Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers might be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embrace a query usually tend to be revealed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday can be saved for the next week.
Q: I simply examine Ford becoming a member of the WEC, which is fairly superior. I’m excited to observe that. However I’m critically involved about the way forward for IndyCar. It nonetheless appears no different producer desires something to do with the sequence, and there isn’t a brand new chassis coming till 2027. Is that sufficient? The Indy 500 was once the one factor that introduced producers (I’m considering the Buick/Menard within the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s in addition to the Mercedes 209 in 1994) to the forefront of motorsport. What’s the attract of IndyCar with its constitution system and spec chassis? What incentive does IndyCar give to a producer’s ROI if it’s strictly a spec sequence?
Kris, Kokomo, IN
MARSHALL PRUETT: Not a lot I can add to the dialog that I haven’t added 100 occasions or extra since Lotus left after its disastrous single-season of engine provide in 2012.
Solely merchandise to tune up, presumably, is we are able to’t grasp this one on Penske Leisure as being at fault. Penske’s owned the sequence for 5 racing seasons — about to turn out to be his sixth — and IndyCar’s incapability to obtain a 3rd or fourth producer is 12 seasons outdated and about to turn out to be 13 seasons as soon as St. Pete will get below manner. The Hulman George household bore big accountability for that, and IndyCar CEO — now twin IndyCar and Penske Leisure CEO — Mark Miles who was introduced in by the household and has been in that place since late 2012, which covers all the two-manufacturer span.
That covers off the previous and 2025 (and 2026, which is claimed to be the final 12 months for the present automotive and engine system). What issues is what occurs with TV scores, viewers development and positive aspects in youthful followers in 2025, as a result of that’s what new and potential producers can be watching to determine whether or not they wish to begin getting motors prepared to hitch in 2027 below no matter engine system is ratified.
So, sure, complete mess from 2013-24 when it comes to touchdown a 3rd. However the hand-wringing is over. What issues is the positive aspects Penske Leisure makes this 12 months to indicate its sequence is value main funding from the auto trade.
And a remaining observe: It additionally must get each of its present producers to agree to remain. Chevy looks like a lock, contemplating Penske’s ties in making Chevy’s motors via the Ilmor Engineering agency he co-founded and co-owns. Honda? Wait and see.
Q: I used to be at this 12 months’s Daytona 24 Hours and I had an exquisite expertise. In the course of the night time I noticed the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Porsche spin after it appeared to blow a tire exiting NASCAR Flip 2. That incident had me considering, and after digesting some video highlights of the race, it appeared to me there have been quite a lot of tire and suspension failures from what I’ve seen in Daytona races previous.
What points did Michelin come throughout over the course of the race? Had been there some suspension set-ups the groups have been utilizing that might trigger the tire failures like those we noticed?
Brandon Karsten
MP: I don’t recall any tendencies in tire or suspension failures from the race that led me to suppose there was a problem with the tire distributors or suspensions as an entire. Groups don’t share setups, in order that’s onerous to reply, however there was new curbing on the Le Mans Chicane (aka the Bus Cease) which might have had an adversarial impact for many who have been overly aggressive in driving over them. Additionally, a tire puncture from particles is a reasonably widespread factor in endurance racing; a lot of hours so a lot of elevated odds of it occurring.
Three producers. Ah, the great outdated days. F. Peirce Williams/Motorsport Photographs
Q: This query comes from earlier than your time, however I’ll guess Massive Possum remembers when tire firms (and I don’t recall if it was Goodyear or Firestone) would run adverts bragging that their tires simply lasted 500 miles at Indy or Daytona or wherever.
How a lot quicker may they’ve been with present tire compounds? Why don’t organizations require more durable compounds so they’d be extra sturdy, and likewise remove or scale back marbles, which could make higher racing with extra passing choices?
John, sadly, in Illinois
MP: How a lot quicker would outdated tires be in the event that they have been new tires? My mind is confused on that one.
Exhausting tires present restricted grip, which tends to make for horrible racing, except you want actually lengthy brake zones, and quite a lot of coasting via corners as a substitute of accelerating, and ready till the automotive is pointed straight after the nook to hit the throttle. Drag racing, mainly.
Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin and Pirelli can all make onerous tires that final endlessly and solid few marbles. After which we’d all be complaining about how the racing sucks as a result of no person might cross. For those who’re in search of an instance, discover the Iowa Speedway IndyCar doubleheaders from final 12 months and watch and see how lengthy it takes earlier than you go to sleep. I used to be there and wanted three cups of espresso to maintain from loud night breathing.
Q: With the unimaginable development in IMSA from each a producer and fan perspective, the one factor lacking is extra races on the schedule. The present schedule has such giant gaps it’s simple to lose fan curiosity. Have there been any rumblings about including races at a number of the nice venues like Mid-Ohio and COTA?
Joe Hartsel
MP: There haven’t. It’s simply a completely completely different fashion of racing the place its endurance underpinnings is the reward. Take your 17 IndyCar races, all of which final slightly below two hours (Indy is the exception). That’s 34 hours for these 16, races. IMSA tops that after its first two races — the Rolex 24 and Sebring’s 12 Hours — with 36 hours of motion. And that’s nothing new.
I don’t disagree; I’d like to see it up round 15 or 16, up from the 11 it’s run for a short while now, however the prices to race for twenty-four hours, and 12, and 6 at Watkins Glen and Indy, and 10 to shut the season at Petit Le Mans add as much as a fortune, plus the 2 100-minute road races and the remainder that are 2h40m.
In Europe, IMSA’s counterpart on the WEC, which has an identical scenario — it holds simply eight races, together with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The European Le Mans Sequence does six races.
If issues proceed to prosper for IMSA and its producers and groups wish to do it, I’d like to see one thing that bridges the six weeks between Daytona and Sebring. At the least for comparisons, IMSA does have an extended season to take pleasure in with its first race in January and final in October. IndyCar’s first is in March, and has a steadier frequency till its final in August.
