[Indy Car] A look to future of the series

So many events and announcements have happened this year in Indy. For many years the series seemed as if it were just scrapping by, using the same equipment and struggling to have even 20 cars in the field on your average race. Over the years there has been minor improvements on the current equipment as far as weight of the cars and power output of the Honda motors but nothing major and definitely nothing we would classify as new.

In the last few years Indy has begun to turn the heads of motor spot enthusiast all over the world once again. The sport has begun to return to its roots and further from the bastardized but necessary dream that was the IRL(I will write about why I believe this over the off season). Even the name IRL will be removed in 2011 and we will simply call the series Indy Car. The sport desperately needed to be split among road and street courses and ovals and super speedways to be respected in the world of racing and not just another version of Nascar.

With the sport being the most competitive its been in almost two decades on the on track battles really spicing up the season on both the ovals and road and street courses the interest is back and growing. With this new interest we are seeing the return of historic venues such as Michigan and New Hampshire for 2011 as well as a radical and long over due change to the chassis and engines in 2012. The new Dallara chassis allows for each team to purchase or build their own custom aerodynamic(aero) trim allowing each car to sport a unique look. I believe this is a brilliant and cost effective way to keep the sport competitive and unique.

With these announcements manufactures such as Lotus have chimed in announcing they will design a custom aero trim for their 2012 car's (Yes cars, rumors are Lotus will have a two car Indy team 2011). Honda is the only supplier who has thrown in their commitment to building 800hp twin turbo V6 engines for the 2012 season but I hope more are to follow. These new cars will be lighter and significantly more powerful with a modification to today's push to pass that should instead of giving an extra 10hp give an extra 100hp.

As formula one comes to terms with the cost of their sport that almost tore them apart in 2009 I see Indy making smart, educated decisions that keep the cost of the sport down while making the series faster, unique, and more competitive.