Bob Barnard Track Engineering

Sunday afternoon I watched two very different races, NASCAR at California and MotoGP from Qatar. As different as you could want apart from the empty seats in the grandstand.

MotoGP gave us an exciting race from start to finish with up to 6 riders at times vying for the lead. A few crashes, and no full course yellows. No one had tire problems, and we saw some breath taking overtaking manoeuvres. The race was won by a guy who broke his leg 6 weeks ago and still had a brace on. Only two short ad breaks, no infomercials or stupid commentators. Great stuff and it will make me want to see the rest of the season.

And then there was the NASCAR race. 400 miles with no green flag pit stops due to the plethora of full course cautions. Tires blowing all over the track, including the race leader with three laps to go despite not having had problems all weekend. Jeff Gordon asked after 80 laps of a 200 lap race if they had enough tires? Goodyear supplies 11 sets for a 400 mile race, and they were lasting as few as 15 laps. What a joke, and makes Pirelli look really good. This is what happens when you do not allow testing at tracks on the schedule. The VP of Racing, Robin Pemberton, said that "they are the same tires as last year," and then added "but it is a new car." Exactly, so why would you think you can just roll up with the same old tires, especially on the oldest asphalt in NASCAR, with the biggest bumps.

Then of course we had MIke Joy, who repeated his previous weeks lies about attendance, not once but three times while we were looking at empty seats in the stands. "There are 68,000 seats and they are all sold." So what, did those people stay home, or were they all in the bar? As I recall the speedway was supposed to have over 100,000 seats when I went when it opened, or was that the temperature? Felt like it. Then there is good 'ol boy Darrel Waltrip. "Everywhere I look there are people racing." Duh, it"s a race idiot.

Finally, if you want to know what's wrong with the state of motor racing you need to go no further than to read Marshall  Pruett's interview with TUSCR Chief Scott Atherton in Racer Magazine. Talk a lot and say nothing, that is what he is really good at. Can't say anything wrong that way I guess so you keep a job.

http://www.racer.com/index.php/imsa/item/102091-imsa-sebring-q-a-with-series-coo-scott-atherton

What other race series has the owner and CEO give TV and radio interviews during the event? Are Bernie and Jean Todt missing out here? I am talking about Don Panoz and Scott Atherton of course during the Petit Le Mans. I would not mind so much if they had anything to say other than "next year is going to be great." If, as Scott said it is for the fans, why don't you shut up and let us listen to the commentary? We listened to Radio Le Mans to avoid SPEED's commentary, but at one point got so desperate when Scott went on, and on, and on, that we turned the sound up on the TV.

The race was great as usual. SPEED was not as usual. I timed the amount of race we saw and how long the ad breaks were, and we got about 2/3 rds of the race, and then if you take out the infomercials and stupid interviews, we saw a lot less than half. Even what we did see seemed to consist of non-stop in-car cameras from LMPC cars, especially the "green" one. The Director, I use the term loosely, had no feel for the race. It was obvious to a fan that cars were setting up a pass, but he would go to an ad anyway. Same with pit stops. The cameramen also have no idea, we will see a pass in progress and they will  not follow it to see it happen. I am close to not watching it in future it is so infuriating.

Congratulations Peugeot, beautiful cars, perhaps the best looking prototypes we've seen? Great strategy and well driven. Sorry to see Allan, Tom and Dindo lose, I admire and respect them enormously, but they have had a good run, and Dr. Ulrich is a class act the way he accepts defeat.

The Petit le Mans is a success story. The races are great and the fans come out to watch. What does it tell us? If you bring the best the fans will come and watch. When we ran the first one I had a potential spectator on the phone asking why should he come. I started to tell him the great cars that were coming, but only got as far as the Le Mans winning Porsche, and he said great, I'm coming! Fans are not bothered by the length of the race, their span of attention does not seem to be a problem. They are not confused by the different classes, or too much technology, foreign drivers, or all those other excuses that have been given lately. So, why is the rest of the ALMS series not as successful? They do not have all the best cars and drivers. Yes they have some, but other than the GT2 class there is one car and driver combination that stands out, and you cannot sell a race on that. And just maybe sports car fans do not want to watch 2 hour sprints?

On the home front we have a couple of very promising meetings next week on the Sol Real project, but unfortunately one project has been canceled so I am currently "underemployed." So if anyone needs a motor racing consultant let me know.