INDIANAPOLIS — Now that the hard part is over — getting Champ Car officials to finally cease their operation which allows its teams to join IndyCar — there are plenty of unanswered questions that remain.
The biggest of which is how many cars will switch series and how long will it take to get those new teams integrated into IndyCar?
“Our biggest short-term challenge will be the equipment transition, the availability of the equipment and getting it distributed and put into the new teams’ hands as quickly as possible, as expeditiously as possible,” said Brian Barnhart, the president of competition for IndyCar. “Because of the great diversity of our schedule, the one thing it creates a necessity for is additional equipment.
“You just don’t have one configuration of cars. You have a superspeedway car, a road-course car and a short-oval car. It’s not just a matter of getting them a car. You have to get them a car in three different configurations that they are capable of running in.”
Each participant that joins IndyCar will be given a Dallara chassis and Honda engine combination. Those cars are currently being rounded up and prepared to be delivered to new teams.
How many of those teams will be able to immediately participate, remains a question.
“We are still trying very hard to get a feel for and get our arms around how many teams will be joining us,” Barnhart said. “I don’t have a good feel for that right now. We are still waiting to see because that will dictate how much equipment we have to come up with. Timing is clearly a challenge.
“Here it is Feb. 24 and we are on track the 27th with our first open test at Homestead. We do another test at Sebring the first week in March. We have additional dates booked at Sebring and Homestead for the teams that missed that first test and then our season begins on March 29.
“We follow that up the following week with another version of the car at Homestead in superspeedway trim and then one week later in road course trim at St. Petersburg. We have some significant short-term challenges in the equipment facilitation aspect of it.”
The good news for Barnhart and his crew is the number of extra cars that are being donated to the cause from such teams as Vision Racing, Team Penske, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing and Andretti Green Racing.
To help the teams’ transition, Barnhart will assign an IndyCar team to one of the new teams coming in to help them understand the nuances of the new car.
“That will help facilitate the transition of equipment, to help with baseline setups, with cornering loads, with gear ratios and general field information for the chassis,” Barnhart explained. “They have a point contact team and people that can help from that standpoint. Most of the teams have helped tremendously with anybody who has any kind of equipment available. We’ve been able to make preliminary arrangements on that.”
Vision Racing had possession of 10 Dallara chassis. George, who owns that race team, decided to turn loose many of those cars so they could be given to the new teams.
Larry Curry is the team manager at Vision Racing and is in charge of not only preparing the cars that will be going to the new teams joining the IndyCar Series, but also the effort for his drivers.
“I think certainly we’ve anticipated this was in the works and I want to say that we are prepared,” Curry said. “We’ll be able to answer the bell. You’re going to expect more of your people and things of that nature but to me the sooner it’s official the better. You want to get done what you need to get done for that and then move on because you are 100 percent right. Vision Racing has had aggressive testing in the off-season and is very well prepared for the upcoming open test. I think the sooner you can get a single focus the better.”
Curry said his crew at Vision Racing worked throughout the weekend to get all 10 of its cars prepared for use at next week’s IndyCar Open test at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“It adds work to the plate for sure,” Curry said. “Even though you have all these cars, they are in a cycle and you have to bring that to the forefront quicker than anticipated. What Vision was doing with all of these cars was the 2008 modifications with the anti-intrusion panels. We’re installing those on all 10 of those cars. That’s a process in itself that is new to us and has added more time to the physical build of the cars.
“We’re going to run two cars full time. Tony George needs to officially announce his driver lineup with that, but what we would do beyond that is yet to be determined.”
George realizes that there will be an equipment shortage in the short term but over time more cars will enter the system.
“No one carries a lot of excess equipment,” George said. “For us to have as much available as we have we’ve gone from being a three-driver team down to a two-driver team to free more up. Most of the others don’t keep that much extra equipment around. They are going to help by making a car available and one team may make two available. Nobody had the amount of extra cars ready to go with the incentive that I had with Vision Racing.
“If we can get eight or 10 or 12 cars that would be good. If we could get 14, that would be great. Realistically, I’m not sure what to expect. I think we will be somewhere between six and 10 additional cars.”
Barnhart is in charge of overseeing the distribution of the cars to the new teams and discussed the process that will take place over the next 100 days.
“When it’s all said and done each car-driver combination will end up with two cars,” Barnhart explained. “That will be difficult to anticipate because we don’t know how many are coming. The first goal will be to make sure everybody gets their first car before anybody gets a second car. The ultimate situation will play out with every car/driver combination getting two cars.
“That’s not going to happen by Homestead or by the end of April. There will be shared spares, there will be one spare for two-car teams for a while. It will be that way all the way up and through May at the Indy 500 when we are still delivering equipment, chassis, kits, it will be a long process for the next 100 days.”