INDYCAR: Indy to Hold Engine Manufacturers' Summit

IndyCar

INDYCAR: Indy to Hold Engine Manufacturers’ Summit

As many as nine manufacturers and builders will gather at IMS this Tuesday to discuss the future of Indy engines.

Robin Miller | Posted June 23, 2008 Indianapolis, Ind.

Honda has been IndyCar's sole supplier since 2006. (LAT Photo)

As many as nine engine manufacturers and builders will gather Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a round table discussion about the future of power at the Indianapolis 500.

Representatives from Audi, BMW, Mazda, General Motors and Honda are expected to attend along with Ilmor and Cosworth.

The Speedway hired Neil Ressler, former technical boss for all of Ford Motor Company, to use his worldwide contacts and put this round table together. It will be closed to the media but a teleconference may be held Wednesday.

"We invited everyone that made sense with the purpose of asking them what they are looking at in the future," said Fred Nation, IMS executive vice president of communications.

"Maybe we'll be able to arrive at a consensus to move forward and be aligned with more than one manufacturer."

Since 2006, Honda has supplied every engine for the Indy Racing League and its contract was recently extended through 2013. General Motors powered most of the IRL winners from 1997-2002 before dropping out after 2003 while Nissan also competed with limited success during that period and left at the end of 2002.

Toyota joined the IRL in 2002, then captured the championship in 2003 before pulling out following the 2005 season.

Ilmor, a longtime player in open wheel that also helped Honda enter the IRL, still builds IRL engines and Cosworth had a major presence in CART for 25 years and was the lone source of power for Champ Car from 2003-2007 before it went out of business.

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