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…
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IndyCar – Sam Schmidt Motorsports Secures Townsend Bell for the 500
Sam Schmidt Motorsports announced today that it will be returning to the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, a relationship that they continue from 2009. Best of all, they’ve secured Townsend Bell to drive the car! Bell has had a great run in the 500 the last couple of years with his best finish coming last year finishing fourth while running for KV Racing. This year he’ll be running the #99 car for SSM and hoping for an even better finish. While there are some who…
Read MoreIndyCar – Back to the Short Schedule
Curt Cavin reported this morning in the Indianapolis Star that the Month of May would be shortened to the Two Weeks of May. The track will open on May 15th for practice and rookie tests, but qualifying will be condensed to a single weekend. Pole Day will be on Saturday, May 22, and Bump Day will be on Sunday, May 23. The reasoning behind the change is to reduce the operating costs for all parties associated with the event. The teams will spend less money on room and board, the…
Read MoreFirestone Indy Lights – 2009 Season Review – Spring Races
Introduction A dedicated feeder series to the primary American Open-Wheel Racing series has been in existance in one form or another since 1986. The American Racing Series began in 1986 to serve as a development platform for CART, since the Formula Atlantics series which had been around since 1965 had failed to race in 1984, and existed as two separate series, a Pacific and an Atlantic series, from 1985 to 1990. In 1991, the same year that the split Formula Atlantics championship merged back into a single national series, the…
Read MoreGran Turismo 5 Indy500 Contest
For those of you with a Playstation 3, get ready to download the Gran Turismo 5 trial when it hits the Playstation Network Store on December 17th. This trial will include only two cars, the Nissan 370-Z in stock configuration, and the Nissan 370-Z in tuned configuration, and only one playable track. Ordinarily, my first reaction to this would be to rant about how lame and how this is not even worth being called a tease. However, Polyphony Digital has significantly sweetened the pot with an offer that will have…
Read MoreIndyCar – IMS Announces new CIO
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, having recently sacked its entire online media division, just hired a new CIO, Rhonda Winter. Ms. Winter has been around the Indianapolis area for a while working for the NCAA, Indianapolis Museum of Art (check their website! very cool, and not white text on black background!), and most recently with CIK Enterprises (whose web presence also does not suck). Here’s her comments from the announcement article at IndianapolisMotorSpeedway.com: “I’m very excited to join the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in this new role,” Winter said. “Technology is a…
Read MoreIndyCar – PR VP John Griffin Resigns
John Griffin, Vice President of Public Relations for the Indy Racing League for the past seven years, announced his resignation from the league today effective on December 18th. Here’s the official release: “John has been a valued part of our organization and he will be missed,” said Terry Angstadt, president of the commercial division of the Indy Racing League. “His creativity and passion for the sport brought publicity for the IZOD IndyCar Series to a whole new level. We wish him the best of luck.” Griffin joined the Indy Racing…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 5 of 5 – Money
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Show Me The Money! During the 1950’s and 60’s, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race saw tremendous growth. There are multiple reasons for this, of course, but one part of this was the continuing increase in prize money offered for the event. From 1950 to 1970, the total event purse experiences a five-fold increase! Even accounting for inflation, the purse increased three-fold. Say what you will about teams and drivers competing for the “love of the sport”, if the money isn’t there, the top talent…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 4 of 5 – Speed
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Getting Up To Speed One thing that drew people not only to the track on race day, but on pole day and every qualifying day thereafter was the thrill of seeing those incredible speeds! People came to see blazingly fast cars, the brave superhuman drivers that piloted them, and to hear track announcers like Tom Carnegie announce, “And it’s a NEEEEWWWW TRAAAACK RECOOORD!” Some of you know what I’m talking about! For those that don’t, please check out this video from IndyCar’s YouTube page:…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 3 of 5 – Creative Engineering
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race The Engines Now what can you allow and not allow beyond the standardized tub and safety features? For one, I think you can open up the engine design. Put a cap on the output power of the engine, but allow teams to achieve that power however they wish. Want to run a four-cylinder twin-turbo engine? Great. Twelve-cylinder normally aspirated? Fantastic. Heck, throw one of those super cool Wankel engines in there! Just make all teams bring their engine to a league-operated dyno to check…
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