When the Chevrolet Aero Kits arrived at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing on March 1 it was a magical feeling to team personnel in the shop similar to a holiday.
“Christmas has arrived and we get to open the package now,” said Mike Hull, the managing director of Chip Ganassi Racing.
And once those boxes and containers were opened Hull found something similar to a popular children’s toy that tests the minds and creativity of youngsters.
“I’ve described this to a few people recently that when you give your kid or your grandchild or niece or nephew when you go to the Lego Store and buy a Lego kit,” Hull explained. “Out of one box you can build an airplane, a boat, a motorcycle, a road grader, a street automobile or a fire truck. Maybe it’s extreme to talk about it like that but that is almost what we do here.
“We Lego parts together to create downforce and we take them apart to free the car up to have less downforce. That is almost what we are going to have. It’s a little deceiving because there are a lot of subtle parts that go with that kit that the naked eye may be difficult without somebody pointing them out but they are very effective with what they do.
“For example at St. Petersburg we may run one set of parts for qualifying and add on to those parts for the race. I think the average fan will be able to distinguish the Chevrolet from the Honda with the visual appearance of the front and rear wings.”
Chip Ganassi Racing played a key role in testing various bits and pieces on the kit for General Motors engineers last year before the homologation deadline of January 18. Unlike team tests, however, the decisions were being made by Chevrolet with team personnel there to test the product and give feedback.
“Chevrolet had a game plan for the configuration that we ran and they had a specialist and a checklist just like we would if we went testing,” Hull said. “What we were doing was comparing parts for them. The decision for the final kit was up to Chevrolet based on all the information they had at their disposal and part of that was track testing.
Beginning March 13, IndyCar teams get to test the kits for themselves, as the dynamic of the sport will dramatically change.
“What we are going to like is going to the race track and finding out what it’s all about,” Hull said. “That will be the proof for us what is going on. The attention to detail, not just with the product, but with the methodology of what Chevrolet has done for us is really, really good.
“Everything is well documented in terms of what it does, in terms of what the aero manual tells us how to make effective use of what we have based on how we want to run our race car. They’ve done a thorough job you would expect them to do in partnership with Pratt & Miller to do it the right way.”
Chip Ganassi Racing will test at NOLA Motorsports Park in Avondale, Louisiana for a test on Saturday, March 14 before heading to Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama for the IndyCar Open Test from March 16-17.