IRL paying bills for engines of former Champ Car teams

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2008 | by Gary Graves

Open-wheel racing's unification has generated a heavy workload for Honda Performance Development and technical partner Ilmor Engineering. The sudden addition of five former Champ Car World Series teams to the 22 IRL IndyCar Series operations meant lots of overtime for workers. But production has lagged behind demand; many Champ Car teams only recently began receiving backup engines. Fortunately for those teams, the bill goes to the IRL, which is paying for engines and chassis along with $1.2 million in seed money per team. An estimate of the workload and price tag for the HI8R V8 engines:

Cost per engine: About $200,000-$250,000 (paid by the IRL to Champ Car teams; others are leased to existing teams by Honda)

Engines used per car/per team: 2 (one each for...