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Indy Open Test

Speedway, Indiana, April 10, 2000.

The rookie program scheduled for Friday and Saturday met with weather problems. IRL officials changed the schedule for the Sunday through Tuesday test days so rookies and veterans shared the track. I drove to Indy from Springfield Monday morning, April 10, and planned to spend the night but weather on Tuesday was supposed to get worse so I drove back that evening. Being there Monday was enough. The Speedway is exciting when it's sunny and full of fans and racecars but standing there in a jacket under a cloud cover watching a few cars drone by gets old quick.

The main buzz was about Juan Montoya turning 217 mph on his fifth lap ever at this track. Here's a page of photos of Team Ganassi at Indy.

The new Riley & Scott chassis, shown below might be in trouble. Buddy Lazier is a good driver and he couldn't get above 214 mph. Greg Ray did a 220 and Montoya 219.

The R&S front wing is the only one that is not rectangular in plan view.

The rear suspension is a conventional pushrod, bellcrank, coilover layout. Those are Penske shocks. The anti-roll bar between the shocks is driver adjustable, a necessity in oval racing to change balance as fuel burns off. It's shown in nearly full-stiff position. As the blades rotate counter-clockwise from our view they become less stiff and the bar provides less roll stiffness.

It's difficult to tell in this photo but comparison with the two photos below show the differences in the aero fairings in front of the rear tire on the three IRL chassis. The R&S above has a kick-up panel above the fairing that forms a tunnel toward the middle of the rear of the car above the diffuser.

The G Force fairing is painted black and doesn't show up very well either. This is Jeff Ward's car entered by A.J. Foyt.

Sorry, this Dallara fairing doesn't show up very well either but you can tell the Dallara and G Force fairing are simpler than the R&S.

Riley & Scott was recently bought by Reynard and this car was developed with Reynard's new wind tunnel in Indy. R&S designed and built some great sports cars but their IRL designs have struggled at the Speedway.