INDYCAR: HVM, Lotus Parting Ways After Fontana

IndyCar

INDYCAR: HVM, Lotus Parting Ways After Fontana

Not only is the HVM Racing and Lotus partnership coming to an end, but Lotus tells SPEED.com Fontana is likely its final race in the IndyCar Series.

Marshall Pruett | Posted September 15, 2012

The IndyCar season finale is also a fitting event for Lotus to exit the series. Simona de Silvestro lost an engine nine laps into practice and later ran 21 mph off the pace in the final warmup. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

For Keith Wiggins, owner of the HVM Racing IZOD IndyCar Series team, his driver, Simona de Silvestro, and the entire crew associated with the No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy car, September 15th has been circled on the most anticipated date on the calendar.

As the first team to sign with Lotus, Wiggins’ tight-knit program has endured its most depressing season so far with the under-powered engine relegating its promising driver and roster of sponsors to the back of the grid.

HVM owner Keith Wiggins is looking forward to closing the books on the 2012 season. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

But with the conclusion of tonight’s 500-mile IndyCar finale in Fontana, the Indiana-based team can finally start to plan for life after Lotus.

“Most people have been thinking 2013 for the last month or so,” Wiggins told SPEED.com. “We were probably thinking about it for the last two or three months, when we realized we couldn’t extract ourselves from the Lotus contract.”

The 2012 season started with five Lotus-powered cars taking the green flag at St. Petersburg, but by the Indy 500, HVM was left as the marque’s sole partner for the remainder of the year as Bryan Herta Autosport, Dragon Racing and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing wrangled out of their engine supply contracts with the blessing of the series.

With deeper business ties to the manufacturer, he extraction process wasn’t quite as easy for HVM, nor would IndyCar grant Wiggins’ request for a release that would allow him to partner with Chevy or Honda, the series’ other two engine suppliers.

Now, with his contract just 500 miles away (or less) from running its course, Wiggins was unable to say which powerplant he’ll have at his disposal in 2013, but did rule out one in particular.

“It’s fair to say we wouldn’t have a Lotus,” he said with a wry smile.

Speaking with Lotus IndyCar project manager Olivier Picquenot Saturday evening, the Frenchman confirmed that the brand’s short, strange journey in the IZOD IndyCar Series is winding down through the open-wheel equivalent of natural selection.

Lotus IndyCar project manager Olivier Picquenot, right, endured a program that was less than pleasant from the outset. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

“The future does not look so good,” he said with a raised brow.

“In Edmonton we have some potential teams [that] was still interested [to] see if we can continue next year. Lately, we have no request from anybody. Other new teams, I don't know if any new teams were thinking to coming into 2013 with us.”

With no teams on its roster after Fontana, and no teams in the pipeline to use its John Judd-built 2.2-liter twin-turbo V6 engines, it would likely take the establishment of its own factory program or a wad of cash to keep its engines on track, but Picquenot believes the financial reorganization going on within Lotus Cars will prevent either scenario from happening.

“The situation with Lotus, we have no support from the manufacturer,” he explained. “[IndyCar] is one of the programs where they don’t want to be involved. They want to have the minimum of loss during the financial year, when they finish in March next year.”

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