Honda Could Be Making Move to Indy Racing

Japanese newspapers and racing publications have been abuzz recently with stories about a supposedly imminent announcement that Honda is going to come Indy car racing.

Honda, which recently withdrew from Formula One after spending hundreds of millions of dollars during the past decade on an engine program that dominated the sport for several years, has made no comment about its future, in auto racing.

But the speculation continues to run hot that the Japanese company is ready to jump into the American racing scene as part of its 1990s marketing scheme for the U.S.

Nissan, another Japanese car giant, already has announced it has begun building an Indy car program that will likely get on track by 1994 at the earliest and 1995 at the latest.

Toyota and Mazda may not be far behind, and insiders say Honda appears ready to make some sort of announcement about Indy car this month.

One holdup to the future of Japanese or any other foreign participation in the American open-wheel series may be a series of new rules passed recently by the new Indy car board of directors.

In an escalating effort to hold down costs, the board adopted technical rules that limit some forms of advanced technology--among them some titanium engine parts and pneumatic valves--and also made it mandatory that any new engine supplier must show up with enough powerplants to fit a minimum of three cars over two teams. That would then expand to six cars over three teams for the second year.

The engine rule is apparently designed to keep any new supplier from getting an unfair advantage over the rest of the series by supplying a limited number of powerplants.

Honda reportedly spent between $40 million and $50 million a year on its Formula One engine program, which produced total dominance for the McLaren-Honda team for several years, thereby killing competition.

*

Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell, new teammates on the Newman-Haas Racing team, will test a 1993 Lola for the first time Tuesday through Friday at Phoenix International Raceway.

Andretti, entering the final year of a two-year contract at the age of 53, is scheduled to drive the Chevrolet-C-powered car on the one-mile oval for the first two days before Mansell, the reigning Formula One champion, takes his first Indy-car drive on Thursday.

Among other firsts, it will be the 39-year-old Englishman’s first time driving on an oval track.

It will also be the debut for 55-year-old Jim McGee as the team manager for Newman-Haas.

McGee officially joins the Lincolnshire, Ill.-based team on Monday.

He comes to Newman-Haas from the Rahal-Hogan team where McGee earned his eighth championship as either crew chief or team manager, this one with Bobby Rahal. The others titles came with Andretti in 1965, 1966 and 1969, Tom Sneva in 1977 and 1978, Rick Mears in 1979 and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1989.

McGees drivers have won 75 Indy car races, including four Indianapolis 500s--Andretti in 1969, Mears 1979, Gordon Johncock 1982, and Fittipaldi 1989.

The new job reuinites McGee and Andretti for the seventh time over a four-decade span. Thirty-four of Andretti’s 51 victories have come with McGee as his crew chief and team manager.

*

Richard Petty is spending a little quiet time with his family and the Petty Enterprises team after finally ending his Fan Appreciation Tour on Nov. 15 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Now that the excitement of his year-long retirement party has died down, the 55-year-old Petty is thinking more about building a winning team with new driver Rick Wilson than what he did as the sport’s leading driver over 35 years.

“My main concern is getting our new driver and Petty Enterprises back in line like we think it can be,” he said. “My main challenge is to be a Richard Childress, Junior Johnson or somebody like that. Those guys are the car owners that everybody looks up to now.”

*

In case you missed the quiet announcement recently, Indy car champion Bobby Rahal and Winston Cup titlist Alan Kulwicki lead the 1992 American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters All-American Auto Racing Team.

The team that will be honored at a banquet on Jan. 17 in Burbank, Calif., also includes Indy car driver Michael Andretti, stock car star Davey Allison, road racers Juan Manuel Fangio II of Argentina and Jack Baldwin, the champs of the IMSA GTP and SCCA Trans-Am series, respectively; NHRA drag racers Joe Amato and Kenny Bernstein, short track stars Steve Kinser and Mike Eddy and at-large selections Irv Hoerr and Rod Millen.

*

The fourth annual NASCAR Winston Cup Preview is scheduled Jan. 16 in Winston-Salem, N.C., and has been moved from the Benton Convention Center to the bigger Lawrence Joel Coliseum and its support buildings.

Since it began in 1990, the event has raised more than $600,000 for the Brenner Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem and Baptist Hospital’s AirCare helicopter trauma unit, which services several Winston Cup stock car events.

The preview includes personal appearances and autograph sessions by a number of NASCAR drivers, as well as an auction of racing memorabilia, and the appearance of several show cars.

More than 20,000 people showed up at last year’s one-day event.