INDYCAR: Impressive Guest List at Engine Summit
Written by: Robin Miller
06/27/2008 - 01:19 AM
Indianapolis, Ind.
There were manufacturers from Formula 1 and sports cars, a few familiar faces from open wheel racing and at least one new precinct represented in Wednesday's engine forum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
And the numbers were equaled by the clout.
"It was a very positive meeting and we were happy with the quality and quantity," said Barnhart, who co-hosted the summit along with IRL commercial division president Terry Angstadt and Honda's Erik Berkman.
"We were very well represented with 14 or 15 engine manufacturers and race shop engine builders in the room. And it was a very positive meeting from all aspects. It probably exceeded our expectations."
Barnhart's optimism was justified considering the guest list.
SPEEDtv.com has learned that Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Fiat, Mazda and Volkswagen sent representatives to discuss the future specifications for Indy car racing. Engine builders Cosworth, John Judd, Ilmor and AER were also in attendance.
The F1 contingent was led by Fiat, which owns Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, and BMW, recent winners of the Canadian Grand Prix.
Fiat's interest is believed to be in bringing its new Alfa Romeo marque to the United States, where Alfas haven't been sold for many years. BMW, of course, has an active passenger car market in America.
Alfa powered Indy cars from 1989-91 but was woefully uncompetitive despite being aligned with Pat Patrick, Jim McGee and Morris Nunn.
Audi, fresh off its third consecutive victory at Le Mans, currently competes in the ALMS series with its powerful turbo diesel. Wolfgang Ulrich, head of Audi Sport, made the trip to Indianapolis, which raised the question regarding turbos.
The IRL has been a normally-aspirated series since 1997 but before that, every Indy 500 winner since 1968 had been powered by a turbocharged engine, which also dominated USAC in the 1970s and CART for three decades.
Barnhart didn't rule out going back to turbos.
"The best positives associated with it are two fold," he said. "One being with the diversity of the schedule that we run, it is a great power control and helps us adjust power levels. If we need a little more power on the street and road courses, we can certainly adjust the boost up. And if we need less power, we can turn it down and control the boost level down from that standpoint.
"And also you can't underestimate the second positive that is also just the sound. It's a natural muffler. With more road and street courses, city streets, that type of deal, it's nice to turn our adjustables down a little bit, and it's got a great sound to it."
Mazda, owned by Ford, has long been a regular in lower level sports car racing in this country and badges the engines used in the Formula Atlantic series.
Volkswagen, a staunch supporter of Super Vees in the early 1970s, has no active top-level motorsports program at this time other than its off-roading Dakar team.
Ilmor, which scored a dominating win in the 1994 Indy 500 with Roger Penske, helped Honda enter the IRL in 2003 and is still involved in rebuilds today.
Cosworth, with a storied history in major open wheel racing, is pretty much in limbo since Champ Car closed its doors last winter.
AER is an English company that builds sports cars engines for the likes of Rob Dyson, among others, while Judd had powerplants in CART during the 80s and 90s in addition to competing in other forms of motorsport, including F1 in the 80s.
Honda, which has spanked the competition so badly during the past several seasons it ran General Motors and Toyota out of the series, is currently the only engine supplier for Indy cars but desperately wants competition.
The IRL will change engine and car specs for 2011 and Barnhart admitted the fact there is now a united series had a lot to do with the interest level.
"I honestly think the participation level was higher than anyone could have imagined or I would have anticipated," he said. "And I would say it was clearly higher than it would have been had it not been for unification. It was so clear that the unification and positive direction of open wheel racing is what triggered the high level of interest of everybody that was in the room.
"What was most encouraging is that through the discussions there was clearly more agreement than there was disagreement. And a lot of energy for follow up and next meeting and a lot of common ground."
Angstadt said ideally the IRL would like to have its engine parameters set in stone by this fall so the next engine forum should be sometime in late August or early September.
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/indycar-impressive-guest-list-at-engine-summit
