Q: A while back someone raised a question about midget engines. I will share what I know. Once you get beyond the 110 Offys, flathead V6 60s and air-cooled VWs, there have been many engines that have appeared and raced. In no particular order, SESCO built inline fours by sawing off one bank of a Chevy V8 and V4s by sawing off four cylinders crosswise, also off of a Chevy V8. Wilson and others also built midget engines using modified Chevy V8 blocks. Others include the Pontiac Iron Duke pushrod four-cylinder, Toyota inline four variants by Pink and Stanton, MOPARS, Honda inline fours by HPD and Gaerte.
However the real unusual ones were destroked GM 215 aluminum V8s, small block GM V6s, the Cosworth Vega (heard this one run at the now-defunct Santa Fe Speedway driven by Terry Wente; very loud!), V8s built from custom crankcases and four-cylinder parts from Kawasaki, Suzuki or Yamaha and the 2.5L hemi V8 from a Daimler SP250. Eventually the rules were changed to limit the engines to six cylinders. Anyway, this isn’t an exhaustive list, but it covers quite a bit of ground.
Finally, a gripe:
While entertainment at motorsport weekends is not a new thing, it galls me that the price of the entertainment is rolled into my ticket even though I never have any plans to attend. Have other attendees complained about this? If so, is anyone listening?
Don Hopings, Cathedral City, CA
MP: Cosworth Vega! Hard to say on the ticket prices, Don, since every track/series handles things in a different way.
Q: Just learned that Hy-Vee will be the title sponsor for the Milwaukee IndyCar races. That is great news.
I attended the Milwaukee race the last year of its existence, and the experience was dreadful. I was looking forward to some brats and beer and my memory was that there was only one place that was open and that the lines were beyond belief. It was clear that there was no thought given to fan comfort, as almost every food and merchandise stand was closed.
IndyCar has a great product. But that is just not enough. It needs to also give a great fan experience. Based upon what I have heard from those that attend the Iowa race with Hy-Vee as the sponsor, I might just go back to Milwaukee and bring the kids.
Ed R., Hickory Hills, IL
MP: I take comfort in knowing that the series and the Wisconsin State Fair, who are putting on the event, know they only have one chance to get this right. I won’t speak for them, but from what I’m told, a much greater effort to provide fans with a high-quality experience will be made than Milwaukee’s last promoter achieved. Folks are no longer willing to stand in crazy lines to get food, beer, or use the bathroom. It wasn’t always that way, but it is that way now, and that’s some IndyCar knows from all of the complaints it received about IMS, which have been changed for the better under Penske’s ownership.
Penske isn’t the main promoter at Milwaukee, but this is something his people should nail.
Q: If IndyCar is looking for urban/metro places for street races, I have an idea: Downtown Indy. You have Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, The Circle Monument, JW Marriott, a bridge, and Victory Field to race around. Lay out about a 3.2-mile course and I would definitely go. Get off the road course at IMS. That would be great!
Eric Rife
MP: The reason to do street races is to introduce a series to a new region or audience. Unfortunately, both agendas would fail here and do nothing to help or grow the series.
Q: I’m a fan of all forms of motorsports, and have been since about age 4 (I’m 61) when my dad first took me to the local short track near our home. I’m not understanding all the mailbag hate toward Roger Penske and the general gloom-and-doom over IndyCar. I get that the TV numbers and ticket sales for IndyCar fall well short of F1 and NASCAR, but despite that, the revenue available from all sources for all parties is enough to run the sanctioning body and fully fund 27 full-time teams, all of which are reasonably competitive. All of the pay drivers are at least competent enough to pass the straight-face test, and some are quite good. The racing is outstanding.
Do we really want IndyCar to be F1? I find the current version of F1 unwatchable. After the first lap, it’s over, unless there’s an undercut, or overcut, or whatever. Sanitized circuits with no character, artificial track limits and only 20 cars on the grid, maybe six of which have any chance to win. No thanks. They have everything Mailbag writers seem to want for IndyCar — a huge TV package, huge team budgets, fresh cars every year, and yet I’d rather watch “This Old House” reruns.
NASCAR? I love stock car racing, but between stage breaks, lucky dogs, caution flags for hot dog wrappers, and drivers who basically just run over each other because I guess passing cleanly is just too hard… I do still watch it, but at times I have to hold my nose while doing so.
While I’m on a good rant, let’s talk about Honda. They push IndyCar into hybrid power (knowing it will cause costs to skyrocket) because they want to be relevant to their production cars, then say they don’t see a return on investment. Really? Because the TV numbers and race attendance figures are about where they’ve been all along. What were they expecting? And now they’re threatening to pack up their toys and go on home, all the while playing footsie with NASCAR, where presumably they will invest millions of dollars to build a two-valve pushrod V8 with throttle body fuel injection. Just like my dad’s old ’93 Chevy Caprice. OK. Whatever, dudes.
Let’s all be thankful for the current state of IndyCar.
Mike, Marietta, GA
MP: Rather than use the well-worn “Everything Is Awesome” catchphrase, let’s go with 1988’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” from Bobby McFerrin.
Q: Let’s say you’re the Chief Marketing Officer of NTT, the title sponsor of IndyCar. Would you want to tell your executives and other senior management that the series they’re sponsoring is having its season-ending race in downtown Nashville, or 35 miles away from Broadway? “Bring your wives, they can go glamping and to the flea market next door!”
Ed, Jersey
MP: The complaints I’ve heard from the paddock about this are ongoing, Ed. I had one team owner call last week and vent for 10 minutes on the subject, which tells you how maddening this is — even weeks after the announcement.
From not being able to get refunds on their downtown hotels to losing Nashville GP-specific sponsors to having sponsors call with serious concerns about the bait-and-switch with the huge hype with the downtown finale going away for an oval event they didn’t want or ask for when they signed their contracts.
Based on all they were told about the splashy new season finale in downtown Nashville, each team went and hyped up their sponsors, made big plans, and built that event into their 2024 sponsorship and promotions plans. And what happens when the downtown event goes away? The teams are the ones who look like idiots. Penske Entertainment didn’t offer to call all of those sponsors and apologize and smooth things over. That was left to the teams, which have caught hell for it.
And yes, Penske Entertainment isn’t the promoter of the event, so it’s not their direct fault, but the business relationship Penske Entertainment struck with the promoter is something IndyCar teams expect to be managed and monitored to ensure a failure like this doesn’t happen.
Countless relationships have been stressed. How many total logos are on the field of 27 cars, and how many calls to those sponsors, and how many blistering inbound calls or emails or texts did the Rahals and Shanks and Carpenters and Andrettis and so on receive about Nashville? None of their faults, but they get all the heat. Not a good look.