Each Chevrolet Entry In The Indy 500 Has Its Own GM-Installed Engineer
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General Motors supplies just nine full-time NTT IndyCar Series drivers with its Ilmor-Chevrolet engine, but for the Indianapolis 500, that number grows to 18.
GM is well-prepared for the Indy 500 each year, making engine allocation a fairly straightforward task, Chevrolet IndyCar program manager Rob Buckner told RACER in a recent interview. What’s never easy, though, is managing all the personnel required to ensure the engines run as designed, as every single Chevrolet car gets its own GM-installed engineer.
“Since our engines are built in Michigan and only a five-hour drive away, logistically, the engine delivery to Indianapolis area is relatively painless,” Buckner told the publication.
“Our bigger challenge is staffing each entry with a Chevrolet engineer, as we have expanded from nine full time cars to 18 Indy 500 entries,” Buckner added. “To accomplish this, we have pulled people familiar with our program from all over, and we are very appreciative of their commitment to the program.”
Of course GM also has to have spare motors on hand, as some cars may encounter mechanical issues in practice or qualifying, or become damaged in a crash. Two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso has moved onto a spare car and taken a new Ilmor-Chevrolet engine after wrecking hard in practice earlier this week. Dreyer-Reinbold’s Sage Karam has also taken a new engine already this week after his engineers found an undisclosed problem with the 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6.
Making things a bit busier for Chevy is a rule that allows teams to put a new engine in the car for race week. Once qualifying concludes on Sunday, teams are allowed to take out the old Chevrolet engine and put a new one in for the remaining practice sessions and/or for the race. Some of the Indy 500-only competitors will only have one motor for the event, though.
“The Indy 500-only entries will start with a fresh engine and typically stay on that engine throughout the event,” Buckner explained.
Qualifying for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 will kick off Saturday, May 18th before the race goes green on Sunday, May 26th.
Source: RACER
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Thia article says that Alonso wrecked hard earlier this year. He hit two walls on Wednesday this week and damaged both sides/front/rear of the car. The crews work very hard, so it’s possible to replace the tub, fix the new suspension bits and test
it on Friday, Saturday or Sunday as a backup to his following weekend race car. Anything can happen during this Saturday and Sunday qualifying with blown tires taking any car into the wall. Here is a link to today’s Thursday crash in great detail of the crash of Patricio O’Ward as he hits the wall and flies through the air. Lots of slo mo shots too.
Link to Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdAnF83lXY
Here is another indepth look at the dual purpose oval and race circuit Indy car. It’s 18 minutes long, so just run it at 1.25 speed to save time. LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URO46qMxnlI
Rain is always a question during qualifying. Is any of this on TV?
The indy field should be only Chevy powered!!!
Brian, there is an old expression nin racing that you obviously don’t know. It is “Racing improves the breed”. If the whole field was Chevy powered, then the tens of millions that Honda pours into the Indycar series, would evaporate. Also, then Chev engineers would not try as hard if there was no competition. GM uses the info gained from racing to improve the engine computers and other technical info regarding materials etc. Also the old expression in NASCAR is “Win on Sunday, sell cars on Monday”. That is still true.
There was a time when Honda was the sole engine provider of the IndyCar series.
So it’s been done before!!!
What other bright sayings do you have?