TBK-Light.com

For 2024, the biggest rule change will\should be the (eventual) introduction of a hybrid element into the powertrain courtesy of a superconductor. The current belief is that these will be introduced for the race in Detroit.

Calendar

Streets of St. Petersburg - March 10th
The Thermal Club - March 24th (Non-Championship)
Streets of Long Beach - April 21st
Barber Motorsports Park - April 28th
IMS Road Course - May 11th
108th Indianapolis 500 - May 26th
Streets of Detroit - June 2nd
Road America - June 9th
Laguna Seca - June 23rd
Mid-Ohio - July 7th
Iowa Speedway - July 13th & 14th
Exhibition Place - July 21st
Gateway - August 17th
Portland International Raceway - August 25th
Milwaukee Mile - August 31st & September 1st
Nashville Superspeedway - September 15th

There are several changes from last year to this; both Texas Motor Speedway's race and the second race at the IMS road course have been cut, but the season remains at 17 races thanks to the return of the Milwaukee Mile as a double-header. There is also a new non-championship event taking place at the Thermal Club between the first 2 rounds. The final change occurs at Nashville, where the event will move away from the downtown street circuit to the oval outside of the city for at least this year.

In addition, some dates have been shuffled around. The biggest mover is Laguna Seca, which goes from being the season finale to a mid-year spot in June, with the Nashville event moving to September to become the season ender. Gateway also returns to being a Saturday night race.


Entrants

Full Time

Chip Ganassi Racing
#10 - Alex Palou
#9 - Scott Dixon
#11 - Marcus Armstrong
#8 - Linus Lundqvist (R)
#4 - Kyffin Simpson (R)

Team Penske
#3 - Scott McLaughlin
#2 - Josef Newgarden
#12 - Will Power

Arrow McLaren
#5 - Patricio O'Ward
#7 - Alexander Rossi
#6 - David Malukas/Callum Ilott/Theo Pourchaire (R)

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
#45 - Christian Lundgaard
#15 - Graham Rahal
#30 - Pietro Fittipaldi

Andretti Global
#28 - Marcus Ericsson
#26 - Colton Herta
#27 - Kyle Kirkwood

Ed Carpenter Racing
#21 - Rinus van Kalmthout
#20 - Christian Rasmussen (R)/Ed Carpenter

Juncos Hollinger Racing
#77 - Romain Grosjean
#78 - Agustin Canapino

Dale Coyne Racing
#18 - Jack Harvey/Nolan Siegel (R)
#51 - Colin Braun (R)/Nolan Siegel (R)/Katherine Legge

Meyer Shank Racing
#60 - Felix Rosenqvist
#66 - Tom Blomqvist (R)

A.J. Foyt Racing
#14 - Santino Ferrucci
#41 - Sting Ray Robb


Part Time

Arrow McLaren-Hendrick
#17 - Kyle Larson (R) (Indy 500)

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
#75 - Takuma Sato (Indy 500)

Andretti Global
#98 - Marco Andretti (Indy 500)

Ed Carpenter Racing
#?? - Christian Rasmussen (R) (Indy 500)

Meyer Shank Racing
#06 - Helio Castroneves (Indy 500)

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Cusick Motorsports
#23 - Ryan Hunter-Reay (Indy 500)
#24 - Conor Daly (Indy 500)

Abel Motorsports
#50 - ? (Indy 500)

The full-time car count remains at 27.

Will be interesting through the year to see if Indycar does anything to accomadate Honda or will be looking to make plans for their eventual withdrawl

According to rumours its, "find a 3rd engine manufacturer" to ease the load on the 2 existing ones, or goodbye Honda"

Good luck, Indycar

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

I can't wait for Nashville, and that new corner after the bridge to decide the championship.

Abel intends to return for the 500 and go full-time next year.

https://racer.com/2024/01/04/abel-aims- ... m-in-2025/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

An article from Pruett looking at the 500 entry list from the perspective of a driver trying to find a seat.

https://racer.com/2024/01/08/hildebrand ... 3-absence/

-Abel is likely to reunite with Enerson for their second go around.
-As noted before, DRR are believed to be running Daly & RHR.
-RLLR's fourth car is currently earmarked for Sato.
-So the best opportunity for those drivers that are still looking is probably Foyt.

Assuming all of those come together, it would leave the entry list at 35.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Driver news; Ferrucci returns to the #14 full-time.

https://racer.com/2024/01/09/foyt-compl ... -ferrucci/

Game news; An agreement has been reached for Indycar to return to iRacing. No standalone game was announced, and it may be that this ends up with a different developer.

https://racer.com/2024/01/09/indycar-im ... agreement/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Pratt Miller are still working towards a 2025 entry.

https://racer.com/2024/01/11/pratt-mill ... r-program/

Prema are also considering joining in.

https://racer.com/2024/01/11/prema-cons ... r-program/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

At the Content Days presser, RC Enerson confirmed that he and Abel Motorsports will again attempt the Indy 500 together, which makes 33 confirmed cars (29 with announced drivers + Coyne + Dreyer & Reinbold).

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Danial Frost will be out for 2 years completing his national service, which takes one bidder out of Coyne's auction.

https://racer.com/2024/01/15/frost-hits ... y-service/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

There is a test today at Homestead (looks like one car per team), and Coyne is running Jack Harvey.

Those are two big names! It's great to see such a healthy field

_________________
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government"


3x TBKL rFactor Hillclimb champion

I would think that European teams wouldn't been so keen on entering Indycar when Carlin flopped so hard, but maybe they weren't the powerhouse we thought they were.

Carlin wasn’t Carlin in America, sure Trevor was involved, but the team was essentially Max Chilton Racing employing Carlin personnel, had it been a full on Carlin effort it would have done better.

Didn't think of it that way, fair enough.

Coyne is again running Jack Harvey on day 2 of the Homestead test. Rosenqvist was fastest yesterday, for whatever it is worth.

-----------------------

Marco will return for the 500 as usual with sponsorship from MAPEI, which makes 30 complete car-driver combos and also guarantees bumping.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

The Coyne car has gone to Nolan Siegel for the final day of the Homestead test. Siegel is still contracted to HMD for this year's Indy NXT, so it isn't a direct audition. But perhaps something for the future.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

RHR and Daly confirmed for Dreyer & Reinbold at the 500, with Don Cusick returning as a partner for the team as a whole.

https://racer.com/2024/02/01/drr-cusick ... -indy-500/

32 complete car and driver combos.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

And some welcome gospel on the hybrids;

https://racer.com/2024/02/01/indycar-ma ... t-of-2024/

4 key points
-Nearly 1500 laps were completed without a single stoppage or other malady.
-There was one off-track excursion which led to a stall, from which the driver involved was able to restart the engine from the cockpit and drive away.
-Kirkwood's best lap was faster than the best lap he set last week without the hybrid (but with the new magnesium parts).
-Kirkwood was also pleasantly surprised by the car's handling now that the magnesium parts have been swapped in.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

More hybrid news - the current P2P system will be retained, and the hybrid energy will be added alongside it with separate functionality.

https://racer.com/2024/02/07/850hp-pote ... s-go-live/

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

That's seriously gonna increase speeds into the braking zones, expect cars to be sailing through their braking points on some laps as the top speed varies between normal power, normal+hybrid power and normal+hybrid+push to pass....

Which tbf, I'm all for

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley