Bob Barnard Pt. 2

Robert  "Bob” Barnard, (born September 20, 1946 in London), is a track designer and promoter. A qualified Civil Engineer, Bob moved to Australia in 1969 and raced successfully in historic sports cars and Formula Junior. In 1985 Bob was the Engineering Project Manager for the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix in Adelaide. Bob then rebuilt the historic Phillip Island Circuit and promoted the1989,90 & 91 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. He also built Eastern Creek in Sydney before moving to Spain with Kenny Roberts, and subsequently the US to promote the 1993 US Motorcycle GP for Kenny at Laguna Seca. Bob rebuilt Road Atlanta while the Exceutive Raceway Director and was the Operations Director for the inaugural Petit Le Mans in 1998. Bob continues to be active in track design and track safety, and was part of the team that rebuilt Daytona in 2004. Bob is leading the SCCA program to train new track reviewers and is working on a new private track in Georgia.

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 GREEN RACING AND Y2K

 What does green racing have to do with Y2K? In my view they are both a scam. Until recently I still had a pre 2000 computer that worked, admittedly very slowly, but it did not die the night of January 1, 2000. Don’t get me wrong, I am not in favor of wasting precious resources, but this whole global warming thing is still not convincing to me, but even if it is happening due to man’s activities the green racing thing is not doing anything for it.

 Motor racing is a discretionary activity as is all entertainment, whether it is opera, rock climbing or football. They all involve at some point the use of energy, and in particular vehicle transport, to get to whatever your thrill is. I remember during the 1973 oil crisis England thought hard about banning motor racing, till someone pointed out more gas was used by spectators going to watch soccer games than ever is used in racing. That is still true today. Just consider the latest Dallas Cowboys billion dollar stadium. How much energy did that take to build, and what does it take to run the lights, air conditioning etc. for one game? More than a season of ALMS gas usage I would bet. Al Gore’s plane probably uses more on one trip to promote global warming! So why are all these other sports and  entertainment bodies not running green challenges?

 Has anyone asked the spectators if they want to watch green racing? I don’t notice NASCAR falling over themselves to go green. Their night races use more power for the lights than most of our races. If the fans do want green racing why are we not racing solar cars? That’s the only true green racing. I did think the Tour de France was the best example until I thought about all the team cars, trucks and buses, and the logistics of setting it up. No, people come to watch motor racing as a spectacle, and particularly for sports cars and Formula One, the technology.

 We do not need to encourage increased efficiency of these cars, that is what racing is about. How to go faster than the other guy with the same spec equipment. If that is not efficiency what is? Audi did not produce a diesel powered car, probably the biggest step in promoting alternative fuels, because there was a special prize. They did it because they could see it was a better bet to win. It is also quiet if we are going to be concerned about the environment. They also did it because they sell lots of diesel cars. Europe is full of them. I drove a couple on recent trips and they are great. No smell, no smoke, drives like a gas powered car, and MPG is terrific.

 We need to ask questions like why is diesel more expensive than gas in the US if we really want to do something for reducing consumption and dependence. And don’t talk to me about electric cars. Where do they think the electricity comes from? Carbon fuelled power stations, that’s where, and they are less efficient than your average car.

 So why are we promoting green racing that uses a product that takes more energy to grow than it gives back and increases the cost of food to people who cannot afford it? Because someone is making money out of it, and in this case the series and teams are taking government money to promote a product that the government is already subsidizing, and the oil company wants to make themselves look like they care. I think Shell did a better job of that developing the fuels for the Audi.

 Motor racing needs to stop being apologetic about using gas and start to tell the story of the development that flows from it into all avenues of automobile technology.  Motor racing has always been the catalyst for improvement. Way back when I started watching Le Mans there was a prize called the Index of Performance, which predates our latest efforts by fifty years. Admittedly some will argue that it was a means for French cars to win something as their cars all had small efficient engines due to the taxation at the time, but it was a formula for the best use of the fuel.

 Think back to Formula One in the mid eighties when it was a fuel limited spec. They originally had a 225 liter tank, which was then were reduced to 195 liters to slow them down, and they went faster at the start of the following season than they had at the end of the last!

 If we really want to promote alternative fuels then open up the specifications to allow anything to be used, but with a formula for equating the energy values of the fuels, either through tank size, overall fuel for a race or some other mechanism that I am sure many smarter people than me can work out. But let’s not make it seem that the “green racers” are the only ones doing something for the planet, and if we are serious let’s not exclude them from being part of the competition.

 Bob Barnard

Oct 2009