Dissension On New IndyCar Specs?

By Anne Proffit

Anne Proffit

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1,731 views Aug 30, 2010

2012 Delta Wing IndyCar race car concept

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The IZOD IndyCar Series announced its 2012 engine plans shortly after the Indianapolis 500 this May; in mid-July it revealed its chassis specifications. Since those announcement, the series has had plenty of discussion about its decisions--and even a little bit of dissension amongst the team owners. That dissension came to a head around the time of the Grand Prix of Sonoma at Infineon Raceway little more than a week ago.

“If I made one mistake in this entire process,” noted CEO Randy Bernard (who has been on the job for less than six months), “when we announced the car we should have had a project manager right away. I should have announced Tony Cotman right there, but I still wanted to do input on several other people. In hindsight, thinking back, I would definitely say that was the one mistake.”

At Chicagoland Speedway, site of the next oval contest, Bernard met with the team owners, together with project manager Cotman, and they began to hash out the difficulties, in this particular economy, of mothballing the current, somewhat ancient Dallara chassis and the Honda Indy V-8 engine that’s been the sole motive power since 2006, when both Toyota and Chevrolet deserted the Indy cars.

While both Bernard and the team owners prefer to keep their discussions close to the vest, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing co-owner Dennis Reinbold took the time to convene with the media at Chicagoland and join Bernard as he held his customary race weekend chat.

At that time Reinbold confirmed, “Our main concern is to dispel any rumors or talk out there that we are not working in lock-step to get together, because that is not factual. We are working very closely together. We met with Randy and Tony today to discuss a variety of issues, and the manner in which we can go forward.

“I am here representing the team owners that were there together.” These included all current IndyCar Series representatives with the exception of a rep from AJ Foyt Racing and from Sarah Fisher Racing, both of which competed in the Chicagoland evening race.

“2012 is going to be a very important year for us. When we have a new car and the methodology of how that’s done, that is going to take a lot of work. Randy made a good move hiring Tony Cotman to oversee that,” Reinbold said. “Tony’s got a lot of very good expertise in chassis building. We want to make this the right thing and there is a lot of concern from the owners that we’ve got a shot here to really build our series and keep the momentum going. We’ve got a lot of positive momentum for our series. There are 29 cars here and that’s exciting. We’ve got a lot of growth happening in other aspects of our racing.”

Not everyone was pleased with the choice of Dallara’s “safety cell” as the sole IndyCar tub in the coming years. After all, the Italian concern has been the sole provider the past few years and their product, until 2012 emanating from Italy, has cost the team owners money as the exchange rates scrambled. Dallara’s decision to build its car in the town of Speedway likely contributed to the decision to accept their proposal; that, as well as the relationship between IndyCar and Dallara.

“Our concerns are cost and cost-effectiveness--and replacement parts and things like that. These are just typically concerns we have over chassis,” Reinbold related. “And we don’t have a lot of those answers yet. Randy and Tony have agreed to work with us and we’ll work with Dallara to work through some of these things to make it the best that we can.

“In all aspects, it has to work for everyone,” he declared.

The owners need to be actively involved as Cotman refines the rules for the new specification. “Tony met with Dallara last week and he’s getting more into the process and gathering information. We’re going to be involved in the process, but where that process goes, we still don’t have those answers. It’ll be in the design of the car that’s happening. That’ll be part of the process with some input from us.”

While Dallara is responsible for the safety cell of the new vehicle, bodywork is an open option for other manufacturers and, to that effect Bernard took off for Europe to pay his respects to several entities over the next two weeks. “I’m visiting 12 different auto manufacturers because I want diversity and variety in our series.”

Bernard flew into England on Monday morning and then transferred to Italy. “Monday afternoon I have a meeting with Dallara and later with Maserati. Tuesday morning we meet with Ferrari,” he related. “Then I fly to England and meet with Renault, Nissan, Lotus, Cosworth and McLaren. We have three or four other meetings and maybe a little press junket as well. Then we go to Germany and meet with Mercedes-Benz and Audi. I’ve [already] met with Dr Ullrich (of Audi) in New York a couple of weeks ago and we had a very good conversation, so this is a follow-up.”

Salesman that he is, Bernard “remains very optimistic that we’ll have an engine manufacturer involved. I can’t say more than that right now because it’s still in talks, but I give it a 70-30 shot.” Current engine partner Honda has already announced its participation using the 2012 formula of a maximum 2.4-liter turbocharged V-6 specification. © 2010 Anne Proffit