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IndyCar
INDY500: Meet Ron Ruzewski
You might not know race engineer Ron Ruzewski, but you certainly know his driver, Helio Castroneves, 3-time Indy 500 winner and polesitter for this Sunday’s race.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted May 26, 2010  
After claiming his fourth Indy 500 pole, Helio Castroneves gave thanks to Ron Ruzewski, the man who helped delver such a blazingly fast car. (Marshall Pruett)
“It was incredible. Just an amazing day. One that makes you feel so proud of what everyone has accomplished. I almost couldn’t watch Helio on his 227 and 228 laps…At times I had to look away from the TV screens and telemetry monitors!”

~Ron Ruzewski

You might not know Ron Ruzewski, but you certainly know his driver, Helio Castroneves, three-time Indy 500 winner and polesitter for this Sunday’s 94th running of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Ruzewski, whose formal title at Team Penske is team technical director, also serves as Castroneves’ race engineer. In plain English, Ruzewski is the man responsible for tuning the suspension and aerodynamics on the Brazilian’s Dallara-Honda IndyCar, and as fans witnessed on Pole Day at Indy last weekend, he gave Castroneves a car that not only earned pole position, it leveled the competition while doing so.

The bubbly Castroneves, well aware of how intertwined his own success is with Ruzewski’s, didn’t take long to summarize the role his engineer played in his staggering performance.

“Ron’s the man! I go as fast as he lets me go! People think it’s just the drivers who make the wins and the poles, but it’s the whole team and the engineers. Someone like Ron is a really big part of how well I do or don’t do.”

The know-how to deliver a car capable of lapping at 228 mph doesn’t come overnight, nor does the trust between a driver and engineer to produce race-winning performances. Castroneves and Ruzewski have their 2009 Indy 500 win and pole position to look back on with fondness, but long before they reached the pinnacle of success in open-wheel racing, the two got their starts in racing in completely different hemispheres.

For Ruzewski, his path to working in auto racing came from the most common influence in the sport: His father.

“I guess just like most people, I got interested in it as a kid. My dad used to drag race back in the day and he was always involved in car dealerships. As a boy I was always brought up around it, and in my home town, we used to go to the local speedway and watch Saturday night stock cars, either helping out the neighbor with his car or just spectating. I guess motorsports was always part of me. I was even into snowmobiles growing up, so if it had an engine and went fast, it had my attention.”

Growing up in Elma, NY, just outside of Buffalo, Ruzewski’s interest in IndyCar racing took flight when he attended Purdue University in Indiana. With his studies centered on engineering, and with the statewide history and culture surrounding the Indy 500, combining his education and his passion into a profession was a natural fit.

Ruzewski’s introduction to IndyCar racing came with Walker Racing in the early 1990s, where he started at the bottom of the engineering batting order and worked his way up, earning valuable knowledge about a number of race engineering disciplines.

“I worked at Walker Racing as either an assistant engineer or as a data acquisition engineer with Robby Gordon, Scott Goodyear, Mike Groff, Mark Smith and even with Willy T. Ribbs in those early days. There were a lot of different drivers, and it helped me to learn so much about engineering and about a driver’s wants and needs from a car in a short amount of time.”

After a crash course in engineering thanks to the revolving door of cars and drivers at Walker’s team, Ruzewski made a brave choice. Rather than finish his ascension up the race engineering ladder, he chose to step away from the sport to try his hand at another childhood passion.
Ruzewski, shown here at Walker Racing in 1994, learned the race engineering trade as so many others have by starting out working with data acquisition. (Courtesy of Racecar Engineering)

“I left Walker to try to get a job in the real world. Earlier I’d said I had a huge tie to snowmobiles growing up, and I had the opportunity to take a position at Yamaha Motor Corporation as a designer and ultimately as head of research and development for their snowmobile industry. I did that for almost 10 years. And while I was in Indianapolis in my college days I knew [Team Penske president] Tim Cindric. People in the racing community, we tend to keep in touch over the years. I was at the Milwaukee Mile doing some investigation of, actually some data acquisition stuff for snowmobiles and we ran into each other there. I said if the right opportunity ever came along I'd be interested in getting back into IndyCar racing because I knew my wife wasn't overly excited with where we lived, way up north testing snowmobiles. Before long, Tim rang me and I had an opportunity to join Penske as an engineer.”

Signing on in 2005, Ruzewski wasn’t immediately put in charge of engineering one of Team Penske’s IndyCars. His wide array of experience gained at Walker Racing was too valuable of an asset to Penske, and he was utilized in a variety of ways.

“I originally started as kind of a designer in the shock program and vehicle dynamics, just kind of a general role for the team. Back in the day, there were fewer people on an IndyCar team. The roles were less specialized. You were a shock guy, you were a data guy, you were helping in the wind tunnel, and you were a mechanic at times... You were pretty well-rounded. That helped me when I joined Penske because I was able to fulfill many needs. And all of my basic racetrack experience, plus working with the primary race engineers at Walker, and later at Penske, helped to prepare me for my role today.”

Ruzewski’s success with Castroneves is made even more impressive when you take into account his relative inexperience as a race engineer.

“I had never been the primary race engineer until I came here. Helio was the first guy that I was the primary race engineer for. So that was kind of a unique opportunity with Penske. It's weird; I’m with one of the best teams in IndyCar history, but I didn’t come here or land with Helio after a long career as a race engineer. I didn't have a long resume of championships, which you would expect their criteria to be, but it has worked out well.”

If Ruzewski lacked the usual pedigree associated with an engineer who would be considered to work alongside a driver of Castroneves’ caliber, it didn’t take long for him to prove that he was capable of putting his driver in victory circle.

“Ron is certainly an incredibly smart person,” said Castroneves. “In fact, he moved up his way pretty fast into the team, which shows he has tremendous potential and incredible expertise on his level. Now when I talk about that I believe it's because of his background; he was in racing, then he went to build snowmobiles for quite some time, which requires quite a lot of shock movement and design, which also relates to auto racing. I think when you put all those things together, he moved his way up without pushing himself there. The opportunity and circumstances ended up leading to that, and now look what he has accomplished.”

Of all the inter-related roles in sports, few are more tightly-knit than a racing driver and their engineer. Trust is the word used most often when drivers and engineers describe their relationship, and it’s a form of trust few other athletes will ever experience. A coach asking a basketball player to trust the play he’s called is one thing, but for a driver to trust an engineer’s work – enough to rocket into Turn 1 at Indy at 231 mph and believe his car won’t crash – demands as much faith as it does mutual respect.

Castroneves says he quickly learned that Ruzewski was acting in his best interest.
Dealing with extremes in driver personalities -- from Robby Gordon's wild child routine to Scott Goodyear's reserved demeanor -- helped Ruzewski to understand what Castroneves needed from his as a race engineer. (IMS Photo)

“He told me once for a race, ‘Hey, I suggest we use this particular gear ratios.’ I’m like, ‘No way. Those aren’t the right ones, I'm going to go faster.’ Then at the race day we actually slowed down and the gears he said I needed were the ones I should have used. Instead of being like, ‘I told you so,’ he said, ‘Okay, no problem.’ It's pretty simple. It’s little things like that where in the beginning I did not know to trust him, but once I saw he only thought about what was best for me, not who was right or wrong – even when he was right – he gained my trust.”

After seeing how committed Castroneves was to his craft, Ruzewski says he formed a strong bond with his driver. The trust apparently goes both ways, and in equal measures.

“He gives me room to do my thing because he trusts me. And I never questioned him – I'll question my setup on the car before I'll question the driver. So it's kind of a unique situation. If the car is not fast I never think it's him and I still don't. I know he has bad days but I know he's all business on the racetrack. There isn’t anybody else I’d rather work with.”

The Dancing with the Stars winner also freely admitted that Ruzewski’s calm and methodical approach to racing has been the yin to his rather exuberant and emotional yang.

“He worked with Robby Gordon who was a little bit hot, and he also worked with Scott Goodyear who I think was more relaxed. So when he works with drivers he understands what I have to do. And me, particularly, I'm a very emotional person, I express my feelings pretty well; I do not have a poker face and he's the opposite. He's completely the opposite. He’s totally a poker face, doesn't show emotion. Sometimes you don't know if he's listening to you! He’s so quiet. But he’s very smart and goes straight to the point and that's why I like working with him. So Ron, for me, has been an incredible help. It certainly is the part that I needed. I'm very happy that we ended up winning the 500 because he worked so hard for it.”

In addition to crediting his wife and Team Penske consultant Rick Mears, the four-time Indy 500 winner, for helping him to advance his career, Ruzewski said the two men at the top of the organization are most responsible for what he’s achieved in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

“Well, certainly, Tim Cindric and Roger Penske, in the last five years. They've certainly been a huge influence in my career path. They’ve provided us with the best cars and the best drivers, which is all an engineer could ask for. I think I'm pretty lucky – I’ve had an interest in snowmobiles and I've had an interest in race cars and here I am spending most of my career working on two things I really enjoy. So it's not too bad of a gig!”

Despite having almost a decade of IndyCar experience before Ruzewski became his engineer, Castroneves says he’s learned a number of things from him while working together.
Castroneves' electrifying performance in qualifying had Ruzewski covering his eyes. When it comes to wringing the last drops of speed from a car around Indy, few are better than the Brazilian. (LAT)

“From Ron I learned to read some of the areas that normally I would not read, some data graphs, some areas where the car, over the years was changing. And because I have such incredible engineers I would normally just let them do their job, and they just let me take care of the driving. But in 2003, 2004, actually, and even ’05 we’re like, okay, we've got to find something better here. We’ve got to work closer with our engineers like partners, not like we have two separate jobs. And that's when Ron came aboard.

“So, for me, learning from him, it gives me confidence. When you want to make a change to the car, he's ready to go. He doesn’t second guess. I'm like, ‘Should we do this? Should we do that...’ You don’t want to do that. He doesn’t let me do that. He is one of those guys if you go for it you’ve got to go for it. His level of confidence is pretty good so it makes me feel pretty safe. And when it’s time for me to go out there and drive, we nail it.”

Ruzewski says working with Castroneves has been as intense as it has been fast.

“I think in the high-speed stuff, the high-speed corners, he's fearless even to this day. Especially now that we have three cars to compare with he's… there's areas where he’s a lot faster than our other drivers and on these ovals and these high-speed sections I think he's pretty fearless, but it's in a controlled manner. I think that's what makes him so good here at Indianapolis. I think he can adapt. Sometimes if the car's not perfect he's got an incredible ability to adapt to the scenario, which is good and bad sometimes; if he adapts too quick maybe I didn't tune the car enough and he’ll drive around the problem. I think the biggest thing is he's really focused. Outside the car, he’s the fun Helio everybody knows. When he's in the car he's got the same personality, but he's very focused on winning.”

After five years of working together and with a number of major accomplishments to cherish, Ruzewski says there are a few experiences with Castroneves that stand out.

“Well, of course, every win is special, but probably the three things that jump out the most for me is the very first test we did at Phoenix together. I think it was actually an open test. I had never run a car in Phoenix myself and it was the first time I got to work with him, it was in January. And we were fastest both days of the test. And that kind of really kicked it off for us. And then obviously every pole and last year’s win at Indianapolis. And now we have this year’s pole. Indianapolis is the reason that I really wanted to get back in IndyCars. To earn poles and a win here; it’s the ultimate deal.”

For all of the personal and professional accolades Ruzewski has amassed, there are many things he’s shared with Castroneves that have nothing to do with auto racing. The two have clearly rubbed off on each other, and that’s a big part of why the two have formed such an effective partnership.
Maintaining an even keel on the radio is important, but as Ruzewski shares, it's OK to have a little bit of fun on occasion. (Marshall Pruett)

“How can you work with Helio and not have fun? He does a good job of teaching you the glass is half-full. To always be optimistic and always have fun but yet go forward, even on the bad days. That has meant a lot. Every now and then I can tell I need to lighten it up a little bit when we’re racing -- just to let him know I am enjoying it. I know it’s business and he knows it’s business, but I guess there's a reassurance that if I'm calm, he's calm.”

He says he avoids playing pranks on Castroneves – something that is best left to the IndyCar drivers – but that hasn’t kept Ruzewski from laughing at some of the better situations his driver has fallen prey to. Ruzewski might have his driver’s best interest at heart when it comes time to go racing, but when it comes to seeing him get punked by one of his rivals, he’s the first in line to watch.

“I saw one here where one of the drivers arranged to have Helio pulled over by the police. He was trying to bribe the police man by giving him his helmet! There’s always something silly going on with him. It's just the way he is, but who would want to change him? That’s who Helio is, and I think we’re all thankful for that.”



Ron Ruzewski and Team Penske will help Helio Castroneves pursue his fourth Indianapolis 500 win this Sunday, starting at 11 a.m. ET.


Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com’s Auto Racing Editor, and also covers IndyCar and sportscar racing for the site. Pruett grew up at ‘Pruett's Olde English Garage,’ his father's shelter for abused foreign cars, and spent his childhood being dragged across the West Coast to help with his dad's amateur racing exploits.

Pruett spent 20 years working in the IRL, CART, IMSA, and most of the known open-wheel feeder series before retiring from active duty in 2001. And in case you were wondering, he isn’t related to Scott Pruett.

Marshall lives in Northern California with his wife Shabral, and can be emailed .







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