Evil_Capri

from speedtv.com . .

Honda, Looking for Real Competition, will Take the Fight to ALMS
Written by: Robin Miller
Indianapolis, IN – 6/30/2005 Honda will head to ALMS, and perhaps Champ, in pursuit of serious competition. (Photo: Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)

Brian Barnhart, the chief operating officer of the Indy Racing League, stated Wednesday that he wasn't sure if his series was any better off with Toyota and Honda since it hasn't improved attendance and television ratings. Hmmm, that sure sounds like a rather unappreciative man without an engine program for the future.

Because that's not how Barnhart and his IRL brethren sounded a four years ago when those two major manufacturers dumped CART for Tony George's series. The "League" was downright giddy and used phrases like "a great day for the IRL" and "the IRL has turned the corner."

Of course that lovefest is over.

The competition between those two hated Japanese rivals pretty much ran off General Motors and all but one of the IRL's original teams by 2004. Big money and free engines brought in five high-profile CART teams and the once level playing field where Jim Guthrie beat Tony Stewart's team now sports a Grand Canyon gap in competition.

With Toyota set to leave open wheel racing following 2006, the IRL is staring down the barrel of racing reality. Honda, which supports Andretti/Green, Rahal/Letterman and Super Aguri/Fernandez in various degrees, wants real competition (preferably from another manufacturer) or it's probably down the road.

And, despite Barnhart's insulting analogy, the IRL cannot afford to lose Honda since it's responsible for nearly half of the current lineup. Barnhart is right in that the IRL might be better off to revert to its old motor mantra of the late '90s where many teams bought parts and assembled their own engines. Except it's too late.

The IRL abandoned those by-laws to accept engine leases, more technology and the millions of dollars spent by Toyota and Honda. They brought in their own CART teams so it was goodbye to Fred Treadway and Brad Calkins to welcome Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi. Everybody was dazzled by the bright lights and, like CART found out, it's great while it lasts but what happens when Toyota and Honda leave?

That's the immediate challenge for the IRL since car count is so contingent on those two manufacturers because current sponsorships certainly can't carry the flag. Barnhart claims there are plenty of companies that can supply race engines and that's true. But he's going to be hard-pressed to find any that will subsidize teams and drivers like Toyota and Honda. Matter of fact, he won't.

Champ Car weathered the Japanese typhoon by having everyone run the same Cosworth engine and now that's actually a valid selling point for competition and prospective owners.

But Honda isn't waiting around to see if Barnhart finds it any competition.

SPEEDTV.com has learned that Honda Performance Development will enter the American LeMans Series next year in order to compete head-to-head with Porsche and Penske in the LMP2 category.

It's believed Bobby Rahal will be the lead team and it's also likely than Andretti/Green could be involved as well as another prominent car owner.

"That's news to me because no one from Honda has said anything to me about it," said Rahal on Wednesday night. "Now I've made no secret of my desire to be involved in sports car racing and I've talked to Audi, Aston Martin and Ferrari in the past few years but haven't been able to put anything together.

"All I know is that I've got a contract with Honda in the IRL."

This scenario becomes extra interesting because Champ Car and ALMS are working on a deal to run half a dozen doubleheaders together in 2006 -- beginning with Long Beach. So, indirectly, Honda would be again associated with Champ Car.

And, despite earlier denials from HPD president Robert Clarke, don't think for a minute the six-time manufacturer’s champion in CART still isn't looking at returning to Champ Car if the IRL can't provide suitable competition.

Clarke has been talking with both sides for several weeks about having a unified series by 2007 (it ain't gonna happen) and would like the Cosworth IRL engine (owned by Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe and currently badged by Chevrolet) to continue competing against Honda.

Hyundai, the seventh largest car manufacturer in the world, is exploring the possibility of badging the Cosworth in the IRL. But it's rumored that Honda has no desire to run against the Korean manufacturer it considers inferior, so that might not work.

HPD thrives on using its engineering prowess and resources to compete against major brands so taking on Porsche in the ALMS certainly meets that criteria.

But right now it's hard to say where Honda will be past 2006. Other than sports cars, of course.

1999 Black 35th GT

Very interesting. I'm glad in a way though because toyota is leaving, so thats a big plus for Honda and Chevrolet.

A lot of these open wheel leagues have been having trouble as of late haven't they? I'm not too up to speed on everything there so any enlightenment would be appreciated

I just checked with my father in law about who ABC Supply company will be sponsoring next. Hopefully its Honda so I can actuall cheer for the team. I can't do it now cause they sponsor the "bad" company He says this is all news to him and will let me know as soon as he finds out.

DanS.02GT

Is it really? Chevy's gone at the end of this year, and Toyota's leaving after next year. Honda has no interest in being the sole engine supplier for the entire league. Their reason for moving from CART 9now known as Champ Car) to the IRL was so they could continue to compete against Toyota, their main rival. When Toyota leaves, I'd expect Honda to do the same, leaving the IRL in the same situation CART found themselves in a few years ago... No engines, and no money being pumped into the series by Honda and Toyota. Ironically, they could find themselves buying spec engines from Cosworth, which incidentally is owned by Kevin Kalkoven, one of the three owners of Champ Car. Tht is, unless KK remembers back a couple year to the time Tony George tried to buy CART's engine supply out from under them and kill the series.

Xader Vartec

I've been reading in the GrandAmeri can racing forums about 2 factors:

1) Grand Am Cupl is getting better ratings than Rolex
2) Speed channel has turned into the NASCAR channel

NO racing is gonna do well until the NASCAR channel is turned back into the SPEED channel. Don't get me wrong. I like NASCAR. Lately though I have been more interested in the Grand American Cup because the Mustangs have been doing so well. This has gotten me interested in other American road racing series. However, SPEED rarely shows the races and has ZERO programs dedicated to re-capping what is going on in racing leagues.

Although my interest is specifically close wheel road circuits (specifically Gran Am) the point that SPEED is way to NASCAR heavy applies to open wheel too. How is ANY other series supposed to generate interest when the major networks aren't gonna show racing, ESPN has it's plate too full with other major sports and SPEED channel is the NASCAR channel?

I really hope the new "NASCAR Nation" program falls on it's face (sorry NASCAR fans) so that SPEED might actually consider a once a week one hour program dedicated to re-capping American closed wheel road circuit racing. I think they could fit one for open wheel racing too (maybe there already is one for open wheel I'm not aware of).

Any way...I've been wanting to vent about this for a while but I can't get an account on that Gran American forum so I'm glad someone brought it up here.

EDIT: Yeah...the timing of this post wasn't the greatest considering that SPEED was showing a Rolex Race while I was posting this.

1999 Black 35th GT

Ahhh... Interesting point. I did not know that Honda left Champ to compete in IRL, thank you for the input .

From what ESPN was stating the owners of the teams were at their wits end with toyota and did not have the nicest things to say. I was also intrigued to find they only had one podium finish in the last seven races of 2004 while having 15 out of 34 cars. Not too good.

So what is to become of IRL? I noticed that all of the engines in Champ car are built by Ford-Cosworth. Will Ford-Cosworth build engines for IRL again? That would be neat. Or will Honda return to Champ car? Being a Ford fan (obviously) I would love to see them return to IRL.

Thanks for the insight!
-Andy

DanS.02GT

There are a lot of different ideas going around about what engine and chassis packages will be adopted by both Champ Car and the IRL. The current formula in both series expires in '07, leaving a window of opportunity for the two series to move a little closer to reunification by running the same package, which would allow IRL teams to run Champ Car races, and Vice-versa. Obviously this makes sense and would benefit both sides, so it probably won't happen.

Another possibility would be for IRL to go with the Rolex DP stock block engine formula. This would likely bring in Ford, BMW, Porshe, and keep GM and Toyota in the series, but would alienate Honda, who don't have a production V-8, and aren't interested in a low-tech formula. Also, it would result in a major drop in horsepower, and imho, wouldn't sound like Indycars should sound.

1999 Black 35th GT

Seems like there are a lot of options to go with. I hope it turns out well. Thanks for the info

StevenJ

That would be the best solution. Then IRL would have relevance to production models. I'd love to see a Ford mod motor V8 in one of thoose open wheeled race cars. Last time a Ford stock block powered an open wheel race cars was back in the seventies with the old 302 motor. Honda can quit being a winner and use one of their V6 engines. Hondas are for woman and kittens anyway. j/k

(I currently drive an Accord but it is going to my mom soon. Can't wait till' I get my Marauder!)

DanS.02GT

My main problem with going to the DP engine formula, is that they're not powerful enough. The current Champ Car engine puts out 800 hp, while the current IRL motors are in the neigborhood of 650-700hp. A DP motor is around 450-500 hp, about the same as an IPS car. That's weaksauce for a supposedly top-level open wheel series.

While I don't think we need to go back to the days of 240mph lap speeds like we had during the CART engine wars, I don't think that sub-200mph pole speeds at the Indy 500 are acceptable, either. Open wheel cars are significantly fast than stock cars, and need to stay that way.