Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
IndyCar
INDY 500: Engineering’s English Accent
The Indianapolis 500 is an American institution, but many of its participants have hailed from across the pond. Get to know some of the Englishmen behind the scenes.
Ian Wagstaff  | http://www.racecar-engineering.com  |  Posted May 24, 2009   Indianapolis, IN
Allen McDonald, who engineered Dario Franchitti to Indy 500 and IndyCar Series titles in 2007, now looks after Tony Kanaan. (Ian Wagstaff)
You can get a proper cup of tea in Indianapolis and it has probably got something to do with the influx of British engineers who have been steadily arriving here since, in the early to mid-1960s, John Cooper and then Colin Chapman demonstrated to the Indianapolis establishment that the logical place for the engine was behind the driver.

In those days they came, sometime conquered and then went home. The Team Lotus mechanics, such as David Lazenby and Bob Dance would be those that also looked after the Formula One cars. After the Indy 500, particularly in 1963 and 1965, they had a World Championship to win. Lazenby, chief mechanic on Jim Clark’s 1965 Indy 500 winning car was typical, eventually setting up Hawk, his own Formula Ford manufacturing operation in the UK.

Gradually, though, some began to like what they saw at the Brickyard and stayed behind bringing with them a knowledge of rear engined open wheelers honed on the classic F1 race tracks of Europe. Engineers such as Derek Mower, father of current Panther Racing team manager Chris Mower, found work with the locals like Vel’s Parnelli Jones.

By the 1980s and 1990s Lola, March and Reynard – all of them UK-based constructors – had come to dominate the Speedway bringing with them a host of Brits. And many of these imported Brits have just not returned home. Take former Lola and Reynard designer Bruce Ashmore. Today you can find him just north of the town working on a very American project, USAC’s new Gold Crown car. Out by the airport resides English-born Mark Scott (formerly of Riley & Scott) and his company Prototype Development. Although his family moved to New Zealand when he was 12, Scott arrived in Indianapolis via the British-based McLaren Formula One team.

Bill Wooldridge, who works with Scott, came over from England in the 1980s. He has a theory that in the days when Lola and March ruled Indianapolis, the British engineers would spend time in the States but normally return. He believes that it was only when Reynard took on Indy, and there seemed to be an engineer from that UK manufacturer working alongside virtually every team, that the numbers really took off and many simply stayed on.

The British influence is one that even the local media recognizes. “Mario Andretti had a secret weapon in winning pole position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday,” said the Indianapolis Star in 1987. “It was an Englishman named Adrian Newey, the engineer on his Lola.”

Newey may have returned to Europe to design Formula One cars but the current Indy Racing League teams are populated by Brits. There are three senior engineers at Target Chip Ganassi. The team managers at Newman Haas Lanigan, Panther Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold, Brian Lisles, Chris Mower and Gary Neal respectively, all hail from England.

On the last two occasions when the Indianapolis 500 has been won by a British driver, they have been engineered by fellow Brits. Both of these are still at Andretti Green Racing where, despite his claims to be an Australian, Kim Green will admit to having a British passport.

Allen McDonald, who engineered Dario Franchitti in 2007, has a Formula One background having been with Brabham and then Arrows/Footwork. However, the USA is where McDonald says he could be “deeply involved in developing a car” and where there was “a more level playing field.” He travelled the Atlantic initially to work with PacWest in CART and then from 2002 with AGR. Of his first visit to Indianapolis he recalls that, “as an engineer it was difficult to get a grasp of what was needed. It almost scared me the first year.” Indy was a ‘one-off’ for the team that year. “We bought Dallaras, took them to Indy and then tried to make the work.” Qualifying was a struggle although McDonald did see “a bit of sense of it by the second week.” Nevertheless, he was pleased to leave the Speedway that year. “It didn’t do much for me.”

When AGR moved into the IRL full time McDonald began to understand the subtleties of oval racing. It took him a while to actually start to enjoy it but he was helped by “good races” in 2004 and 2005. Then came 2007 and AGR’s second British double in three years. “Dario was in mentally determined place,” he recalls.

If McDonald started off in F1, his AGR colleague Eddie Jones can claim to go one further. His father Aiden actually built a Grand Prix car, the Shannon. He first came to North America to work in Indy Lights, moving up to the IRL as engineer for Michael Andretti. Back in 1983 a young Andretti had won the Formula Super Vee race at Long Beach. Jones had come fifth that day. As with Franchitti and McDonald, Jones and Dan Wheldon both “felt that it would be our day” in 2005. “I had a sense of an unstoppable force.” This year Jones engineers, for the first time, for Danica Patrick.
Mark Scott's Riley & Scott IndyCar led Buddy Lazier to the 2000 IRL championship. (Ian Wagstaff)

AGR’s third Brit is a Welshman with an Italian name, Tino Belli. Like so many of the Brits that have worked at the Speedway he spent time at March, initially as an aerodynamicist. That led to working on the Indy program, arriving in the USA in 1986. After time seconded to Kraco he became chief development engineer on March’s Porsche engined cars. At the end of 1990 he left March to work on the F1 Fondmental.

There he was in a trio of Bits that included Les Mactaggart, now senior technical director of the IRL and a perfect example of how England currently influences Indy, and Tim Holloway, now chief designer at Le Mans contender Zytek Engineering but another who, during time at March found himself working at the Brickyard. (Holloway is not the only Zytek man to have engineered at Indy. Operations director John Manchester worked there one year for Dick Simon.) In 1995 Belli returned to the States with Forsythe.

There will be another British driver/engineer combination at this year’s 500. Ganassi’s Andy Brown is running the joint Ganassi/Schmidt entry for Alex Lloyd and sharing his driver’s shocking pink livery. Brown is another who got his start at March. He arrived at Indy almost by accident having wanted to set up a Formula 3 team and ended up working at Galmer, the 1992 500 winning manufacturer that was, like all the others at that stage, based in Britain. From there he went to work for Bruce McCaw and then Panther where he was technical director. Today he is one of just three Brits in senior engineering positions at Target Chip Ganassi.

Page 1 of 2
Prev
12
Next
ian_wagstaff's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian Wagstaff

Racecar-Engineering

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.