| 08 February 2012
After Race Control battled through multiple tough situations in 2011, newly-installed race director Beaux Barfield says that the right balance between protecting competitors' rights and empowering series officials has been met with the 2012 book. However, he'll also be taking notes throughout the season for possible use in the 2013 rulebook.
"For me, it's important that certain rules make sense for my style, but be careful to not cut out too many elements that have value," Barfield said in a series release. "There's a lot of heritage to these rules that you want to preserve and make sure you don't create any pitfalls by getting rid of items. At the conclusion of the 2012 season, this rulebook will be the base and we'll start immediately on 2013."
At the top of the list of changes for '12 includes the installation of an instant messaging system between Race Control and officials, single teams or the entire field, which Barfield used during his tenure as race director in the American Le Mans Series. The series will also now use standard bodywork parts that must fit a race car during technical inspection.
Other notable bits include:
• A minimum of two Track Condition Radio steering wheel lights to complement audio and trackside visual caution warning systems.
• An engine manufacturer's championship with Chevrolet, Honda and Lotus awarded points race-to-race; the top manufacturer earns 9 points, with the second and third-place manufacturers earning 6 and 4 points, respectively.
• A new oval Open Test on March 13 at Texas Motor Speedway following the "Spring Training" sessions from March 5-9 at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway. A private test is also set for Feb. 19-21 at Texas.
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Testing is set to pick up again later on this month, with many IndyCar drivers and teams fanning out to multiple tracks in advance of the Feb. 25 engine homologation deadline for the three manufacturers.
That aforementioned private test at Texas will feature Bryan Herta Autosport's Alex Tagliani, KV Racing Technology's Tony Kanaan and Team Penske's trio of Will Power, Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.
Honda has had some trouble in particular trying to nail down their own final engine specs, so it's not surprising to see a solid contingent of their drivers and teams heading to Barber Motorsports Park for a two-day test on Feb. 20-21. Amongst that group is: Simon Pagenaud (Sam Schmidt Motorsports), Mike Conway (A.J. Foyt Racing), Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan), Justin Wilson and James Jakes (Dale Coyne Racing), and the Chip Ganassi quartet of Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti, Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball.
The Lotus-powered Tagliani will also be at Barber, then head down to Sebring along with Pagenaud, Sato and the Ganassi gang to join Oriol Servia of LOTUS Dreyer and Reinbold Racing for another two-day run on Feb. 23-24.
Meanwhile, Panther Racing and their driver, J.R. Hildebrand, will be putting their Chevrolet through its paces on Feb. 22 at Phoenix International Raceway.
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One of the signature elements of the Super Bowl XLVI fan experience -- the massive zip line that took riders above and across Indianapolis' bustling Super Bowl Village -- may be making its way over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Fans have voiced their approval of such a proposal, and while IMS vice president of communications Doug Boles told the Indianapolis Star that a plan is still very much in the beginning stages, it appears the Speedway is listening intently. The IMS Facebook page has asked fans for their ideal zip line routes at IMS and over 200 have already responded as of this post's creation.
I'm not sure we'll get to see a zip line for this year's 500, however. As Boles put it in the IndyStar article, there's a lot of work to be done and not a lot of time to do it in. Plus, when you consider that the crowd for the 500 is much bigger than the Super Bowl, you'd have to think there needs to be a LOT more zip lines to go around.
Maybe in 2013?
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