Autoblog

Click on Helio Castroneves for a high res gallery

As the first season of the reunited IndyCar series winds down, the open wheel racers took to the Belle Isle track to close out the Detroit Grand Prix weekend. Scott Dixon sat on the pole holding a slim lead over Helio Castroneves in the season standings with three races to go including this one. If the race is still sitting on your DVR and you don't want to spoil the surprise, just enjoy the gallery for now, it won't spoil your appetite. Otherwise follow the jump for the results.


Photos Copyright ©2008 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Honda is now in its third season as the sole supplier of engines for the IndyCar series, and it has decided to re-up for another five years. Honda originally jumped into IndyCar from the now-departed Champ Cars in 2003, and at that time, the H was still competing with Toyota and General Motors. The other two manufacturers eventually dropped out, leaving Honda to supply the whole field. Honda's new committment isn't an exclusive deal. The Indy Racing League is holding a roundtable summit in Indianapolis next month to discuss new technical rules for the chassis and engines. Other manufacturers will be welcome to join the series in the future as well, but at least Indy officials know that Honda will be around for a while. IndyCars are currently running 3.5L 3.0L (I forgot they went back to 3.5L last year after several years at 3.0L) normally-aspirated, ethanol-fueled V8s. The biggest event of the IndyCar season is kicking off right about now with the running of the 92nd Indianapolis 500.



[Source: Honda]

Yesterday marked a historical milestone for open-wheel racing and for the movement towards alternative energy motorsports as former IndyCar champions Tonny Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr. ran tests on 100% ethanol fuel. The champs ran the new 3.5-liter Honda V8s around the road course at Daytona all day without incident, marking the first time open-wheel racing has been run on a completely renewable fuel source, in advance of the series' shift to ethanol for the 2007 season.

The drivers' performance was competitive against Scott Dixon and Vitor Meira who ran on the 2006 mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% methanol; all drivers clocking comparable lap times.

The historical significance of the day of testing was even further enhanced by the venue, as this was the first time since 1959 that Indy cars ran at Daytona.

[Source: The Auto Channel]