Indy Car: You Could Learn a Thing or Two from Grand Am
by: Scott on Fri, Sep 25, 2009
I think Indy Car could learn something from the success of the Daytona Prototype class. Photo Credit: Wartermarked Photography
On the About Us page of the Grand Am website they refer to the Daytona Prototypes (DPs) as an “extremely raceable and relatively affordable format”. DPs cost between $400,000 and $500,000 and are available from five separate constructors and have approved power plants from seven different manufacturers (both import and domestic). Each of these seven engines can fit into any of the 5 approved chassis, so that gives you the possibility of 35 different chassis / engine combinations just within the current rules. From an engine perspective Grand Am also states that, “manufacturers are welcome to submit any production-based engine for approval in the series, but turbos and superchargers are not permitted”.
With this Grand Am has created an environment where the rulebook is very structured and strict on how cars can be designed and then parity is built into the rulebook by managing the homologation of engines into the series. Seems reasonable enough, sound familiar at all?
Now let’s turn our attention to Indy Car, that bastion of engineering ingenuity where anybody with the desire, money, and brains to do it can build a car to the rulebook and may a go at the Indy 500. Err, well, wait a minute. The series that was once the epitome of motorsports creativity, the race that in 1967 saw Parnelli Jones race a gas turbine powered car, now is made up of a single chassis and a spec engine. I won’t mention tires because after the debacle at the US Grand Prix in 2004 I don’t so much mind having a single tire manufacturer (Tony Stewart may disagree with me on this, but I’d argue it with him over some beer and what would probably be a ton of chicken wings and I’d win).
The IRL seems to believe that a single manufacturer for both cars and engines will bring down the costs for the teams.
Seems like a little variety could do Indy Car some good. Don't you think? Photo Credit: cmakin
Yet, I don’t see the Grand Am teams complaining about costs. I also don’t see the Grand Am fans complaining about snooze-fest fuel mileage races or 200 MPH parades. I know some recent rule changes have made an impact on those problems from earlier this season but seriously why can’t the Grand Am DP model be transferred over to Indy Car?
Now understood that Grand Am is in cahoots with NASCAR and many of the engines used are very similar to NASCAR engines. This doesn’t really account for Porsche, BMW, Infiniti, Honda, and Lexus though, does it? The IRL had their manufacturers’ summits recently and although they did get more interest than I expected it wasn’t nearly enough. Why can’t they draw Chevrolet, Porsche, Ford, BMW, Lexus, Infiniti, or Honda like Grand Am did? Well what’s in it for them? Perhaps they should worry less about the manufacturers and more about the engine builders.
Roush-Yates is building Ford engines for Grand Am. Why, you say? Because someone is paying them to build them! Teams buy engines from engine builders or they build there own engines. They don’t have to lease them from the manufacturers. I’m not sure if the IRL has noticed but the vast majority of their teams already have machine shops in their facilities.
So, lets bring this back around to something useful and not just me ranting on and on about this. Here is what I believe Indy Car needs to do to bring more attention to their fine version of motorsport:
- Create a proposed set of specifications for the next generation of Indy Car chassis.
- Open the submission process for designs to be approved by the IRL. Look to specific manufacturers if necessary such as Lola, Dallara, Panoz, Riley, Swift, etc.
- Look for production based engine packages that could be built with the necessary horsepower, durability and size and solicit current manufacturers / engine builders to participate in the homologation process.
- If possible, look to include both import and domestic engine manufacturers
Will this be easy? NO.
Will it put more burden on the league to update and enforce the rule book? YES.
Will it bring better competition? YES.
Will it bring more attention through a more diverse set of manufacturers and constructors? YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT WILL!!!
Now that’s just my 2 cents but Grand Am just tested at Indy a couple weeks ago and you can bet you’re ass if they run a 12 hours there that I will be the loudest shirtless guy standing on an ugly bus right in the middle of that hot mess!
Keep it up Grand Am and get on the stick Indy Car!
Tags: Commentary, Daytona Prototype, Grand Am, Indy, Indy Car
Sounds like a re-intro of formula 5000. That failed too.
different answers to your 4 questions at the end:
Will it be easy: Near impossible. Who has the leverage here to make a change? The teams or Tony G.? Since he is funding the show, I think he does.
…More burden?…: Yes, but not only on the rule book, but for the teams. New equipment = more $ for purchasing, testing, etc. and lets face it, the economy is still a piece of crap and sponsor dollars are going to be harder and harder to come by. Where are the dollars going to come from to pay for wholesale changes that require new equipment. Grand Am was well underway when the economy crashed. Indy doesn’t have that luxury of timing right now, not as things currently stand.
…Better competition…? Well, the trick in DP racing is penalizing success, which I hate, personally. The better you do, the more weight, gear restrictions and rev limits you get placed on your equipment. It isn’t a set rule book, it is a dumbing down or a penalty on the successful. Add to it the nascar influence of a liberal sprinkling of full course caution flags that bunch the field together when things get too stretched out. Heavily managed competition.
…Bring more attention…? no way to be accurate yes or no. getting on a TV channel that isn’t obscure (not to mention dropped off the biggest satellite network) would help, but I hope you are not inferring that the GA is well known and broadly followed. The thrill factor just isnt there.
This is the conundrum: no matter what, a dominant chassis will be locked onto by all teams, as will a dominant power supply. Look at GA, the Riley, beyond all others, has been the cats ass since that thing turned a wheel.
On the engine side, while ford has always been a comparative outsider, the GM power has been the dominant one when the Porsche and lexus were deemed too strong. And then the Porsche dominated when the lexus and GM plants were deemed too strong. And then the Lexus dominated when the Porsche and GMs were deemed too strong…see a pattern?
This “solution” is not the answer