The Future of CART

[KC]

The argument over engine formula has once again come to the forefront after the speeds at Michigan were finally realized. Tracy and others raised speeds back to the stratosphere by coming within 1 mph of breaking Gugelmin's 240 mph closed course record at Fontana. All of the constituents agree that nothing is served by lapping at near 240mph average speed. But not all agree with the methods to reduce those speeds. Ford, Mercedes, and to a smaller degree Toyota have expressed their ideas to adopt the 3.5 liter production derived block formula used in the IRL as a way to re-enter the Indy 500. Honda disagrees and would like to adopt a 1.8 liter turbocharged V8 formula. They argue that speeds can be effectively handled with boost restrictions on the speedways and high horsepower can still be achieved for the road courses. One of the biggest problems associated with attempting to reach an accord with Tony George is that he does not want one. He wants total control of the racing and the CART owners will never relinquish that. Within 8 hours of CART releasing a tentative schedule, Tony George altered the qualifying procedure from 2 weeks to 3 weeks to put CART drivers in a position to miss 1 week of practice and qualifying for Indy. Should CART do more to accomodate a single non-points event? Will Tony George find another way to put CART racers at further disadvantage? No matter the public image and gloss put on by the Speedway about Montoya, he dominated the event and TCGR demonstrated how a professional team can destroy the opposition with pit stops. Imagine if the current crop of CART racers fill the front 10 rows of the grid for Indy and the IRL regulars are stuck in the back. How would George address this to his loyal IRL racers?

I think that pursuing a 3.5 liter V8 engine formula will accomplish several things...
1. It will force Tony George to either allow or disallow Ford/Mercedes/Toyota/Honda engines to race at Indy. The IRL teams will desire to race engines other than their current choices, especially if one of the CART suppliers are faster.
2. It will force the manufacturers to relinquish all rights to their proprietary engine technology in favor of phantom cost cutting measures for the teams. The monies saved by purchasing engines at a set price are more than offset by the cost of tuning them to race spec and maintaining them.
3. Most likely Honda will leave the series over this ruling in favor of pursuing their F1 program. Honda desire a high profile racing series in America as it represents their largest car selling market. Can CART afford to alienate them?
4. There will be some fallout among CART purists who favor the turbo-engined formula. I for one would miss the high pitched scream of a turbo car exitting the corner at Houston in favor of an outboard motor drone of the current IRL engine package.

Another issue important to this is the view of Nissan and Olsmobile. These two will always publicly claim to welcome any new challenge but General Motors has a long history of fleeing competitive motorsports if they cannot dictate terms for their competitors. Nissan has competed on a global scale before and would most likely enjoy some added competition so they would not look so incompetent as the Olds-powered cars dominate the IRL. As of now, only two teams in the IRL use the Nissan/Infiniti powerplant because of extremely high failure rates. To some degree, Nissan can insulate themselves from this by claiming that independent tuners have inadequately tuned the engines into failure, but when it all comes down to public scrutiny as the magic smoke comes out, the valve covers say Nissan, not some tuner's name.

CART should keep on with their global expansion and continue with what they know is right for them. Tony George took the Indy 500 away from them, they did not leave it. Let him take it and play with his own cars.

[Liz]

I agree 100% with the last paragraph of your very well written position: we should do nothing at all to accommodate The Guy Who Ruined Indy. Nothing. Especially we should not adopt his soap box derby engines! The turbo is what makes CART different and it should be kept. If modifications must be made, if the pilotes think they are needed, for the speedways, then look into that. But do not adopt junk engines to pacify TGWRI.

As far as missing a week of "testing" at the Speedway, i would venture to guess that the first 20 cars of the CART field could whip the entire IRL with only ONE week of practice. I say they show up on the second week, with all their gear (as Chip did this year) and five cars apiece, and put on a show that proves to the "fans" of the Idiot Racing League what exactly they are missing. Ten cars from CART on the track for 2 weeks will give us more exposure than two cars for three weeks. Play by his rules and beat him at his own game, and then laugh all the way back to Rockingham. That's what I would do.

And this year for pete's sake use the publicity you gather for some time beyond the day of the actual race, CART!