Q: I had one question about the test with the new motors at IMS. I know that both Honda and Chevy engines were tested without the hybrid system. Rumor is that the regular engine still makes about 800 horsepower, which is 100-150 more then today’s 2.2-liter engines without push-to-pass. In the past, some drivers like Josef Newgarden had worries that the increased horsepower would make driving the car tougher since IndyCars lack power steering. Do you know if IndyCar was also testing something to combat the increase horsepower and make the car drivable despite the increase in power? Thanks!

Ukyo Tachibana

MP: Power levels are over 700hp without P2P from what I’ve been told for a while, Ukyo. I haven’t heard much about the upcoming increase in power making the cars harder to drive and turn; it’s the upcoming hike in weight that will exacerbate the problem. No changes by adding power steering that I know of.

Q: Beginning in 1964, Phoenix International Raceway was traditionally the first oval race on USAC’s Champ Car schedule for many years. Several years ago, IndyCar made its last appearance in Avondale; as I understand it was a flop in terms of attendance.

I’m originally from Portland, Oregon and attended (and reported on) the-then CART races beginning at Portland International Raceway in 1984. Today I live full-time in Arizona and attend the two seasonal NASCAR races at Phoenix. What I don’t understand is how this facility, after undergoing millions of dollars of renovations in the past few years, can economically survive on just those two events on a yearly basis?

With a supposedly new-found interest in IndyCar by racing fans, plus the ever-growing population in my adopted state, I would think that the powers-that-be could get together and bring IndyCar back to Phoenix. Plus, the icing on the cake would be the return of the Copper State Classic!

Bob Kehoe, Eloy, AZ

MP: I’d love to go back and rooted for its success during our brief return, but alas, it was a ghost town. Most tracks keep revenue coming in with circuit rentals, local club racing and amateur events, etc. My first time at PIR was around 1987 or 1988 for the CART IndyCar race; I was there as a gofer/junior mechanic on an SCCA Pro Racing Super Vee open-wheel team and it was packed. Drove there many times after for more CART, and it was packed. Was there for the IRL events, and it wasn’t as packed, and so on. Like the previous note about Milwaukee, I wonder if IndyCar at PIR is a topic that is best left to history.

Let’s remember Phoenix as the track where Adrian Fernandez had his own parking space in 2004. Motorsport Images

Q: Wouldn’t Formula E be a perfect fit for the Indy road course? Is that possible with racing politics? Seems like the perfect track and place. Also, Andretti’s involvement seems like a link. Are there any American manufacturers interested in Formula E?

Gene Markiewicz

MP: Not sure where politics would have any play here, Gene, but FE’s whole deal has been to bring its series to cities and downtown areas to put on shows where the manufacturers bathe themselves in righteous publicity for sustainability and eco friendliness, so taking that message out of city centers and bringing it to a permanent road course at IMS where almost nobody would show up would defeat the series’ entire purpose. I haven’t heard of an American OEM looking to get into FE.

Q: Marshall, I listened intently to Bob Varsha during last week’s #RacingFamily Show as he talked about Formula 1 and its 20th-century proclivity to race in countries with poor human rights records. He included the United States in that list.

That made me think about IndyCar and how they race in states which have written laws intended to suppress minority voting and to discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community. That includes Florida, Alabama, Ohio, and the worst offender on the list, Indiana. If IndyCar doesn’t address these issues in words or actions, isn’t the Race for Equality and Change little more than a marketing gimmick?

Don Davis, Chardon, OH

MP: Lots to unpack here, Don. I’d say the RE&C program is a forward-looking thing, so I’m not sure how or why we’d attach a racing initiative RP had created in the middle of 2020 to promote Black drivers and crew and women racers with needing to atone for the discriminatory practices of individual states or the country as a whole since our experiment was founded a few hundred years ago.

Rather than seek hollow statements that won’t change a thing, I’m more concerned about the RE&C living up to its mission statement. After the welcome return of a woman racer to the Indy 500 grid last year, the prospects are slim once again as it looks like all 33 seats will be filled by men. If you care about such things, that would be going backwards, not forwards, after the RE&C was centrally involved in De Silvestro’s presence in 2021.

And we hope Ernie Francis Jr. does great things in Indy Lights with the Force Indy RE&C team, but what’s the long-term plan for Ernie, and for that matter, what’s the long-term plan for the RE&C? I genuinely don’t know.

As for Bob Varsha’s comments, I posed the question to him that you’ve mentioned, and yes, every country has some form of human rights catastrophe in its history. It’s whether F1 or any series should race in places where those catastrophes are taking place in the present where bigger questions need to be answered.