Opinion: CART II the Last Thing We Need... Sort Of

In the past couple of weeks, more and more IZOD IndyCar Series owners have been expressing their displeasure with the way that things have been shaping up for the 2012 season under the watchful eye of new series CEO Randy Bernard.

They've begun to complain about the costs of a new car, wanting it to be pushed back to 2014. They don't seem to have the prerequisite amount of trust in Bernard or new car czar Tony Cotman to make the new program a success. Worst of all, they seem to feel as if they weren't really consulted on the new car program, featuring smaller engines and a Dallara "safety cell" that can be outfitted with multiple aero kits.

Fortunately, the IndyCar nation - especially the blogosphere - have called out the owners on their complaints, leading plenty of them to back off. Tony Johns at Pop Off Valve wrote, "The general consensus was that with aging inventory and stagnant technology, the series would actually die if steps were not taken to change things... I can't possibly imagine how a complete turnover for Delta Wings is any different at all from a complete turnover for the 2012 ICONIC spec - except for who is holding the political reins."

Longtime IndyCar writer and Speed Channel correspondent Robin Miller added, "It’s sad enough to think they held a new car revolt meeting at Sonoma without inviting Bernard and it’s insulting to hear supposedly intelligent racers lead a witch hunt after six months... To think he busts his ass and may not have the owners’ unanimous support is as ignorant as it is maddening. Just remember this: he’s trying to clean up the mess you’ve helped make of open wheel racing. And six months ain’t nearly enough time to find a big enough mop."

Truth be told, the owners in CART did, for a time, manage to run one of the best open-wheel series America had ever seen in the mid-1990s, at least as far as on-track product was concerned. Perhaps it just looked better by comparison to the generally second-tier fields of the early Indy Racing League, but CART at one time had all the big manufacturers, the top chassis builders in the country, most of the best open-wheel tracks in North America (and popular stops in Brazil and Australia) and a list of drivers whose pedigree is unquestioned, save by a few Formula 1 fans.

What killed that series was serial mismanagement - poor investments, the decision to take the company public, not showing up to those first IRL events in 1996 and smoking the little guys, instead of boycotting the sport's biggest race as they did for years. While it's nice to think that the people running the race teams have some idea of what works and what doesn't, the past 15 years have done little to prove this theory.

From an outsider's perspective, the only logical reason why any of the current owners would boycott the new car program is because current series partner Dallara, and not the owner-bankrolled Delta Wing, won the contract. That's a lot of Chip Ganassi's money that went for naught in the end.

The general theory is that the owners are simply complaining about where they're writing the checks. Any business owner anywhere knows that when a large turnover cost is looming in the somewhat distant future, you set aside money for it. True, IndyCar's value may be lower than ever, with a miserable television contract, threats to the TEAM compensation system, and even the great Roger Penske looking for sponsorship. But the owners did it to themselves over the past 15 years.

Bernard and Cotman can solve this easily enough by calling up Ben Bowlby at Delta Wing and asking their help in developing the new car. Heaven knows Cotman doesn't need it - the Panoz DP01 that he oversaw was one of the most beautiful open-wheel racecars to ever see an American circuit - but the political implications would be huge. At the very least, it'd shut up some of the series' power players and make them feel like they were a bit better represented in the new car development. (What, Gil de Ferran's presence in ICONIC wasn't good enough for you guys?)

But while we're on the topic of CART, it's safe to say that at least some of the things that made that series so popular during its heyday should be analyzed and brought back in time for the new car. The option for multiple engines and aero kits, if not entire chassis, is a step in that direction; it adds a visual variable to IndyCar that we haven't seen in years of spec cars and single engine manufacturers. The single safety cell and ability to switch aero kits during the season also protects teams from getting stuck with massively underperforming cars, like the Eagle-Toyotas that All American Racers fielded in 1996.

CART had, for the first few years of the split, all of the better open-wheel races, other than the Indianapolis 500. While returns to Michigan and California seem unlikely (due to ISC's ownership of those tracks... and that's even another story), plenty of the other tracks and cities on the schedule hosted popular events. Surfers Paradise produced a different winner almost every year -how's that for parity? Remember Alex Zanardi's pass in the Laguna Seca corkscrew? Portland stayed on the schedule for over 20 years for a reason, and Cleveland would be even more fun to watch if the rumored plan of a doubleheader - one race on the old airport course, one on a new airport oval course - was instituted.

Yes, every track that I just mentioned is a road course, save the potential Cleveland airport oval. IndyCar - at least the IndyCar that Tony George founded - was devised as an oval series. A lot of the IRL apologists and purists have fumed over the series' decision to add more and more twisties over the years, but with Bruton Smith and SMI getting closer and closer to IndyCar, the series' oval fate should be in good hands. Bonus points are to be had if the series can find a way to resuscitate the Milwaukee Mile, shut down this year after a promoter dispute.

We're talking a massive series overhaul in 2012 - in the cars, the tracks, and maybe even the owners, if they're not willing to back down from the idiotic stance they've taken over the past couple of weeks.

The ideal 2012 IndyCar Series won't quite be CART II, at least insofar as the owners will not be the ones calling the shots again. But if Bernard, Cotman, and the race promoters have their way, everything that made CART great - visual on-track variation, competition between both drivers and manufacturers, the best tracks in the country (within reason), a handful of foreign events in countries that produce plenty of drivers, and (let's hope) a greater base of American talent - is attainable in the next couple of years.

All everybody needs is to get on the same page.

Dallara to Build 2012 IndyCar Chassis

At an announcement at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the ICONIC committee announced that the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series will feature Dallara chassis.

Dallara beat Lola, Swift, BAT, and Delta Wing for the bid.

The new chassis will feature aerodynamic body modifications. Dallara will build the monocoque, but the other chassis parts, those visible to the car on the outside, can be developed by other manufacturers. These manufacturers may range from other chassis manufacturers like those who failed in their bids, to presumptive engine manufacturers, all the way to aersopace companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

In effect, this preserves some sort of equality by giving all teams the same basic car with which to start, but allowing other companies to design their own aerodynamic pieces in order to try and develop advantages. Their only limitations are safety testing, the ability for any team to use said parts, and cost limitations - up to $70,000. Teams may use two of these aerodynamic kits per season.

According to Brian Barnhart, the chassis will cost $349,000, but a complete "roller" will cost $385,000 with Dallara's standard aero kit. This is just over half the price of the current chassis. Further, Mitch Murray, governor of Indiana, also announced that the first 28 chassis ordered by Indiana-based teams (the majority of the series) will receive $150,000 discounts.

This Week in IndyCar: July 10, 2010

A collection of news clippings from around the IZOD IndyCar Series over the past few days:

- Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, whose flagship No. 24 car has seen a revolving door of drivers since Mike Conway's Indianapolis 500 crash, may finally see its driver lineup completed for the season.

Tomas Scheckter will bring his Mona Vie sponsorship to the car for the July 18 Honda Indy Toronto, where he will make his 13th career start for the team and 112th career start overall. Scheckter finished 16th at Toronto last year. His best career road course finish is sixth, at St. Petersburg in 2007.

While Edmonton is not yet settled, J.R. Hildebrand will take over the car at Mid-Ohio and Infineon. The 2009 Firestone Indy Lights champion has been basically out of work all season, save for a bit of testing with Marco Andretti's team at Andretti Autosport. In Lights last year, he finished third at Mid-Ohio and won at Infineon, his home track.

But Conway's rehabilitation is progressing faster than many had imagined. In fact, the goal is to have him back for Infineon, where he finished an impressive third last year. If this happens, he'll slide into a third car for the team, alongside Hildebrand and Justin Wilson.

- Four days from now, the ICONIC committee will vote on the future car strategy for the IZOD IndyCar Series, and unveil it to the world at the Indianapolis Museum of Art's Tobias Theatre.

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard has advised fans not to pay attention to any rumors regarding which manufacturer has a leg up, since the decision will not be known until that day. Three of the five manufacturer proposals - coming from BAT, Dallara, Delta Wing, Lola, and Swift - have been chosen to move forward to the end.

Whichever chassis (and there may be more than one) are on the track in 2012, they will be paired with a new engine formula that has already been settled. The new engines will feature up to 2.4 cubic liters of displacement and up to six cylinders, and will all be turbocharged.

The key word, of course, is "up to" - meaning that anything beneath those maximum stipulations is welcome. (In fact, some food for thought: Mazda, which has long been a supporter of feeder series to American open-wheel racing, currently runs a turbocharged I4 engine in the American Le Mans Series, with a 2.0 cubic liter displacement.)

Opinion: Putting the "Open" Back in "Open Wheel"

I don't think that I'm the only person to be excited about the ICONIC committee's decision to bring turbocharged 2.4 liter V6 engines to the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012. The new engine will be a lot smaller and lighter than the current Honda powerplant, will maintain up to 700 horsepower, and will return turbos to major American open-wheel racing for the first time since Champ Car's demise. It should also allow other engine manufacturers, potentially including one of the Volkswagen Group's brands and a Lotus-Cosworth collaboration, to join the party. All of this is excellent news.

Now the ICONIC committee turns to chassis selection, where five industry leaders are currently fighting for the single contract to produce IndyCar chassis. Three of the companies - Dallara, Lola, and Swift - have built chassis before. BAT Engineering is comprised of three men who dominated the sport in the 1980s. Delta Wing is the pet project of some of the series' biggest owners.

The problem here is that three or fourth worthy chassis designers are going to go home, while one secures a contract, keeping IndyCar in its spec-design age. But why?

When CART reached its latest peak in the mid-to-late 1990s, when entry lists were full, big names were all around, and the IRL hadn't yet lured the top teams back to Indianapolis, there were three chassis manufacturers (and Roger Penske's in-house design) battling for supremacy, as there were four engine manufacturers competing to build the best engines. The competition may have driven up costs a bit, but that's what added to the prestige of the series - you had to beat everybody else on the track, not in the bidding.

Opening up chassis production to at least two manufacturers would increase competition, and hearken back to better days in the sport, before the nasty political split had scorched much of the open-wheel earth. The series could set a cost cap on chassis development and production in order to protect its owners from the potential of escalating costs, and perhaps adjust that cap on a yearly basis, as stick-and-ball sports do with player salary caps. If nothing else, multiple chassis would make the races far more visually interesting, in a way that multiple engine companies cannot.

Allowing multiple chassis contracts will also help bring the sport's biggest and best track back to the prominence and prestige it once held. Indianapolis used to be a proving ground for new road technologies, and a breeding ground for open-wheel innovation. Think of some of the cars used in the past 40 years, and how much change has occurred, both in aerodynamics and underneath the engine cowling. The changes have been massive, and part of it came from the less restrictive rules at Indianapolis.

Remember that during the CART era of the 1980s and 90s, the Indianapolis 500 was a USAC-sanctioned race in which CART decided to award points to its teams. Because the race was not run under CART sanctioning, and thus under Indianapolis 500-specific rules, teams had the ability to experiment a little more freely with their cars. Some of the most dominating performances in all of motorsport have come due to this provision.

In 1994, Team Penske, with drivers Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy, and Emerson Fittipaldi, had one of the most dominating combinations in open-wheel history: the Penske PC-23 chassis and Ilmor-Mercedes Indy V8 engine. This combination allowed Penske to rip off a seven-race winning streak at one points in the 16-race season, and allowed the team to take 12 victories overall. Everybody knew that coming into Indy that year, the team to beat was going to be Team Penske, especially coming off of their win the previous year with Fittipaldi.

But Penske outdid themselves at Indy, bringing along a secretly-built 209 cid pushrod Mercedes engine, the 500I. Penske utilized rules provisions that allowed pushrod engines like John Menard's Buick V6 an extra 650 cubic centimeters and 4.9 psi of boost. For those of us who aren't engineers, it meant that the engine could produce 1000 horsepower, significantly more than Penske's competitors. The team went on to dominate the race.

Randy Bernard, CEO of IndyCar, has said that he wants to bring innovation back to the series. Bernard has also proven himself willing to make some huge decisions - awarding split oval and road course championships, attempting to implement bonuses next year of $10 million for series champions and $20 million for winning both Indy and NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, and so on.

What about opening up the field at Indianapolis to innovation once again?

In its heyday long ago, the Indianapolis 500 was so highly regarded that it counted in Formula 1 world championship points. That won't happen again, but the race can still go a long way towards attracting racing powerhouses from across the globe by opening up its engine formula and allowing multiple chassis manufacturers to build Indy racers.

In other words, by encouraging innovation and the competition of technologies, with the assumed goal of bringing what's learned on the racetrack back to the streets, Indianapolis can recapture the prestige it used to have, years and years ago. Because let's be honest: Indianapolis still matters, but it just isn't the same.

The key difference in racing nowadays, compared to years ago, is that what's running on the track nowadays has little or no correlation to the cars that we drive on the streets. Sure, IndyCar does a lot with ethanol, but how many of us currently have ethanol-based cars? And what does an eight-year-old Dallara chassis have to do with the aerodynamics of the vehicles that any of us drive?

The reason why sports car racing flourishes in its niche is because the developments made at Le Mans have street relevance. When Peugeot and Audi battle at Circuit de la Sarthe, they're not just racing for glory. They're in it because what they learn at the track will make their performance vehicles on the road that much better. The American Le Mans Series does a fantastic job, with its embrace of multiple fuels and the Michelin Green Challenge, which awards a championship to the most efficient team over the course of the year.

By loosening restrictions on competitors in the Indianapolis 500, the sport's most prestigious race, IndyCar can push its own "green" initiative even further, by encouraging participants to develop the fastest and most efficient cars they possibly can. Only cars that meet certain standards for efficiency can attempt to qualify; as usual, the fastest 33 race. Exclusive supplier contracts be damned - let them apply to every other race of the season but Indy, because years of spec 500s is beginning to grow old.

If Chip Ganassi and Bobby Rahal want to bring the BMW motors they run in sports car racing to Indy, by all means let them. See if Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing can run as well with Honda at Indianapolis as they do at Sebring and Laguna Seca. Manufacturers currently on the outside looking in would have a reason to care about Indy again, and so would fair-weather motorsports fans.

It'd be the biggest and best race in the world, if only we opened it up.

ICONIC Committee Announced

The ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) Committee, IZOD IndyCar Series chairman Randy Bernard's committee for the 2012 IndyCar formula, was formally filled out this afternoon. Led by William Looney III, a retired 4-star Air Force General, the group is comprised of seven members, six of whom were selected by Bernard and one of whom was selected by a paddock-wide vote.

The six members chosen today were Brian Barnhardt, Tony Cotman, Eddie Gossage, Rick Long, Tony Purnell, and Neil Ressler. The seventh, Gil de Ferran, was chosen weeks ago as the owners' representative to the group.

While three of the newly-announced names (Barnhardt, Cotman, and Gossage) should be somewhat familiar to the modern IndyCar fan, the other three may not be so easily recognized. In fact, only Long has any prior IndyCar experience; he began developing engines in 1973 with the Turbo Offy program and has also worked on engines for Buick, Chevrolet, Cosworth, and Judd. He now works for Speedway Engine Development Inc., which builds engines for Firestone Indy Lights and several USAC teams.

Purnell and Ressler are former employees of the Ford Motor Company, both of whom have experience with the former Jaguar Formula 1 team. Purnell was the founder of Pi Research, a globally recognized electronics company that was purchased by Ford in 1999, while Ressler served a multitude of different roles for the company.

The committee will help decide the future of the sport, including which new formula teams will utilize, as well as whether or not it should act on a recommendation to wait until 2013 to implement the new cars.

Among the chassis manufacturers looking to score the exclusive contract are established organizations Dallara, Lola, and Swift, as well as new endeavors BAT and DeltaWing. Engine companies in discussions include Honda, Fiat (perhaps through its Alfa Romeo brand), and Volkswagen AG (through either the Volkswagen, Audi, or Porsche brand). Firestone will continue to supply tires exclusively to the series.