CHANGING GEARS : Indy Racing League Has Its Own Cars, Tracks and Schedule and Has Even Taken the Name IndyCar From Rivals at CART

In simpler days, there was Indy car racing.

But these are complicated days, and now there are two Indy car sanctioning bodies. Both race open-wheel, open-cockpit cars, but philosophically, Tony George’s new Indy Racing League and Andrew Craig and the long-established Championship Auto Racing Teams are at opposite ends of the spectrum. It’s sort of like the difference between local and long-distance calling.

George, with the IRL, is taking a page from the Middle Ages and putting together a moat of oval tracks around the country to protect his castle--the Indianapolis 500.

“A lot of people out there would like to influence the direction of how Indianapolis Motor Speedway goes in the future,” George said, alluding to CART. “That needs to be our privilege, right here at home.”

Leo Mehl, the new executive director who came out of retirement to help George with his project, echoed those feelings.

“I have been disturbed in recent years by what seemed to me to be a de-emphasis on oval racing, which is the heart of Indy car racing,” Mehl said.

For the first time since 1962, engines in the cars at the Indy 500 this year will not be turbocharged. The whine of the turbocharger, which forces more air into the engine’s combustion chamber, has been replaced by the louder rumble of normally aspirated engines, similar to those in stock cars.

“If he thought he could get away with it, Tony would probably line up a bunch of front-engine cars to run at Indy,” one George watcher said.

Craig, on the other hand, is leading CART into global expansion and its international character is evident.

Craig, its CEO and president, is British, four of CART’s races are outside the United States and 15 of its 26 drivers are foreigners.

“It is important to note that we have a series that is international in scope,” Craig said. “Not only do we have some of the world’s leading drivers, who represent four continents, but we have races in Canada, Brazil and Australia as well as the United States. And we will be adding a race in Japan in 1998, with the potential to add more [probably in Europe] in the future.

“Our international focus is extremely important to current--as well as potential--sponsors of the PPG CART World Series. What it all adds up to is the glamour and excitement of high-speed, high-quality open-wheel races that only CART can deliver.”

Despite its foreign cast, CART’s stars, Michael Andretti of Pennsylvania and Al Unser Jr. of New Mexico, and its champion, Jimmy Vasser of California, are American.

CART’s strength lies in its mix of races: Seven are on ovals, five on city streets and five on permanent road courses.

“You win our championship, you’ve proven you can drive anywhere,” Andretti said.

One plus in the split for fans is that there will be more races to choose from, at more locales and newer sites.

The downside is that Andretti, Unser, Vasser and others won’t have an opportunity to drive in the world’s most famous race, the Indianapolis 500. At least in the foreseeable future.

CART will make its first appearance at the new California Speedway, in Fontana, in September, and will also race May 24--the day before the Indianapolis 500--at Chris Pook’s new Gateway International Raceway, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

The IRL will open Pikes Peak International Raceway, near Colorado Springs, and Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and will also move into NASCAR territory with a race at Charlotte Speedway. Three of the eight IRL events, at Texas, Charlotte and Las Vegas Motor Speedway, will be at night, a first for Indy car racing.

The most visible change will be in CART’s name. No longer can Craig & Co. call themselves IndyCar after settling a court case with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. IMS authorities argued that cars that had never run at Indy--and never would--should not be called IndyCars.

The official name now is the acronym CART, but Unser says they should be called champ cars, a designation used in the 1960s and early ‘70s.

“Champ cars, that’s what my dad called them when I was growing up,” he said. “That would fit. They’re the best race cars in the world, champ cars for sure.”

That said, here’s a look at how the two groups shape up for their coming seasons.

IRL

The Indy Racing League hasn’t changed its name, but it has changed almost everything else.

It is also doing things in a hurry. With the opening race, the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla., set for Saturday, there is concern about the number of cars that will start and how many of them will still be around after 200 miles.

Everything about the cars is new, and some of them are untested. And there are no older backups because the IRL mandated that 1997 would start with a clean slate.

The cars will be Dallaras, built in Italy, and G Forces, built in Britain. The familiar names, such as Lola and Reynard, will be used in CART. On the day cars qualify for the Indianapolis 500 pole, the Lolas and Reynards will be in Brazil for a CART race.

In appearance, Dallara and G Force cars will look little different from those CART and the IRL ran last season.

But the engines, Aurora V-8s from Oldsmobile or Infiniti Indy engines from Nissan, will be distinctly different from the familiar Ford Cosworth, Ilmor Mercedes and Honda power plants.

Instead of turbocharged 2.65-liter built-for-racing engines, the IRL cars will be powered by four-liter V-8s, normally aspirated and based on passenger car production models.

“To me, it’s amazing how far the Indy Racing League has come since last February, when we got our first chassis and engine commitments,” George said. “Sure, there’s still a long ways to go, but I think the anticipation adds to the excitement.

“Right now, the jury is still out on whether the Nissans will be able to compete at Disney World, but I hope that they at least will have a presence. It would be nice if we had more time--you always want more time--but we want to make as strong a showing at Orlando as possible, and then look ahead to Phoenix [March 23]. I hope that by Indy, anybody who wants to compete will have the opportunity.”

There apparently will be enough Aurora engines for 14 or 15 cars Saturday, but Nissan, which got a late start in production, may have as few as four. That adds up to only 18 or 19 starters, and that number could shrink during practice Thursday and qualifying Friday.

If last year is a yardstick, the walls around the tricky one mile tri-oval will collect a car or two. In last year’s final practice session, Richie Hearn tangled with Eddie Cheever, knocking Hearn’s front-row car out of the race.

“Eighteen brand new cars is certainly not a bad deal,” said Mehl, who took over the executive director’s position from Jack Long in December after 35 years with Goodyear. “Only 20 started last year and two or three of them shouldn’t have been there, and it turned out to be a great race.

“What has really impressed me is that the times are very close in practice. Tony Stewart, Scott Goodyear, Davy Jones and Eddie Cheever have all been within a few 10ths of each other. The Nissans are not there yet, but Mike Groff has been picking up a little more speed every session.”

The difference can be seen in their start-up dates. Arie Luyendyk tested the first G Force Olds on Nov. 13 at Phoenix. The first Nissan wasn’t on the track until Jan. 8, when Groff took a few warmup laps at Disney World.

Although this is their first foray into Indy cars, both Olds and Nissan have winning records with sports car versions of their engines. An Aurora won both the driver’s and manufacturer’s championship in the 1995 International Motor Sports Assn. GT road-racing series, and last year won the GTS-1 sedan class at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Nissan has 29 years of road racing experience, and its cars won the 1995 IMSA GTS-1 series, including the 12 Hours of Sebring.

The team and driver lineup has changed little since last year’s Indy 500.

One CART team, Galles Racing International, has switched to the IRL, with Jones as its driver; and one IRL operation, Della Penna Motorsports, Hearn’s team, has gone to CART. Jones finished second to Buddy Lazier in last year’s Indy 500.

“We have really accomplished everything we set out to do from the very beginning,” George said. “The engines are proving to be reliable, speeds are reduced, costs have been made more affordable and cars are accessible for people who want to race.

“This is going to be the greatest year yet for the Indy Racing League.”

Of course, it’s only its second.

CART

At first glance, things seem pretty much unchanged in CART. Most of the same drivers are back, the cars and engines carry the same nameplates and they will be going to the same 15 tracks they raced on last year and adding two new ones.

But that’s a bit of an illusion. There are subtle changes occurring as the teams prepare for next week’s spring training and the season opener, the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami on March 2, both on the 1.3-mile oval at Homestead, Fla.

The PPG Indy Car World Series, won last year by Vasser in a Honda-powered Reynard, is now the PPG CART World Series.

The U.S. 500, also won by Vasser, will not run opposite the Indianapolis 500, as it did last year, but will be held at Michigan International Speedway on July 27.

“There’s not much point in trying to compete head to head with the IRL now,” Penske driver Paul Tracy said. “Last year, they were basically using the same type cars we were running. Now they’re completely different. They’re running their series and we’re running ours, so there’s no need to go head to head.”

In the interest of safety, the fuel capacity in CART cars has been reduced from 40 to 35 gallons, the turbocharger boost lowered from 45 to 40 inches of mercury and the fuel allocation will be based on getting two miles to the gallon instead of 1.8. This is expected to equate to a loss of about 100 horsepower and 40 mph in cornering speeds.

One new chassis, built by Swift Engineering of San Clemente, has been added to the CART lineup. It is the only American-made chassis in either the IRL or CART, and will be used by the Newman-Haas team of Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi.

“I take my hat off to David Bruns, who put the package together at Swift,” Andretti said after testing at Phoenix International Raceway. “The car was right on the mark, right out of the box. I never heard of that happening before. The car looks a lot like last year’s Lola, but if you look closely, there are a lot of differences that will allow a better use of aerodynamics.

“We won five races last year with a package that wasn’t all that competitive, so I feel we can do a lot better this year. The Ford Cosworth engineers did their homework and came up with some added horsepower, so that even with less [turbocharger] boost it felt almost like last year’s engine.”

Swift became the lone American-built car when Dan Gurney decided to race a British-built Reynard instead of the Santa Ana-built Eagle this year in Toyota’s engine development program. Work is continuing on the Eagle, which may return to the series later in the year.

The Honda engine, which powered winning cars in 11 of 16 races last season, is built at American Honda’s shops in Santa Clarita.

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The ’97 Models

The split between CART and IRL becomes complete this season when the circuits use different chassis and engines for the first time.

CART

* Horsepower: 780 at 13,000 rpm; up to 250 mph.

* Fuel: Methanol.

* Engine costs: Teams must lease their engines--and a team of engineers-- from builder for entire season at a cost of $1.8 million to $2 million per car. Engines are Honda, Ford Cosworth, Ilmor Mercedes-Benz or Toyota; 2.65 liter, built-for-racing, turbocharged.

IRL

* Horsepower: 650-700 at 10,000 rpm; speed about 8 mph less for an average lap than CART cars.

* Fuel: Methanol.

* Engine costs: Unlike CART, teams purchase engines for about $75,000 each, and are responsible for repairs; 4.0 liter, V-8, normally aspirated (non-turbocharged), based on either Oldsmobile Aurora or Nissan Infiniti Q45.

Comparing cages

* CART: Normal roll bar behind driver’s head.

* IRL: Roll bar built into air-induction scoop behind driver’s head that feeds air into engine; wider interior tub; shock-absorbing foam added around head and shoulder areas.

Other Racing Series

NASCAR Winston Cup

Stock cars; open to 1995-97 American-made two-door passenger sedans.

Cost: Between $80,000 and $100,000.

Weight: 3,400 pounds minimum.

Top speed: Up to 200 mph, depending on track, use 358-cubic-inch normally aspirated V-8 engines that put out between 725 and 730 horsepower.

Course: 31 events on tracks ranging from half-mile to high banked 2-mile ovals. Also run two races on road courses.

*

National Hot Rod Assn.

Drag racing; top-fuel and funny cars.

Cost: About $250,000.

Weight: 2,100 pounds (top-fuel) to 2,350 pounds (funny car).

Top speed: Run 300 mph in five seconds or less, put out 6,000 horsepower from 500 cubic inch engines.

Course: Run on quarter-mile drag strips.

*

World of Outlaws

Sprint cars; winged, open-wheeled cars.

Cost: About $50,000, of which $30,000 is for the engine.

Weight: 1,200 pounds.

Top speed: Reach 140 mph on half-mile ovals; use 410-cubic-inch engines that put out 750 horsepower.

Course: Run on short ovals, primarily half-miles, both dirt and paved.

Also, Sprint Car Racing Assn. is the same as World of Outlaws, except cars are wingless, and run on short tracks mostly in Southern California and Arizona.

*

Sports Car Club of America

(SCCA) Trans Am, sports cars; mostly Camaro and Mustang sedans, built for racing.

Cost: Top of the line $200,000, average mid-field $100,000 to $150,000.

Weight: 2,625 pounds.

Top speeed: 190 mph, run 310-cubic-inch engines, putting out 600 to 620 horsepower.

Course: 14 races, all on road courses.

*

Formula One

World Championship formula cars.

Cost: $3 million-$4 million..

Weight: 1,375 pounds.

Top speed: Up to 200 mph, use 3-liter normally aspirated engines that put out 750 horsepower.

Course: 16 road courses in as many countries. No races in U.S.

INDY RACING AT A GLANCE

1997 SCHEDULE

* Jan. 25--Orlando, Fla.

* March 23--Phoenix.

* May 25--Indianapolis.

* June 7--Fort Worth, Texas.

* June 29--Colorado Springs, Colo.

* July 26--Charlotte, N.C.

* Aug. 17--Loudon, N.H.

* Oct. 11--Las Vegas.

TEAMS AND DRIVERS

* Conseco-A.J. Foyt Racing: Scott Sharp, Davey Hamilton.

* Team Menard: Tony Stewart, Mark Dismore.

* Galles Racing: Davy Jones.

* Treadway Racing: Arie Luyendyk, Scott Goodyear.

* Team Scandia: Eliseo Salazar, Fermin Velez.

* Byrd-Cunningham Racing: Mike Groff.

* Bradley Motorsports: Buzz Calkins.

* Chitwood Motorsports: Danny Ongais.

* PDM Racing: John Paul Jr.

* Pagan Racing: Roberto Guerrero.

* Blueprint Racing: Jim Guthrie.

* Arizona Motorsports: Jack Miller.

* Team Cheever: Eddie Cheever.

* Beck Motorsports: Robbie Buhl.

* Chastain Motorsports: Stephan Gregoire.

* Hemelgarn Racing: Buddy Lazier.

CART RACING AT A GLANCE

1997 SCHEDULE

* March 2--Homestead, Fla.

* April 6--Gold Coast, Australia.

* April 13--Long Beach.

* April 27--Nazareth, Pa.

* May 11--Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

* May 24--Madison, Ill.

* June 1--Milwaukee.

* June 8--Detroit.

* June 22--Portland, Ore.

* July 13--Cleveland.

* July 20--Toronto.

* July 27--Brooklyn, Mich.

* Aug. 10--Lexington, Ohio.

* Aug. 17--Elkhart Lake, Wis.

* Aug. 31--Vancouver, Canada.

* Sept. 7--Monterey, Calif.

* Sept. 28--Fontana.

TEAMS AND DRIVERS

* Target-Chip Ganassi: Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi.

* Penske Racing: Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy.

* Walker Racing: Gil de Ferran.

* Newman-Haas Racing: Michael Andretti, Christian Fittipaldi.

* Team Rahal: Bobby Rahal, Bryan Herta.

* Bettenhausen Motorsports: Patrick Carpentier.

* PacWest Racing Group: Mauricio Gugelmin, Mark Blundell.

* Payton Coyne Racing: Michel Jourdain Jr.

* Patrick Racing: Scott Pruett, Raul Boesel.

* Arciero-Wells Racing: Hiro Matsushita, Max Papis.

* Team Green: Parker Johnstone.

* Tasman Motorsports Group: Andre Ribeiro, Adrian Fernandez.

* All American Racers: Juan Manuel Fangio II, P.J. Jones.

* Player’s-Forsythe Racing: Greg Moore.

* Davis-Craig Racing: Gualter Salles.

* Della Penna Motorsports: Richie Hearn.

* Project Indy: Dennis Vitolo.