Ah, the merry month of May! The month of May means a lot of things to a lot of different people. For fans of the Indy Racing League, it means that it's time once again for "The Great American Race." This May we have the preparations for the 88th running of the Indy 500 which always takes place on Memorial Day weekend at the months end. This year the event will be held on Sunday, May 30th.
The month long preparations for the event have already begun. One of the most important aspects of this season's Indy 500 is the beginning of the use of the newly mandated engine. I thought a few months ago that it was kind of strange to change engines during the season, but the timing wasn't of my choosing. It would have been better for the teams to have had the new engine to race at the first three events in the season to get used to it and have more time to test it.
The new engine will drop in size to 3.0 liter compared to the 3.5 liter engine that the IRL competitors started the season with. The league has also made some small aerodynamic changes to help reduce speeds.
At last season's Indy 500 qualifying, Helio Castroneves won the pole with a blistering speed of 231.725 miles per hour. So far, testing of the new engine has only brought speeds just under 220 miles per hour. The Toyota engines from Team Penske have shown the most speed with Sam Hornish turning a fast lap of 219.271 and teammate Helio Castroneves turning a lap of 219.256.
The third best speed was turned in by the Chevy engine of Robby Gordon at 218.921. The fourth best was by a Toyota driven by defending champion Scott Dixon at a speed of 218.876 for the Target Chip Ganassi team. Alex Barron also topped the 218 mark at 218.608 with a Chevy and Dixon's teammate, Darren Manning, turned in a speed of 218.319. The highest speed turned in by a Honda team was by Kosuke Matsuura who was 12th best with a speed of 216.428 in the Super Aguri Fernandez Racing's No. 55.
The power drop in the engines is most noticed by the drivers when they return to the track from their pit stops. The speed change for the actual racing on the track doesn't tend to get noticed like the take-off power when getting up to speed. According to speculation by a few drivers, the speeds in the race will be governed to some degree by the way the individual drivers adjust their rear spoilers. If some of them get daring and take chances, they will get higher speeds, but the safety trade off is something that will affect everyone on the track.
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