The Indy Racing League announced appointments to its ICONIC (Innovative, Competitive, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective) IZOD IndyCar Series Advisory Committee and is tasked with reviewing, researching and recommending a future IZOD IndyCar Series chassis and engine platform to the Indy Racing League.
Initial chassis proposals have been received from BAT Engineering, Dallara Automobili, DeltaWing Racing Cars, Lola and Swift Engineering. Currently, Dallara is the sole chassis and Honda’s Indy V-8 is the sole engine utilized in the series
Indy Racing League CEO Randy Bernard quoted:
"The goal of the committee is to keep in mind the key attributes of safety, competition, industry-relevance and cost-containment while evaluating avenues for the future chassis and engine. This is one of the most important decisions the Indy Racing League will make this decade so I want to be sure we do our due diligence before committing to any future direction."
Appointments representing various aspects of the industry include:
Brian Barnhart: As president of competition and racing operations for the sanctioning Indy Racing League
Gil De Ferran: The 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner served as sporting director for the Honda Racing Formula One team and competed both in CART/Champ Car and the IZOD IndyCar Series. Apart fpor his titles De Feran became known as the "professor" because of his reputation as a technically astute driver providing valuable feedback to his engineers.
Tony Purnell: Purnell is the former team principal of the Jaguar Racing Formula One team as well as a former Technical Consultant to the FIA.
Eddie Gossage: As a top promoter in sports.
Neil Ressler: A former chairman of Jaguar Racing in Formula One, Ressler served various roles at the Ford Motor Company.
Tony Cotman: A two-time Indianapolis 500-winning team member, Cotman served as team manager for Team Green in CART in 1998, winning 11 races in three years.
Rick Long: Beginning with the 1973 Indianapolis 500 in support of the Turbo Offy program, Long has been involved in the development of high-performance racing engines. His experience extends to the Turbo Cosworth, Judd and Turbo Buick engines used in Indy car competition.
