Teams place deposit for aero kits

Verizon IndyCar Series entrants have submitted a 25 percent deposit of the $75,000 package price with their aerodynamic bodywork kit order to respective suppliers Chevrolet and Honda.

Manufacturer track testing of prototype components opened Oct. 6 and continues through Jan. 18, 2015, which is the same date as homologation. Production will ramp up to meet the March 1 deadline for one road and street course/short oval kit to be delivered to each entrant. The speedway aero kit, according to the INDYCAR timeline, will be delivered by April 1. The balance of the package cost is due before delivery.

The initial team on-track test is scheduled for March 16-17 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala., and the road/street course package will make its competition debut March 27-29 at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Month of May preparations for the 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race on May 24 will mark the debut of the speedway aero kit.

For the fan, there is a lot more to look at and understand.

Derrick Walker

"The manufacturers will give them a good product and I don't think it will take long for (teams) to get their heads around it and have good racing at St. Pete," said Derrick Walker, INDYCAR's president of competition and operations. "It will be an exciting start to the season."

Six ovals, four street circuits and six road courses constitute the 2015 schedule, which begins March 8 in Brasília, Brazil, and concludes Aug. 30 at Sonoma Raceway in California.

The regulated bodywork pieces are mated to the Dallara IR-12 chassis that was introduced for the 2012 season and will provide INDYCAR a platform for performance and efficiency developments. The forward-thinking program is relevant to short- and long-term design and development objectives of the global automotive industry and aligns with research and development in multiple technology sectors.

Chevrolet and Honda also supply the consumer-relevant 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 engines fueled with E85.

"Aero kits will be big performance gains to the competition," Walker added. "More performance will give us more exciting racing. If you look at the current car, it's been frozen in time since the design was introduced. When you say to aero manufacturers and designers, 'OK, you can make changes here. Go at it,' you're going to get some different shapes and certainly more performance. Everybody will not just take it on but try to maximize it.

"For the fan, there is a lot more to look at and understand. When you open the door a little bit and take some of spec away, you'll see differences on track, which is the fascinating part."

INDYCAR