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IRL Phoenix, Page 2

Greg Ray waits for his practice session. Behind him Tom Knapp, Menard team manager, talks to crew member, Jon Ennik, who was crew chief for Knapp and Ray at Indy last year and won the CAM Top Wrench award.

Greg Ray in his Aurora-powered Dallara. Greg was the pole qualifier with a time of 20.323 seconds and 177.139 mph.

The easiest way to tell the G Force chassis from the Dallara is the engine air inlet. The G Force is triangular. That rear wing generates a huge amount of downforce that nails the IRL cars to the track. Of course that means a huge amount of drag also which limits the top speed. That front wing looks big too, doesn't it.

For a medium-speed lap here, about 21 seconds, the IRL cars top speed was 184 mph on the front straight. Minimum speed in Turn 1/2 was 161 mph and T 3/4 was 170. Phoenix is a 1-mile track in a tri-oval shape. Turns 1 and 2 are tougher than the larger-radius 3 and 4.

That's Firestone engineer, Page Mader, writing down tire temperatures. The Menard crewman is measuring the diameter of the left-rear tire. He had just measured the right-rear. The difference in diameter is the stagger. Oval racecars run a larger right rear to help the car turn into the corner. This tends the car to oversteer. At Phoenix the IRL car have a problem with power understeer off the corners.

The G Force/Aurora on Firestones entered by Jonathan Byrd Cunningham Racing and driven by John Paul Jr. You can see the triangular engine air inlet that marks the G Force chassis.

The G Force front suspension is the standard bellcrank/coilover/torsion anti-sway bar. I think these are Koni 2812 shocks.

Roberto Guerrero prepares to go out on track. This is another G Force car but the engine is a Nissan Infinity. For the first time these engines are competitive with the Olds Aurora and they'll probably win a race this year.

The rear suspension of Guerrero's car shows a suspension layout similar to the front. Looks like they're using Konis too.

Eddie Cheever watches the first group of the practice session on course.

Eddie Cheever's Dallara/Olds on Goodyear tires. Notice how carefully the bodywork is sculpted around the rear tire. The cooling duct exit looks pretty tidy. Dallara has two wind tunnels. Look at that wing. My, that's a big one!

Andrea Toso is an engineer with Dallara and Mr. Dallara's son-in-law. Andrea's wife, one of two Dallara daughters involved in the business, is an aerodynamicist. They have three children so she is a house wife now. Andrea says she talks to her Dad every day. "It's like having two bosses," he told me.

Sam Garrett, racecar designer and engineer, is Dallara's U.S. guy working out of Motorsports Spares in Indianapolis.