INDYCAR: Teams Caught Using Methanol in Practice
Written by: Robin Miller Indianapolis, Ind. - 5/21/2007


Honda's Robert Clarke notified IRL officials about the illegal
addition of methanol to the fuel during practice for the "500". (LAT
Photo)

The Indy Racing League is running only ethanol in its cars this
season.

Except for last week when a couple of teams illegally used a little
methanol to gain some horsepower.

SPEED has learned that Honda engineers caught the cheating during the
first week of practice and informed IRL officials.

"All I'm going to say is that we saw methanol in the fuel and there
was also some water involved so obviously it was to help create more
power," said Robert Clarke, president of Honda Performance
Development.

"I'm not going to say who was doing it or how they were doing it but
we stopped it by removing the air temperature sensors from everybody's
car.

"And we caught it before qualifying."

According to several mechanics in Gasoline Alley, the air temp sensor
was used as a decoy so the methanol could be fed or sprayed directly
into the fuel injectors. The air is cooled by raw fuel, which makes
the mixture richer and, hence, more powerful.

A funny reading alerted the Honda engineers.

"We saw it in the exhaust temperatures, they were very high, off the
scale," said Clarke. "So we informed the IRL and then sent a letter to
the other teams informing them of what happened.

"We also reminded the teams in question of what their contract said."

Unlike NASCAR, which publicly calls out its cheaters, the IRL opts to
keep most of its improprieties in house.

"The primary reasons for doing that is that's more the way things
traditionally have been done in open wheel racing," said John Griffin,
IRL vice president of communications.

"We prefer to handle it internally and there's always the sensitivity
of team's sponsorship relationships."

The fact Honda leases all its engines and controls them at the track
makes this situation unique. "I guess I'm surprised we haven't seen
this before," said Clarke. "But spec racing breeds this kind of
thing."

In addition to the engine shenanigans, it was also believed the IRL
confiscated three or four illegal rear wings following the last race
at Kansas City.

On May 22, 5:50 am, Lenny <hayso... (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Of course the IRL looks the other way on the subject of cheating.

You can't have a full field if you suspend drivers and teams.



Engine leases? Wasn't that another one of the evil things that TG was
going to do away with??

On May 22, 10:09 am, Dave-E <davegt... (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote:

It was the sponsor consideration that caught my eye. Do the bigger
sponsor's teams get more consideration? Can you just pay a fine
instead of losing starting positions? What about cheats caught after
the race? I wonder if a team is from a competing series -- do they
recieve the same consideration?

This just stinks of favoritism and Miller again exposed another of Boy
Georges dirty secrets.