IRL giving Honda excuse to leave series

Recall the pop-off valve controversy in CART whereby a big hubbub was made by Toyota and Honda over the Honda clever way of fooling the pop-valve into allowing a higher boost pressure in the intake plenum. Toyota felt CART was too lenient on Honda and Honda was mad at CART for making them change their design, which they felt was within the rules. While it may have been legal within the loosely written worded rules at the time, it clearly was not within the "spirit" of the rules.

As we recall, the biggest gaff in the pop-off valve controversy was that when CART came up with the spacer, they tested it only with Toyota. Honda was peeved, and rightfully so, as it gave Toyota an advantage by gathering data on how the spacer enabled the pop-off valve to measure pressure in the plenum. A lot of work was done by Honda to “trick" the valve into measuring a value that was lower than was actually being achieved in the plenum. With Toyota getting the first use of the spacer, they could get a jump on how to fool the valve. While Honda was not really happy to change their plenum design, the perception was that Toyota received preferential treatment. That, was unacceptable to them. In retrospect, CART should have tested with each engine manufacturer, but we don’t think their intent was necessarily political in nature. We think they just goofed.

CART was stuck between a rock and a hard place as Toyota and Honda, fierce rivals, played one side against the other. They used this incident as one of their excuses for leaving CART and going to the IRL, but the conspiracy theorists are sure they already had made their mind up that they were leaving CART for the IRL and the Oval Track Cartel, lured over with promises of eventual entry into Nextel Cup. While we don't know about this conspiracy theory, we do know that it appears Toyota and Honda are now Nextel Cup bound.

Skip forward now to 2005. Both Toyota and Honda are in the IRL and we have now learned that the IRL is allowing Toyota to in effect break the rules to catch up to the superior Honda powerplant. “We do have some concerns, particularly with our friends at Toyota," said Robert Clarke, whose HPD factory has taken over most development duties from original engine designer Ilmor. “The IRL have granted Toyota permission to modify certain closed or restricted areas for development within their engine, due to our very strong performance last year. And although the HI5R Honda engine remains strong, we expect the Toyota to show a jump in performance either here at Motegi or at the next event, the Indy 500." Speaking from prepared notes at a Tokyo press conference designed to promote the upcoming Twin Ring Motegi event, Clarke focused the majority of his attention on Honda's recent successes before noting the possibility of stiffer competition from Toyota in the future. “The IRL technical rules are very strict, and we're finding that big power increases are becoming more and more difficult to find. The HI5R is a more refined, more mature engine than the HI4R, last year's predecessor, with improved power, drivability and fuel economy. Within off season testing and the first three events, the HI5R remains the top performing engine within the IRL series," said Clarke.

While Clarke did not publicly come out and state his distaste with the IRL for giving Toyota the chance to sidestep the rules, clearly he is not happy or he would not have mentioned it. Why isn't Honda allowed to make the same changes? Here we have the IRL openly bending their own rules for one competitor but not another. It's akin to allowing the last place team's batters in baseball four strikes instead of three for a strikeout. It's just the kind of excuse Honda needs to justify their rumored exit of the IRL to NASCAR. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Mark C.