IndyCar "owner revolt" rumors an unwelcome reminder of a best-forgotten era

Mike Hull, head of Ganassi Racing, was on the June 1st edition of Trackside on 1070 the Fan and when talking about the 500 in retrospect, was saying the bad end to the race was due to having such an overdeveloped car. His interview begins at 9:45 into the audio file. Here are the key bits. At 14:20 he talks about how it used to be different cars and different engines and how the racing with the current cars have taken the driver out of it, and then after some leading says that if there were different cars and engines, it would be far better for the race so that no one can figure out what everyone else is doing strategically. At 28:55 he is asked his opinion on the new car:

http://www.1070thefan.com/trackside/podcast.aspx?pn=2

Verbatim quote: “I firmly believe what the DeltaWing project represents is a functional direction for the future, it’s where we need to go. Everyone has opinions about which chassis that we should be racing, I don’t think that’s the most important consideration. Personally I think the IRL has it backwards. They should concentrate on an engine formula that makes sense for the future that will bring engine companies back into our series. By doing that and setting that as the foundation, and not accepting the fact that a purpose-built V6 twin-turbocharged engine by one particular manufacturer is the end all for end alls. That’s not going to make it for us. They just need to come up with a general formula that makes sense. Then what will happen all the chassis manufacturers will build cars around the engine companies’ engines. And guess what? Because of the speeds that we need travel on road tracks, street tracks, short ovals, intermediate ovals, long ovals, the cars will end up looking very similar. But you’ll end up with different chassis technology and different engine technology. And the second thing that needs to happen with that is very clearly the IRL needs to have a stronger technical base than they currently have. They need to create a technical base in-house that understands the equivalency of chassis and engines. They’re short here. They need to have that going forward. They need to establish a strong technical group that understands what we actually do as race teams, and understands that technology coming in 2015 onwards, from the engine companies, get it on the race track, and then the the third thing is the engine companies are going to define our drivers to the public. They’re going to promote our guys. Is Swift going to promote a driver? Is Dallara going to promote a driver? Is DeltaWing going to promote a driver? Is the Bruce Ashmore group going to promote a driver? No, they’re going to promote themselves, they want to sell cars. They’re in the business to sell cars. Historically, the engine companies, if you provide them with an avenue for fresh technology, they will jump into the series. And they’ll promote Dario, they’ll promote Dixon, they’ll promote Briscoe, they’ll promote Mike Conway, they’ll promote Justin Wilson. Because suddenly, that’s their guy. These guys truly have it backwards. And that’s what DeltaWing has really been saying all along.”

From Marshall Pruett’s article prior to the DeltaWing reveal:

http://planet-irl.com/2010/02/18/panther-racings-john-barnes-discusses-the-delta-wing-proposal/

“The IndyCar of Tomorrow — the 2012 machine — is a construct of the entrants in the IndyCar paddock. After a continual lack of progress by the League, Chip Ganassi, Ganassi’s Ben Bowlby, Bowlby’s newly formed Delta Wing, LLC, and the majority of the paddock have gotten together to propose a radical new chassis, a clean slate for engine regulations, and everything else they hope will revitalize open-wheel racing.

From Robin Miller’s article prior to the DeltaWing reveal:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/miller-dont-fear-2012/

“But, the bottom line is that IndyCar is long overdue for a makeover because running the same car for seven seasons has made things boring, predictable and did I mention boring?

That ugly old Dallara has sucked the life out of a Gasoline Alley that once enjoyed cutting edge technology and embraced free thinking.

What Brian Barnhart & Company can’t seem to grasp is that the different cars and engines were always as big a part of the attraction to Indianapolis as the drivers.

We idolized Jim Hurtubise, Jim Clark and Parnelli Jones and we paid even more attention when they were in the Novi, the Lotus and the turbine. Roger Penske tried three chassis in 1995 and still couldn’t make the show a year after dominating Indy and there’s never been a bigger crowd on Bump Day.

Open wheel racing, even in the late ‘90s in CART, boasted five chassis and four engine manufacturers, which created interest, competition and a cash flow that hasn’t been seen since.

Nobody is saying that a new car/engine package is immediately going to add 25,000 spectators to the ISC ovals or manufacturers are going to start throwing money at IndyCar teams.

But what if an American-built car only cost half of what owners have to shell out today? What if the car was assembled in Indianapolis from components built over here instead of paying the outrageous exchange rate to get parts from Italy? What if the rules were written so that local race car builders like Joe Devin and Danny Drinan could come compete at Indy with their own ideas and not have it cost them $1 million for one month?

What if the trailing car suffered no aerodynamic disadvantage going into a corner?

What if Lola, Swift and Panoz are enticed to come back?

What if the engine cost a tenth of what a lease is today? What if it got such great mileage that rebuilds were 5,000 miles apart? What if the smaller, more efficient engine platform suddenly got Detroit’s interest? What if Porsche or Audi or Alfa wants to show off their 4-cylinder engines?

What if normally-aspirated or V-6 engines also wanted to play?

What if suddenly there were 50 cars going for 33 spots in May instead of scrambling at the last minute to fill the field?

We won’t know the answers to these questions for at least a year but the point is that at least the owners are taking the initiative to try and come up with something fresh, different and relevant to the times.

As well as something more affordable."

John Barnes from Planet-IRL interview:

http://planet-irl.com/2010/02/18/panther-racings-john-barnes-discusses-the-delta-wing-proposal/

“However, it was not 2010 but rather 2012 that was the topic of conversation when Panther Racing co-owner John Barnes spoke with Planet-IRL recently. Barnes has been onboard with the Delta Wing group since the middle of last season and has been an outspoken proponent of the concept since its public introduction on February 11 at the Chicago Auto Show. He says that the first news of the Delta Wing project started making rounds last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the Month of May and continued to gain momentum throughout the summer. Finally, at Motegi, all of the team owners were introduced to the concept, and most of them were immediately on board with the theories presented. Barnes and many of his fellow team owners in the IZOD IndyCar Series Paddock see the project as not only a way to shake up the current status quo amongst the teams currently competing but as essential to the success and future relevance of the IndyCar Series. Such a radical change is seen by many in the paddock as a way to reach the younger viewers rather than presenting them the same cars that have essentially been raced since the early 1970’s. Says Barnes, "Our success and whether we’re going to stay in business, in all motorsports, is determined by that 10-year old kid. It’s not going to be determined the 40-year old looking at the computer." That isn’t to say that the League should turn its back on the current fan base but the owners hope that reintroducing a period of innovation to the racing community will strike a chord with established and new fans alike.

In speaking of the car itself, as it was presented in Chicago, Barnes says he understands that people are skeptical and is not surprised by the general negativity that the concept car has received from racing fans. The same thing, he says, was said about the Cooper Climax that Colin Chapman and Sir Jack Brabham brought to Indianapolis in May 1961. Soon though, what was mocked and ridiculed was accepted as the norm. Barnes understands that human nature is to be skeptical of such a big change, especially when it is implemented in one setting, but his faith in Ben Bowlby’s genius puts his mind at ease. Additionally, the car has been in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations for 24 hours a day over the past several months. The fact that the Delta Wing group actually presented a physical model of their ideas, rather than just drawings and computer images, puts them further down the development path than the proposals submitted to the Indy Racing League by Dallara, Swift and Lola. In response to many fans concerns about the lack of open-wheels, Barnes says that now is the time for that evolution to be accepted. As he said, "IndyCar didn’t used to have wings either." As the "person who has to pay for all our crashed [stuff]," Barnes is particularly excited about the decreased number of accidents that will result from reduced wheel interlock between cars. Panther Racing currently has five Dallara IndyCar chassis in their inventory, at a cost of approximately $800,000 each, plus roughly $1 million per entrant for a Honda engine lease. For a new team to run a single entrant with a primary and a backup car, teams would expect to spend roughly $2.6 million for just the car and engine lease. That, of course, does not include any crash damage, tires, spare parts, etc. A price tag of $3 million is more likely under the current system, with all prices subject to the rate set forth by Dallara. Barnes says that the proposed Delta Wing car would cost roughly $600,000 for the car and engine, and the teams would own the engine. More importantly, says Barnes, the prices of the car and all components of the car would be set by the engineering committee."

From Indianapolis Business Journal article on DeltaWing:

http://www.ibj.com/the-score/2009/12/11/indy-racing-league-considers-radical-wingless-chassis-formula/PARAMS/post/15104

"All the car owners agree we need innovation back at Indianapolis," Bowlby told SpeedTV. "We also need to be relevant to the spectators and to the manufacturers while reducing waste, making things more affordable and widening participation.

"We just want to give the IRL an innovative, creative option but we believe this can attract a renewed interest from car and engine manufacturers."

I hope I’ve demonstrated the owners double-faceness with all these quotes clearly based on what they once supported and said and what they’re saying now that they can’t support it.