Derrick Walker: I would say overall positive. Obviously, there’s a tremendous workload that has been just thrust on them so everybody’s scrambling a little bit to absorb that. But I think overall, you talk to the drivers and you talk to the engineers, and the advent of car competition now back with us has changed the atmosphere quite a bit, for the positive, I think.

 

 

Derrick Walker: We haven’t bulked up that much. We’ve been planning it for about a year, working gradually getting to this point. So scanning is a part of our technical inspection, and we’ve had to bring that in to scan the cars and confirm the aero kit legality. We have a contractor who is working really closely with us in providing some equipment for us to be able to use that.

 

Derrick Walker: Well, it’s obviously something we’re watching carefully. We don’t know what the effect of the aero kits is going to be in traffic, whether with the straights, and the tunnels, sidewalls or without, we don’t know what that is. And I’m not sure the manufacturers have got it all figured out, either. But I think it was the right thing to do based on – I mean, they can produce 25% increase in downforce, potentially, that’s a big hike in anybody’s world. And once these guys have figured out how to maximize these things, watch out, it’s going to be pretty damn fast.

 

So I think it’s really the unanswered question is how they are going to be in traffic. That is, I hope we’re not disappointed by it. You could say if got more downforce from the wings, it’s going to take it away. Or you could say, well, we’ve got more downforce period. It is reacting differently to the airflow. You have no way of knowing until you actually go try. We haven’t got accurate computer tools to actually measure that at the moment. But we’re going to know real soon, obviously. It’s going to come up very quickly once we get driver feedback.

 

 

 

Derrick Walker: Well, it’s been a challenge because we’ve got to deal with today to get to tomorrow. Right now with aero kits, that’s been a big change in our spec, so that’s required a lot of our attention. But I think once we get the aero kits up and running, get through Indy, will be devoting a lot more time… Putting some points down as to what the future might be. Our goal is to get it done as soon as possible, whatever that is.

 

But I look at it and say, I’m not too sure, even though I originally said 2018, I’m not so sure 2018 needs to be 2018 or 2019. It needs to be when we are ready. I’d rather take a little bit extra time to make sure we make the next step the right one. If that takes a little bit more time in the planning stage, then I think we should. But if you look at it, we can probably right now make ’18. But it depends on where we end up with our planning process as to what it takes.

 

Obviously, there’s a lot of other constituents that we are going to be including in the next few months to talk about some of the things that we are looking at and getting the feedback, getting their input. We’ve not yet gone out to any great lengths across the paddock and to the fans to really see what everybody thinks. That’s where the RACER.com IndyCar 2018 articles have been very interesting, because you get all kinds of people writing in and giving their views on it. It’s interesting to see what they are thinking. But I’ll say again, to get it right is the most important, rather than the timing of it.

 

 

Derrick Walker: I don’t think it would. Not without a scramble. I’d be very surprised if our manufacturers said they wanted it that soon. I think it would be better taking the time to do it right and to get it to where we really think about and talk about what it is, 2018 or beyond. We’re getting into our discussions with our manufacturers shortly and we’ve asked them, what do you want for the future? What would you like in the way of engines for the future for you? Obviously, if we go out and find other manufacturers and get their input, put all the ideas on the table and get a consensus where we could have more engine manufacturers in our series, we would want to do that.

 

First we’re going to start with the current ones and see how much technology and what sort of specification would they think would be of interest to their company. That process is going on now, so once we really do that due diligence I think we’ll have a better idea of what is shaping up. For the moment, it’s not looking like they are pushing us for an earlier date.

 

 

Derrick Walker: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

 

Derrick Walker: For me, I think you’re looking at apples and oranges. You’re looking at a feeder series and the requirement of a feeder series, a very standard car that is a spec car that is for that. When you’re looking at, when you’re looking at IndyCar, and that is the top of our open wheel series, I think you’re looking for something a little bit different than the current Indy Lights. The Indy Lights is a great car, to me it looks very, very similar to the 2006 Atlantic car I had. It’s a very classic design and it works well. But I think IndyCar needs to be a little bit further out than that. My hope is that we have a car that looks like more to the future and takes a bigger step.

 

 

 

Derrick Walker: Well, we’ve been talking to manufacturers all along and continue to do so. I can honestly say we haven’t turned anybody away. Any ideas a manufacturer has got that shows interest in IndyCar, we would certainly like to explore those ideas. But it’s got to be in the environment of our current partners as well. It’s no good getting a new manufacturer in with a new engine and lose two of them that have supported the series all these years and are doing a fantastic job.

 

The point is we haven’t turned anybody away. If there is a day when somebody comes along and they want to really come with something different, we would certainly sit down and explore that. We’re not out there saying that we’re changing the universe and any engine can come up and run. We’re not at that point. It could be something for the future, but we’re not at that point. But the competition, I think, could be interesting if you had other sounds and other formulas. But you have to have somebody who wants to do it and get with their partners and work out a formula that says this makes a lot of sense. Performance balancing is a tricky, tricky business, as we all well know. We won’t go down that road if we can’t sustain it and there aren’t enough interested parties to do it. But we never close the door on the subject.

 

 

Derrick Walker: When they talk about power, I mean, we are limited to the power right now. You could arguably make a point that we do need to and increase our power and decrease our downforce. You need to put more engine into it and put more driver into it. But maybe making that change, a big change like that, has to happen over time. Obviously, we’ve got a car that is designed and built to do what it does. You make a big change in downforce and give it a lot more power, it’s not going to work as it is. So we have to look at how do we transition in that direction, if that’s the way we want to go. Personally, I would say more power and less downforce is where I would like to see it evolve.

 

 

Derrick Walker: It’s still on the table. Again, it’s a conversation with our current manufacturers. How interested are they? It’s an expensive step to make and that technology is very much evolving very quickly. We have to make that decision carefully. How far in the future? I think eventually it has to be part of our future. But is it going to be in the short term? I don’t see it. But our manufacturers, if they come to us and have a discussion, and we’re talking about 2018 and beyond, say, hey, we  want, we must, we are never going to ignore it; obviously, we’re going to look at it.

 

Derrick Walker: It’s very much in play in so much as Brembo has made a concerted effort to eliminate some of the concerns some of the teams had. So far we’re getting very positive feedback that everything seems to be working according to plan. We hesitate to open up the door for competition in brakes, but at the same time we must have brakes that work consistently. That, at the moment, is what we are currently looking at.

 

At this point in time, we’re not making any major changes. We haven’t got plans for that. Brembo is a company that is everywhere in brakes in racing, passenger cars. So it’s not like as if we have a bad partner here. We’ve got one of the best brake manufacturers in the world. It’s a matter of getting the current car systems to work to everybody’s satisfaction. Part of that is the preparation.

 

The other thing I’m hearing, which we’ll see – it’s only been a few tests – but I’m hearing from some of the drivers that the braking is actually enhanced by the aero kits, obviously. There’s more downforce, the wheels are on the ground a little bit more and the braking seems a bit more consistent. We’ll see if that pans out. But so far the brakes seem to be off the radar. It seems all aero kits on everybody’s mind.

 

Derrick Walker: A successful aero kit season. Close competition, I’d like to think that the racing is going to be better. I’d be very, very disappointed if the racing takes a backward step because we’ve made this technical change. We’ve got car competition, we’ve got engine competition, we’ve got team competition, we’ve got the driver competition. There’s a lot to enjoy. And look at the fans; they’re energized by something a little bit different. And this is a step towards the future as far as I’m concerned. This is a step down the road to getting away from spec racing.