The folks at Racecar Engineering are reporting that Lotus is looking to return to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, as Team Lotus USA.
Motorsport Director Claudio Berro told highly regarded British publication Motorsport News “the Indycar dream is very real for us. We are talking to an existing team about forging an alliance. The American marketplace is very important for Lotus and there is a pedigree and history at the Indy 500. When people think of Lotus they think of competition and racing, it is important that we get back to putting that message across. The Indycar programme is a big project and we need to join with an existing team to begin with, because that is the easiest way in terms of logistics. We only have a few weeks to sort the deal out because the start of the season is very close. The reunification of Champ Car and Indycar makes it much simpler for us and it is an area we are excited about. To run the Honda engine is not a problem in the first instance, even there we have history. The Indy 500 is iconic and it will only do the Lotus brand good to be there.”
Its speculated that this Indianapolis 500 effort may be in preparation for a bid for the 2012 IndyCar chassis contract. Lotus last fielded a car in the Memorial Day classic between 1965 and 1967 when we last saw the Lotus 38 driven by the legend Jim Clark. We’ll keep you posted with updates on the Lotus effort any any potential chassis bid and design concepts as they become available.
