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Indy Pole Provides Vindication For HPD

James Hinchcliffe won his first ever IndyCar series pole and he did it at Indianapolis. [Andy Clary Photo]

James Hinchcliffe won his first ever IndyCar series pole and he did it at Indianapolis. [Andy Clary Photo]

by Allan Brewer

It’s been a long time coming for the IndyCar Series’ most successful engine-maker, Honda, but James Hinchcliffe’s twice-in-two-days run to the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the centennial Indianapolis 500 appears to finally have put the Japanese manufacturer back where it is accustomed to being: at the front of the thirty-three car field.

“Honda stepped up huge this year,” said Hinchcliffe of his Honda-powered Dallara in remarks following his pole-day four-lap qualifying attempt that solidified his hold on the inside spot of the first row for next Sunday’s race. “I mean, what a difference a year makes, right?” Honda appeared to have lost its mojo in the first third of the 2016 IndyCar season after a distressing and at times outright bad 2015 campaign: in five races so far this year Chevrolet-powered racers dominated qualifying and won every single race. “They’ve (Honda) done such an incredible job,” Hinchcliffe said of his machine. “That thing was a dream to drive today.”

“Honda definitely stepped up big time,” Hinchcliffe’s team owner Sam Schmidt added, “because they will tell you I was yelling in their ears all last year and right up until about a week ago that they better pull a rabbit out of the hat. This is the biggest race in the world. By God, they did it.”

Not only did Honda fulfill Schmidt’s expectations, the maker went further to put Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay (who also drives a Honda-powered car) on the outside of the front row. “It’s great to have two Hondas in the front row,” said Hunter-Reay, who won the Indianapolis 500 with a Honda engine behind him in 2014, and won with Honda the series championship in 2012. “It was a very good job by Honda, they threw a big punch here today.”

“This one’s big,” HPD’s head engineer Art St. Cyr said of Honda’s Indy success. “When you think of IndyCar, you think of this race. This is one of our top goals every year at Honda Performance Development: to win the Indianapolis 500.”

Honda’s fifteen month tailspin in American open-wheel racing was actually not entirely of its own making. With the introduction of aerodynamic body work to distinguish the Chevrolet-powered cars from the Honda-powered cars a second variable was inserted into the competition—one that complicates the calculation of “better engine” or “better aerodynamics” as the reason for the slide.

Hunter-Reay sides with those who think the engine manufacturing is fine; it’s the body work that has been the bugaboo for the Japanese. “Honda Performance Development’s engine department has been doing their work, and I think they do a good job. I think they do a very good job,” he said Sunday evening. “We’ve now had a year to massage the aero package and find what we need from it. It wasn’t the most straightforward equation when we started with it (in 2015); now, we have a bit more of an answer going into qualifying.”

Honda entered IndyCar competition in 1994, and still retains the title of most successful car maker of all-time at the Indy 500, earning more wins (10), starts(301) and laps completed (over 50,000) than any other automaker. Honda’s Performance Development division designs and builds engines and body components in their Santa Clarita, California manufacturing shop. Honda signed an agreement to continue producing racing components for the IndyCar Series through the 2017 season in February of this year.

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