Bob Barnard Track Engineering

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.

Mercedes should be applauded for helping out a young man who did not have a hand. In a wonderful piece of PC he is described as having "a lower arm deficiency that means his left arm stops at his wrist." You can read the whole story on ESPNF1, and it is certainly one of the best things F1 has done lately. Thanks to Ross Brawn and the team they have arranged for a new bionic hand to be supplied free as part of a deal for technical cooperation with the manufacturers, Touch Electronics. It seems when Ross started making enquiries both parties realised how much technology they had in common. A nice feel warm story, and again displays the incredible technology in an F1 car that most of us do not see.

I watched the Indycar race from New Hampshire yesterday and I hope a few more did than were at the track. I've seen bigger crowds at an SCCA race at Texas Motor Speedway. Of course the track's General Manager said how pleased he was at the attendance, I bet Bruton Smith wasn't. Dario had the race won until he and Sato managed to run into each other on a restart, and it looked to me like Dario moved down on him, but that was not how he saw it. Rain was a factor, bringing the race time forward to try and beat it, but the boys did not need rain to crash, Conway taking out Rahal at the first corner, and the Castroneves losing it there the next lap. Nice tire wall there made of used race tires! Could barely hold themselves up let alone stop a car, and in the wrong place. Will Power got all hot and bothered at the last restart after being taken out when he had a chance of closing the gap on Dario in the Championship. Lots of talk about the track being too damp to restart it, but in reality only one driver spun and caused the rest of the carnage, all the other drivers managed to keep it straight. Now that's not to say they would not have spun later, but in racing someone has to make a decision and live with it, it is not a democracy. Have the ratings really improved so much that ABC will now carry the races and not Versus, or did they work out the ratings would never improve on Versus?  

Missed the MotoGP race but was fortunate to see a great Moto2 race, just like the 250cc days. I like the Brno track and it has aged well. Great use of the topography. A little repetitive in the corners, but produces some good races, and a lot of spectators. Interesting Honda are saying they will limit bikes for next year in MotoGP, but one has Bradl's name on it already. Northern European market must need a boost, but well deserved. Great news that Gardner Senior and Junior, and Mick Doohan are to ride at Phillip Island this year, nice touch, and Remy is to have the Moto3 bike for 2012 to ride.

No blog would be complete without a reference to Bernie. News today that he is going to sell his shares in QPR soccer team to Tony Fernandes. Good time to sell as they have just been promoted to the Premier League, so sell at the top, it probably will not last. Apparently he cannot get on with the other shareholder, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal. Now Lakshmi has in the past shown an interest in F1, and it is a shame he does not have a team because then we really could have had a driver "put the pedal to the Mitall."

A great day for Australian sport! Cadel Evans is crowned as Tour de France winner and Casey Stoner wins the US MotoGP. Now if only Mark Webber could have converted pole position in Germany to a win we would have had a trifecta! But it was not to be, Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were not to be denied today, and as we saw in Silverstone, Lewis is back to his old self. Still going for it but without the rush of blood. A very good race to watch and I did not have to wait till noon to watch it thanks to live streaming. Vettel struggled and only took fourth on the last lap. So, is Red Bull vulnerable, or is this just a blip? Alonso carried on his Silverstone form and Massa had a good race, so it seems the Ferrari is back in the fight, although their performance on the hard tire is still suspect. Not sure about McLaren with Button struggling all weekend and finally retiring with a hydraulic problem.

Pirelli seem to be improving the durability of their tires, a lot less marbles to be seen, and the softs lasted well here today. A lot of overtaking and most of it not down to DRS or the tires thank goodness, just good racing. Our other Australian, Ricciardo, finished the race and beating Chandook in the Lotus, not too shabby.

Glock has re-signed with Virgin or Marussia or whatever they are, for another three years, so apart from the problem of not having many options, he must see some daylight at the end of the tunnel. Lotus Renault had a pretty bad day, while Sutil and Force India had a very good one. Poor di Resta was spun on the first corner by Heidfeld and was playing catch up all race. Heidfeld ended up being taken out by Buemi in dramatic fashion, for which Buemi has earned a five place penalty for the next race in Hungary.

Over in Laguna Casey Stoner played it cool for half the race and then took Pedrosa and Lorenzo in two passes that displayed his determination,skill, and guts. After Germany he needed to reassert himself, and he did emphatically.  Lorenzo showed his ability to ride through pain after a massive high side in practice Saturday morning to take pole and then finish second today. I would have given any money he would not ride after that strange accident that took place after the checker and while doing a practice start. 

Elsewhere I was able to watch Grand Am from New Jersey, ALMS from Mosport and Indycar from Edmonton thanks to multi-tasking. Apart from a professional interest all of these were underwhelming. Edmonton's revised track layout is worse than the original and these guys continue to drive into each other at every opportunity. Mosport appear to have repaired last year's damaged guard rail with the same round pine posts that are not to spec and caused the problem last year. Does no one ever learn? Hopefully the new owners will do what is necessary to upgrade the safety at this great layout.  

Going back to F1, it seems the teams were as surprised as I was over some of the rules for 2014 and are saying that they did not go through the correct channels to be approved. So maybe some sense will prevail. There is a suggestion that Bernie paid the money to Gribkowsky not because the lawyers fees would have been more, but the resulting loss from tax on the trust following a court challenge would have been substantial. That would presume that Bernie died before his wife had lived in the UK for less than 18 years, the time to gain residency. Now that is an argument, but given Bernie does not plan to die soon it is still hard to accept.

Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz has come out in defence of Mark Webber and said he will have a seat at Red Bull next year despite ignoring Horner last weekend. Where else is he going to go, and who else could be as good for the team, was his prescient comment. I'm sure Mark is very annoyed by the team orders, he is continuing to talk to the press about it saying he understands the team wants points, but so does he, and is confident that he and Seb can race each other without crashing. They managed to pass their other rivals so what's the problem? The problem for Mark is that a number one seat is not available at any team likely to give him a competitive car, so what do you do?

Rupert Murdoch's woes continue to mount and he has now been forced to withdraw his bid for the rest of BSkyB. This gives him a bunch of available cash, but the latest revelations are unlikely to persuade Jean Todt that he is a fit and proper person to own F1.

On the basis that any news coverage is good news Adam Parr has come out and said that the weekend's shambles over the blown diffusers is good for the sport. Not totally sure I agree, but as he said the fact that the press were all over it only reinforces how important F1 is. As he said to a journo, "you're not off in Wales covering darts are you." 

On the same basis the "Circuit of the Americas" aka Austin, must be important. Following on yesterday's news it seems the approval for the buildings is imminent. Let's hope so, it is now eleven months to the scheduled race, and therefore eight months before the FIA inspection. Now that is still time, we did the work in Daytona in less than six, but there was a greater sense of urgency than I am getting out of Austin. 

As was predictable the Indycar series has come out and poured cold water on Ron Walker's threat that the F1 tracks would go to Indycar if they did not get their way on the new for 2014 engine. Why would Indycar suddenly abandon their base and go trotting off around the world until the tracks got their way and dumped them? Yes we have seen that Long Beach did well by ditching F1 and going to CART, but that's here in the US. Surfers Paradise tried to take on the F1 GP with a CART/Indycar race, but gave up and are running their home grown V8Supercars series. Japan has not exactly embraced the Indycars even though they have Honda engines, and CART tried Europe a long time ago and failed. A far better threat from Ron would be to say they will all go with a breakaway series by the Teams, but I'm sure Bernie's contracts are all over that. Basically the tracks have no clout, there are always others waiting to take their place, that is why Bernie can get away with his outrageous fees.