Overview
Series name
Due to the legal settlement with CART, the Indy Racing League was unable to utilize the name IndyCar until the beginning of the 2003 season. For 1996-1997, the series was simply referred to as the USAC Indy Racing League, with no genre designation. For 1998-1999, the series garnered its first title sponsor, and was advertised as the Pep Boys Indy Racing League. The contract was not renewed after the second year. In 2000, the series sold its naming rights to Internet search engine Northern Light for five seasons, and the series was named the Indy Racing Northern Light Series. After only two seasons, however, the sponsorship agreement ended when Northern Light reevaluated its business plan and ended all sponsorships.
The league reverted back to the Indy Racing League name for the 2002 season, with no title sponsor. The IndyCar Series name was officially adopted beginning in 2003, as the series was now legally entitled to use it. In 2006, IndyCar forged an alliance with Simmons-Abramson Marketing (headed by Gene Simmons of the hard rock band Kiss), promising to be "actively engaged in the league's marketing, event, public relations, sponsorship, merchandising and branding efforts—from its IndyCar Series to the venerable Indianapolis 500". Simmons also co-authored the new IndyCar theme song, "I Am Indy".[3] For the 2008 season, DirecTV served as a presenting sponsor, and the series was briefly advertised as the IndyCar Series in DIRECTV HD.
IZOD was announced as the series title sponsor beginning on November 5, 2009. Exact financial terms were not disclosed but the deal is worth at least $10 million per year and runs for at least 5 years.
Television
Series logo from 2003-2009
Since the series inception, IndyCar Series events have been broadcast on several networks, including ABC, CBS, ESPN, Fox, FSN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and TNN. However, beginning with the 2009 season, Versus began televising the races which will air for the next 10 years, televising at least 13 races per season. ABC will continue to broadcast the Indianapolis 500 until 2012, as well as four additional races. Versus began airing one hour pre-race shows the day before a given race.
In the UK, the IndyCar Series races have all their broadcasts on the Sky Sports family of networks. The viewing figures of the IndyCar races in the UK outnumber that of the NASCAR races which are also broadcast on Sky Sports. The IndyCar Series also has had highlights of all the races on the channel Five British terrestrial channel and Five USA, but has since been discontinued for the 2010 season.
Car History and Current Specifications
The IndyCar Series is not an open formula. The league controls and specifies the chassis and engine manufacturers that teams are allowed to use each season. The league's choice of manufacturers are changed every three years. Currently, Dallara provides the chassis to all teams and Honda is the sole engine provider, making the series essentially a "spec" series at present. This will change in 2012 with the return of Chevrolet, and the entry of Lotus to the series.
Chassis
In the series' first season (1996), 1992 to 1995 model year CART chassis built by Lola and Reynard were used. The current Indycar came into being in 1997. Tony George specified new technical rules for less expensive cars and production-based engines. The move effectively outlawed the CART chassis and turbocharged engines that had been the mainstay of the Indianapolis 500 since the late 1960s.
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| A 1997-spec G-Force IRL car. This car was repainted for promotional purposes in 2008 |
Starting with the 2003 season, the series rules were changed to require chassis manufacturers to be approved by the league before they could build cars. Prior to that, any interested party could build a car, provided it met the rules and was made available to customers at the league mandated price. In total, four manufacturers have built IndyCar chassis:
Dallara began producing Indycars for the 1997 season. The Dallara and G Force chassis were relatively evenly matched over their first few seasons, but eventually the Dallara began to win more races. This caused more teams to switch to the Dallara, further increasing their success. Currently, all full time teams now use the Dallara chassis. Dallara was also tabbed to build the Firestone Indy Lights machines. Dallara has won eight of the twelve Indy 500 races they have entered. After the withdrawal of factory support from Panoz Auto Development, they are the only supplier of new chassis.
The G Force chassis was introduced in 1997, and won the 1997 and 2000 Indy 500 races. In 2002, Élan Motorsport Technologies bought G Force, and the chassis was re-named "Panoz G Force", and then shortened to "Panoz" in 2005. In 2003 a new model was introduced, and it won the Indy 500 in 2003-2004, and finished second in 2005. It fell out of favor starting in 2005, and by 2006 only one finished in the top ten at Indy. Little factory support was given to IndyCar teams after that point, as Panoz concentrated on their DP01 chassis for the rival Champ Car World Series. By 2008, only one Panoz saw track time, an aborted second weekend effort at Indy, that resulted in Phil Giebler being injured in a practice crash. Given the age of the cars, and three-year cycles, it is unlikely that any further efforts will be seen with these chassis.
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| A Panoz GF09 driven at Indianapolis by Jaques Lazier in 2007 |
Riley & Scott produced IndyCar chassis from 1997-2000. Their initial effort, the Mark V, was introduced late in the 1997 season, severely limiting its potential market. It also proved to be uncompetitive. After Riley & Scott was purchased by Reynard, an all-new model, the Mark VII, was introduced for the 2000 season. It won in Phoenix, the second race of the season (driven by Buddy Lazier), but was off the pace at Indy and was quickly dropped by its teams.
Falcon Cars was founded by Michael Kranefuss and Ken Anderson in 2002 as the third approved chassis supplier for the 2003 season. One rolling chassis was completed and shown, but it was never fitted with a working engine and never ran. No orders were ever filled. Superficially, IndyCar machines closely resemble those of other open-wheeled formula racing cars, with front and rear wings and prominent airboxes. Originally, the cars were unique, being designed specifically for oval racing; for example, the oil and cooling systems were asymmetrical to account for the pull of liquids to the right side of the cars. The current generation chassis however, are designed to accommodate the added requirements of road racing.
Due to the quirks of the unification efforts of 2008, the ChampCar World Series spec Panoz DP01, with a Cosworth engine, was run in an IndyCar Series points event in the 2008 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Indy Racing League officials have confirmed that the series will continue to use the current fleet of Dallara chassis through 2011.
Fuel
Methanol
At its inception, the IRL used methanol racing fuel, which had been the de facto standard in American open wheel racing since the 1964 Indianapolis 500 Eddie Sachs - Dave MacDonald crash. Methanol had long provided a safer alternative to gasoline. It had a higher flash point, was easily extinguishable with water, but burned invisible. With the IRL's introduction of night races in 1997, the burning of methanol fuel was visible for the first time, seen with a light blue haze. With this in mind, in an effort to make it more visible in case of fire during daylight hours, additional mixtures were placed in the fuel. As a safety feature, the methanol would burn with a color.
Ethanol
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| IndyCar Refueling before the race. |
In 2005, driver Paul Dana brought the sponsorship of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council (EPIC) to his IndyCar team. EPIC is a consortium of ethanol producers that advocate the increased use of ethanol. EPIC was anxious to address public concerns that ethanol use led to engine damage and poor performance when used in street cars. As a marketing effort, it was believed that sponsoring an IndyCar could be used as a tool to promote education and awareness of ethanol use, and to curb the spread of erroneous information.
Dana was killed in a crash in 2006, but the IRL had already begun a transition to ethanol fuel. For the 2006 season, the fuel was a 90%/10% mixture of methanol and ethanol. Starting in 2007, the league advertised "100% Fuel Grade Ethanol", the first competitive series to utilize renewable fuel. The mixture is actually 98% ethanol and 2% gasoline for races held in the United States. It was provided by Lifeline Foods of Saint Joseph, Missouri. The additives satisfied the U.S. government's requirements that the alcohol be unfit for human consumption, and added visible color in case of a fire. The 2010 São Paulo Indy 300, held in Brazil - outside of the U.S. regulations - utilized a full E100 mixture, the first instance in the sport.
To compensate for the loss of power due to the use of ethanol, the displacement was increased back to 3.5L. Since ethanol gets better fuel mileage than methanol, the fuel tanks in the car were decreased. Compared to methanol, human contact with the current ICS fuel is much less harsh, and the fumes much less irritating. The fumes are often compared with the sweet smell of apple cider or apple cobbler. Unlike methanol, ethanol is not caustic and does not cause chemical burns when it comes in contact with skin. It is also less polluting when spilled compared to methanol.
On May 2010, Sunoco will become the official fuel of the series starting in 2011, running through 2014. Sunoco will work with APEX-Brasil and UNICA to provide ethanol for the series.
Engines
The initial 1996 IRL season, as well as the first two races of the 1996-97 season, featured engines with specifications left over from the rival CART series competition. Those chassis/engine combinations were essentially under the same rules utilized by teams which participated in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, which was sanctioned by USAC. V-8 powerplants were allowed the typical 45 inHg (inches of mercury) of pressure boost. The Menard-Buick V6 engine used in 1996, however, was an updated powerplant from the 1995 version. In addition, the V-6 stock block engines (Buick-Menard) were allowed 55 inHg of boost at all races, instead of just at Indianapolis. During the CART era, V-6 stock blocks were only allowed 45 inHg at all races outside of Indy, which was a decided disadvantage and left the engine out of favor.
Ford-Cosworth reluctantly provided support to teams wishing to run their older-spec engines in the IRL, a major point of contention for CART management, to whom Ford-Cosworth was an official engine supplier. The Ilmor Mercedes V-8 engine, also a mainstay CART powerplant, was permitted, but the only time it was used was a one-off at the 1996 Indy 500 by Galles Racing.
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| Honda Indy V8 engine on the car |
Starting in 1997, IRL cars were powered by 4.0 L V8, methanol burning, production-based, normally-aspirated engines, produced by Oldsmobile (under the Aurora label) and Nissan (badged as Infiniti). Per IRL rules, the engines sold for no more than $80,000, and were rev-limited to 10,500 rpm. They produced around 700 hp (520 kW).
The engine formula was changed with the 2000-2004 formula. The displacement was dropped from 4.0L to 3.5L, and the requirement for the block to be production-based was dropped. This formula was used through 2003. In 2004, in the wake of several crashes including the fatal crash of Tony Renna and the severe crash of Kenny Bräck, the displacement was further reduced to 3.0L to curb top speeds.
Infiniti's engines, though reliable, were significantly down on power compared to the Auroras in 1997, leading many of the teams that had initially opted for the Infiniti to switch. By the end of the 1998 season, only a handful of low-budget teams were using the Infiniti. However, early in the 1999 season, Cheever Racing, a well-funded team, was brought on to develop the engine with team owner Eddie Cheever expanding the team to two cars and bringing on his brother Ross Cheever as a test driver. By 2000, the engine had improved markedly and Cheever captured the marque's first win at Pikes Peak International Raceway. However, despite the improved success, few teams made the switch to the Infiniti and the company left the series after the 2002 season to focus on powering the league's new Infiniti Pro Series (now Firestone Indy Lights).
As part of General Motors' discontinuance of the Oldsmobile name, the Olds engine was rebadged as the Chevrolet starting with the 2002 season. However, the effort could not compete with the Toyota and Honda programs starting in 2003. In August 2003, Chevrolet announced to the public its "Gen IV" motor, a rebadged Cosworth motor for competition. At the time, Cosworth was owned by Ford. On November 4, 2004, Chevrolet stated that it would be ending its IRL engine program effective with the end of the 2005 season, citing costs that exceeded value, according to then GM Racing Director Doug Duchardt, "The investment did not meet our objectives."
In 2003, Toyota came to the IRL from the rival CART series. Toyota won their first race in Miami, as well as the Indianapolis 500 and the series title. However, Toyota had just one podium in the last seven races of 2004, and only Penske Racing fielded competitive Toyota-powered cars in 2005. In November 2005, Toyota company officials announced the company's withdrawal from American open-wheel racing and the immediate discontinuation of its IRL program, coinciding with its entrance into NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, and its discontinuation of its IMSA program. It is doubtful that Infiniti, Chevrolet, or Toyota will ever race in the series again.
Honda also came to the IRL in 2003, and by 2005 was clearly the dominant engine manufacturer. Starting in 2006, they became the only engine manufacturer in the IndyCar Series, and will continue in that capacity through 2011. The Honda engine is designed and produced by Ilmor, which is part owned by Roger Penske.
Since the IndyCar Series has only one engine manufacturer, that manufacturer concentrates on minimizing engine failure and minimizing costs instead of defeating rivals. As such, the engines are moderately de-tuned. The engines have proven themselves to be quite durable—there have been no engine failures at Indy from 2006-2010, which also lowers the number of crashes. Most of the engines, including those used for the Indy 500, are used for multiple races and are intended to last 1,200 miles (1,931 kilometers) between rebuilds. The Honda engines are only available via lease arrangement from Honda, which, for the 2010 full season, costs $935,000 U.S. per season, per car. Honda techs travel with the series, as well as attending all IRL team testing sessions.
IndyCar Series engines are rev-limited to 10,300 rpm and produce approximately 650 hp. The valve train is a dual overhead camshaft configuration with four valves per cylinder. The crankshaft is made of alloy steel, with five main bearing caps. The pistons are forged aluminum alloy, while the connecting rods are machined alloy steel. The electronic engine management system is supplied by Motorola, firing a CDI ignition system. The engine lubrication is a dry sump type, cooled by a single water pump.
Specifications
Chassis
Type: Open-wheel, single-seat, open-cockpit and ground-effect underbody; outboard wings front and rear.
Construction: Monocoque contains cockpit, fuel cell and front suspension; engine is stressed (integral) member of chassis; rear assembly contains bellhousing, gearbox and rear suspension members.
Materials: Carbon fiber, kevlar and other composites.
Weight: 691.7 kg (1,525 lb) minimum for ovals and 725.7 kg (1,600 lb) minimum for road courses, including lubricants and coolants. Does not include fuel or driver.
Length: 192 inches minimum.(487.68cm)
Width: 78.5 inches maximum(199.39cm), 77.5 inches minimum(196.85cm) (measured outside rim to rim).
Height: Approximately 38 inches.(96.52cm)
Wheelbase: 121.5 inches(308.61cm) to 122 inches(309.88cm).
Wheel Size: Front: 15 inches(38.1cm) diameter, 10 inches(25.4cm) wide Rear: 15 inches (38.1cm)diameter, 14 inches(35.56cm) wide.
Tires: Firestone Firehawk Front diameter: 26 inches maximum, 25 inches minimum @ 35 psi Rear diameter: 27.5 inches maximum, 26.5 inches minimum @ 35 psi.
Gearbox: XTRAC (gears forward of rear axle) Six forward gears (Manual), Mega-Line Assisted Gear Shift (paddle-shift).
Fuel Cell: Single, rupture-proof cell, 22 U.S. gallons (standard).
Manufacturer: Dallara Automobili.
Engine
A 2008-spec Honda Indy V8
Type: 3.5-liter (213.6 cubic inches) V-8, 32-valve dual-overhead cam (DOHC), Normally aspirated (no turbocharger) Max. bore diameter 93 millimeters Four camshafts, four valves per cylinder.
Weight: Minimum dry weight is 280 pounds - no headers, clutch, ECU, spark box or filters.
RPM: 10,300 (rpm) maximum (league-supplied rev limiter).
Power output: 650 hp (485 kW).
Fuel: 100% fuel grade Ethanol.
Injector: Electronic.
Models: Honda Racing Indy V-8.
Manufacturer: American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
Source: IZOD IndyCar Series
The future of IndyCar
On July 14, 2010, the series announced that Dallara had been chosen over four other bids to replace the current Dallara chassis in 2012. Dallara will provide a rolling chassis that will serve as the base of the car. Teams will choose an aero kit (sidepods, engine covers, front/rear wings) built by any manufacturer (including the teams themselves) to complete the chassis. Aero kits must be approved by the IndyCar Series, undergo safety testing, be available to all teams, and will have a maximum price of $70,000. Cars will be badged based on their aero kit manufacturers and not the chassis manufacturer. The Dallara name will not be a part of the car's name (e.g. if Team Penske produces their own aero kit, they will drive a "Penske IndyCar", not a "Penske Dallara"). A team will not be able to run more than 2 aero kits in a season.
As part of the deal, Dallara will create a manufacturing facility in the town of Speedway, Indiana to build the new cars (part of the deal includes tax breaks from the state and local governments). Dallara's rolling chassis will be sold to teams for $345,000 each (45% less than what is charged for the current chassis). The Governor of Indiana also indicated that the first 28 chassis purchased by Indiana-based teams will be sold for $195,000 each. The new chassis will be 1380 lbs; 185-lbs. (84 kg) lighter than the current model. The new chassis will include an anti-interlocking design which is intended to prevent tire-on-tire contact with the potential to launch a car into the air.
Images of the new design can be seen in the IndyCar.com Press Release:
New Chassis Design for 2012
New Vehicle samples
Anti-interlocking design
The new open engine formula will use 2.2 liter twin-turbocharged V6 Engines to run provided it can be tuned to produce the full range of 550-750 HP. The formula would allow hybrid systems, KERS system similar to Formula 1, and other engine enhancements. The "push to pass" feature in 2012 will allow a limited horsepower gain up to 100 HP as opposed to the current "overtake assist" which only provides 20 HP. Firestone announced that they would step down as tire provider and the end of the 2011 season, but it was announced by IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard on March 11, 2011 that Firestone has accepted to stay on with the IndyCar Series as sole tire supplier through 2013 season, after team owners in the series voted to keep Firestone on as the sole tire supplier earlier in the week due to safety concerns allowing a new tire supplier.
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