A brand new Indy Racing League will debut Saturday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
But in the end, it will more than likely look a lot like the old IRL.
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| Getting to No. 1 will be a tall order for ex-Champ Car driver Justin Wilson. (Getty Images) |
Newcomers from the Champ Car side include Graham Rahal, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson, Bruno Junqueira and Will Power, whose presence instantly makes the series deeper and more talented.
Just don't expect much from this bunch in the early going as the learning curve for the former Champ Car stars will be steeper than the 20 degree banking at Homestead.
"It's going to be hard to get up to speed here by the race," Power said after a test session at the 1.5-mile superspeedway. "But, it's a learning year for us. I'm taking in as much as I can and trying to learn what makes these cars go fast."
The Champ Car brigade will have a whole lot more than a new set of tracks like Homestead to learn this year. Figuring out an IRL car, a much different animal than the turbocharged machines of Champ Car's past, will be an equally difficult task.
Jimmy Vasser, co-owner of the KV team, has enjoyed watching his team be successful in the winter testing sessions but knows once the bell rings for the season to begin it will be a very different challenge.
"We are not overly confident right now," the former CART champion said. "We have our eyes open. I know we have a great group of people here and we are all focused on working hard and learning, but certainly we understand that the teams we are going to go up against have a lot more familiarity with the chassis and the series. That puts us at a big disadvantage, but we will chip away at it."
Just getting seat time and making laps in the new cars has been difficult for the incoming Champ car teams.
"We've got to judge the competition when we get there but it's going to be a tough road because we have no time in these cars, let alone the fact most of us have very little experience on ovals," said Power, who does have five oval-track starts in his career. "We've got to be realistic and these first few races are going to be very difficult."
Power is one of the few newcomers who has at least a limited oval-track background. For some, like Conquest Racing's Enrique Bernoldi, turning left only will be a completely foreign experience.
"I think here on the grid, I'm the guy who has more Formula One starts and spent more time in Formula One," said Bernoldi, a Venezuelan with 28 Grand Prix starts. "I have a good CV, but from what we will race, people like Tony (Kanaan), (Dan) Wheldon, Helio (Castroneves), they're more experienced than me in this ground here. So I have to learn from them. I'm not the expert here now."
The role of expert still belongs to the circuit's powerhouse trio of teams: Andretti-Green Racing, Target Ganassi and Penske Racing. Since 2005, those three teams have dominated IRL racing, winning 45 of 47 events and the last five series championships.
That's not expected to change this year, even with the addition of Newman/Haas/Lanigan, the team responsible for every Champ Car title from 2004 through 2007.
"It's great for the fans to have the Andretti-Foyt-Rahal rivalry going again, but do I expect to run with them initially? I'd like to be able to say yes but with my lack of experience on ovals, it's not realistic," said Graham Rahal, the 19-year-old son of former open-wheel star Bobby, who will pilot one of the N-H-L cars this season. "It's going to be a steep learning curve for me and my team, so we'll just try and get competitive as quick as possible."
Andretti-Green will again field a four-car stable with Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and newcomer Hideki Mutoh. AGR veteran Kanaan, who led the series with five wins a year ago, recognizes the competition will increase this season but is optimistic about his chances for another title.
"I'm confident that the last five years I've been in the championship hunt until the last race, so I'm not expecting any less," says Kanaan, who returns as the elder statesman of the AGR squad at age 33. "I'm fully aware that we're going to have more teams, more cars, more good teams, and the competition is probably going to get even higher."
Kanaan's right on the more teams and cars observation. Ramping up the competition level will take a little more time.