building is ready. 

Meanwhile we have still heard nothing more about the Beijing F3 track, and what we hoped would be a fund to back us on the Georgia project has come to nothing again, but there is still hope there.

Stayed awake for the Le Mans 24 hour last weekend. Pity the Toyotas could not last, it would have been a good fight with Audi. It does show that a properly funded petrol car can compete with the diesels. Well done the Rebellion team though. It is a testimony to the design of the Audis that not only are they strong enough to withstand a crash, but they can be repaired so quickly. A good GT race as always, and LMP2 seems to be getting their act together to put on a show. Not sure what all the fuss was about the Delta Wing. There is no new technology on that car that I can see. A different design for sure, but I still say it looks like a Morgan backing up or a GP sidecar. The 4 cylinder 1.6 liter turbo engine is nothing new, and Audi have had lightweight cars for the last couple of years. All that effort to run around with the LMP2 cars? And if the non-race fraternity were getting excited over how it looks, what about the Audis and Toyotas, far sexier to me.

I see in Autosport that the ACO has accepted a hydrogen car for garage 56 next year, now that is new technology and the car looks the goods. Go to:

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2011/06/15/electric-greengt-lmph2-leman/#.T-c0V_W8jbw

Watched the Valencia F1 race this morning. As I have said before, that dog of a Ferrari cannot be as bad as the team keep making out. Jenson has totally lost the plot, as has McLaren. They cannot get the pit stops right, not all of them anyway, or make the tires last. Lewis looked like he was driving on ice that last lap. The smart move would have been to let Maldanado through, but Lewis is a racer, that's why we love him. Has Red Bull come up with the latest smart design?

We saw plenty of fireworks on and off the track in Spain. Unusually the Barcelona race was a cracker, with Williams, everybody's sentimental favorite, winning at last, and deservedly. Maldonado may bring a bag of cash, but he also obviously brings skill and guts. I admit I for one thought him good, but only there for the money, but he proved us all wrong yesterday. Hanging on under great pressure from Alonso showed nerve and courage. How sad that their celebration was spoiled by the pit fire, and how great to see Pastor rescuing his brother, again the courage.

In my discussions with fire marshals the world over, who always get carried away with the risk of fire in a pit building, I usually ask them when was the last fire in a garage, as opposed to the pit lane. They cannot answer as it was so long ago, but now I can't use that argument. What I also say is still valid though, if you are going to have a fire it is as good a place as any as it has a lot of fire fighting equipment and people who know how to use it. Pity the same cannot be said for the track's fire fighting force it seems. In my expert witness work we always ask about manuals and procedures, and what training staff have had, and this just confirms the importance of not just having procedures, but practicing them. The other thing I have learned running events is that it is not over just because the race or whatever action is going on, has finished. The event ends when everyone has gone home, so don't knock off the staff.

It was impressive to see the pictures of the team members fighting the fire, knowing what to do and doing it calmly. As Pit Pass said, they are a community, even if they fight all the time, but what family doesn't? When the chips are down they pull together, great to see.

So what of the race? McLaren shot Lewis in the foot again, how many ways can they do that, and how long can he put up with it? Amazing to see him still passing and attacking while preserving his tires for a two stop race, and beating Button at his own game. What would we have seen had he started on Pole? And why did he start from the back? He set a time in Q2, so why did he not start based on that time down with Vettel? Very strange goings on with Red Bull and the noses, and how did Vettel still run 6th after his nose problem and drive through? Alonso continues to flatter the Ferrari, what would he do if the car was sorted? Massa is an embarrassment and should have been pinged for blocking, and HRT are an ongoing embarrassment and should just go away.

Alexander Rossi did OK in his Friday session, kept it off the wall and wasn't too far off Petrov's time. Let's hope for some more sessions for him. Sauber continues to impress, as does Lotus, both of whom you would expect to win a race sometime this year. Almost anybody's race this year.

Over at Donnington for the WSBK there were fireworks of a different kind, with BMW repeating their DTM achievement and winning for the first time. 1-2 in the first race, and should have been in the second until Rae knocked them out at the last turn. How do you do that and still win the race? We see Schumacher given a penalty for punting out Senna, and rightly so whatever Michael says, and Rae wins the race. Still, both races were a cracker, which is more than can be said for our two home grown Sports Car series who have to make up for lack of racing by interviewing anybody they can find. I've said it before, but why do we have to listen to Scott Atherton during every ALMS race and hear the same BS about how great everything is? Two LMP1 cars does not make a race. Thank goodness for the GT's, and very good to see the Aston on pole, but what happened to its' pace in the race? Over at Grand-Am it seemed impossible for anyone to pass another car without hitting it in the process, but I guess it is owned by NASCAR. 

On the F1 commercial side the change in Government in France has made the French GP more complicated and certainly more expensive. Red Bull and Ferrari are to get seats on the Board of the floated company, as apparently will McLaren, although having Ron Dennis at the meetings could be exciting. Some doubt though over whether they will get the float done this summer as the markets are not cooperating.   

It did not take BMW long to take its' first win in the DTM. Just the second race, and starting from pole. Dr. Ulrich of Audi chose to go to the DTM race rather than the WEC at Spa, so it tells you where his priorities are, or is it he knew Spa was a shoe in? It should have been expected as BMW have not exactly been away from racing, just the DTM when it got to be a tin top version of F1. Racing its' road cars across the globe all these years just meant building one to DTM specs, hiring a couple of drivers with DTM resumes, and off we go. Great to see though, three great manufacturers fighting it out and drawing huge crowds. Probably more at the first race than at the German F1 GP's.

Good to see Robert Wickens, the young Canadian, getting a drive in DTM, not your normal route to F1, but a couple have done it.  American Alexander Rossi is also getting his break and will get a Friday drive at Barcelona in his role as test driver for Caterham. That will be interesting to see.

Elsewhere normal service resumed with Stoner winning in Portugal, but Rossi continues to struggle with the Duke, and whatever happened to Spies? A long chain of discussion on Facebook recently about Ben, but it is hard to understand how his team mate Lorenzo can be challenging for the win, and the Tech 3 pair can be beating him easily on non-works equipment. Ben was the only team mate to get the best of Mat Mladin when they raced in the US, but that was Mat's retirement year, so not a good yardstick? Something has obviously disappeared from Ben's arsenal, perhaps his confidence?

I was able to watch the Spa 6 Hour round of the WEC courtesy of Audi TV on the internet. Had the radio Le Mans boys commentating and picture was great, and no commercials. Despite the obvious outcome of an Audi win we saw an intriguing race, with the Diesels beating the Hybrids, who have some issues to resolve around the four wheel drive. Interesting that Toyota has not followed this path after having tried it. Of course Audi has long had a "Quatro" so marketing may drive the racing, so to speak. Nice to see that did not influence the outcome of the race though with the diesels being allowed to win on merit. Le Mans may be a stretch though. Good races in the LMP2 and GTE classes, with the GTE being won by less than a second after six hours! 

Oh yes, we had in-season testing once again with all the F1 teams except HRT going to Mugello. A very nice track, but much more a MotoGP track than F1 with all those sweeping corners. Grosjean in the Lotus was quick with Kimi declining the opportunity to run, as did the two McLaren boys. Not really much to tell as usual with testing and not all the top drivers. We will have to wait for Barcelona.

The "who is going to replace Massa" game continues with Mark Webber being the flavor this week, although it seems Red Bull are keen to keep him after the recent race form. In a similar vein the new Chairman of CVC has said he needs to be able to replace Bernie "within 24 hours." Presumably not the next 24 hours, but the ones after they carry him out of his office in a wooden box as he has always insisted they will have to do for him to relinquish control of F1.

Who ever thought this was a good idea to go ahead with this Bahrain GP? I cannot see how the Government thought this was going to generate positive press for them, and it isn't. Nor for F1, who are on a hiding to nothing, just look at the cartoons of Bernie getting off a jet walking over the bodies of protesters. There are some great pieces being written by better journalists than I, and Maurice Hamilton has one on the ESPN F1 site:

http://en.espnf1.com/bahrain/motorsport/story/76129.html

Maurice makes the point that even before the protests Bahrain is not a place F1 should be. It is interesting, albeit on a small sample, but the first comment on adverse blogs or articles is a positive one for Bahrain. You don't think they have hired people to monitor and respond to these do you?

Joe Saward is monitoring the world's press which, apart from the obvious partisan ones from the Gulf and Iran, are all censuring F1 and the Government, great PR there.

And now we have the first incident to F1 people. The fact that they were not "targeted" has absolutely nothing to do with it, they were still nearly fire bombed with a Molotov cocktail. It was four mechanics from the Force India Team on their way back to the hotel on the main highway. It seems at least one if not two of the team have now left Bahrain, and Hulkenburg said it was wrong that the teams had been put in a position where their safety could be at risk. Pedro de la Rosa, Chairman of the GPDA said he thought the drivers were safe. Oh good, never mind everyone else, and as one comment on Facebook said why is it only the F1 teams that are being protected, how about the rest of the population? And why would de la Rosa even open his mouth when he cannot possibly know that?

Has it got to a point where the middle east controls this sport? They seem to be spending money like there is no tomorrow to sponsor teams and events. It is impossible to turn on a TV and not see a team sponsored by Etihad, or playing in an Etihad stadium. Is spending millions on Manchester City really helping the people of the region? I know they will say they are investing for when the oil runs out, but is this really the way to do it? Is England playing Pakistan in the desert really helping anybody and is cricket prostituting itself for money? Smacks of self indulgence on the part of those "sovereign wealth funds," run by the sovereign of course. Is Etihad really making any money? Or are we just trying to buy some respect here? Well I for one don't respect them any more for it, and I suspect not many others do either.