Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers will be despatched to mailbag@racer.com. We love listening to your feedback and opinions, however letters that embrace a query usually tend to be printed. Questions obtained after 3pm ET every Monday can be saved for the next week.
Q: System 1 is within the remaining yr of its contract with the Las Vegas Grand Prix. In the event that they’re not in a position to provide you with a brand new deal, might IndyCar change F1 on the streets of Vegas in 2026?
Alistair, Springfield, MO
MARSHALL PRUETT: Something is feasible, however with the entire main investments made to host an F1 race, it will be a shock to see it come to an finish after three years. I’ve been to many IndyCar races in Las Vegas, and based mostly on earlier crowds, there could be quite a lot of empty grandstands. However with heavy promotion and ticket costs that aren’t obscene like they’re to see F1 there, who is aware of, possibly an honest turnout could possibly be generated.
Q: If IndyCar wants any affirmation that shifting to FOX was an excellent transfer, look no additional than IMSA protection. Not one minute of the 12 Hours of Sebring (at the least the second greatest American sports activities automotive race) was on any TV service (OTA, cable, dish, and so on.). Pathetic. I’m positive IMSA folks don’t want to listen to this, however run, don’t stroll away from NBC.
Travis, Kansas Metropolis
MP: It was unusual to see Sebring relegated to 12 hours of streaming, solely, by way of Peacock. Good answer for many who’ve reduce the wire (or by no means had a wire), however most likely not for followers preferring to devour their racing by way of community or cable.
Q: Is the latest resolution from IMSA to make the Highway America race a 6-hour an instance of a collection listening to from its followers? I like it and am trying ahead to it.
Daniel Martins, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
MP: It’s that, for positive, but additionally the underwhelming response to the Indy race. Undecided a significant effort has been made to advertise the occasion, and whereas many automobile producers have been supportive of including Indy in 2023, most haven’t come by means of with onsite activation like we see at different IMSA races.
Chevrolet, which is the official automotive/truck of IMS, was the one model I noticed ultimately yr’s race to convey automobiles and vans to the halfway, and by comparability to what they do in the course of the month of Might, it was a tiny footprint and modest show. Perhaps the better Indianapolis market isn’t one the producers discovered to be very important after a handful turned up within the halfway in 2023 and determined the returns weren’t definitely worth the expenditure in 2024.
That’s a guess, however when you may have a small-ish crowd and nearly all of IMSA’s almost 20 producers choose out on activating at a significant endurance occasion, I can see why it will lose the enduro to everybody’s favourite occasion on the calendar. At lease in my thoughts, I view the upcoming 2h40m race at Indy in September because the final probability for IMS to indicate IMSA that it ought to proceed.
Is the clock ticking on IMSA on the Brickyard? Michael Levitt/IMSA
Q: Any thought what an additional three hours and 20 minutes provides to an IMSA group’s finances? I do know nothing is reasonable in racing, however I’d’ve thought prep and attending to the monitor was the principle expense. I’m so excited for Highway America in ’26 and pray the 6 Hour stays and will get moved to Saturday in ’27 with an early night end!
Chad, West Salem, WI
MP: None. No added expense is being accrued by taking Highway America out to 6 hours as a result of it’s merely a commerce in format with Indy, which loses its six-hour race and takes Highway America’s 2h40m race. Groups have been already going to Highway America, so there’s no additional gas prices, they usually have been already going to Indy, and so on.
Q: Is Oriol Servia nonetheless the tempo automotive driver for the IndyCar Collection ?
Yanie Porlier
MP: Sure, he’s.
Q: Final week in a Mailbag reply, Marshall stated that half of the Honda-powered groups have free engines, with the implication that the opposite Honda groups are paying for the engine lease. Does the identical apply to the Chevy groups, and is it public which groups/automobiles are sponsored by the engine producer?
Is there any probability that the 2027 chassis is cheaper than the present one?
Will, Indy
MP: Sure on it making use of to some Chevy groups (not laborious to guess as the very best get comped, however not each entry in the very best groups will get a motor deal since some are paying drivers). No, there’s no public record of who does or doesn’t pay, however it’s the title contenders who do.
I’ve but to listen to a case being made that has the brand new automotive being cheaper than the present one.
Q: What a couple of robustly turbocharged, hybridized, two-liter, inline 4 cylinder for IndyCar’s subsequent engine formulation? It might make sufficient energy, be good for weight and packaging, and there are many producers that use related energy crops in street automobiles. There’s even a “Again to the Future” angle with the outdated turbo Offys.
Ray Schumin
MP: A V6 turbo is the proper answer today. With the lengthy life being requested of every motor in IndyCar, it’s simpler to share the load of constructing 750 hp throughout six cylinders than to divide that 750 amongst 4 and get to the 2500-mile minimal set within the guidelines. I really like an excellent turbo 4, however with the complaints some followers have in regards to the sound of at this time’s engine, will probably be an uproar when a subject of farty four-cylinders go by. Aside from the insane high-boost turbo fours from F1 within the early to mid ’80s that gave the impression of 1000-plus hp volcanic explosions and lasted just a few hundred miles, tops, there’s not quite a lot of audio magic there. Drop the mileage restrict to 500-1000, and the chances open up.
