Engine Announcement Friday

The Izod Indycar Series has announced a press conference regarding manufacturer competition for 2012, at the IMS museum.

It is fair to say that this is the Chevy to Indy 2012 announcement, unless something new has come up, or Ford or FIAT has beaten Chevy to the punch and will announce something instead.

Keep your calendar's open on Friday, I'm not sure if it will be shown via the web, or if it is simply for local press.

Good news everyone, more then just Honda in 2012!!!

More on engines

Marshall Pruett just posted a new article in reference to the 2012 Engine Manufacturers. It references more then just the GM rumors, this time, he includes FIAT, Cosworth, Ford as well as the previously mentioned GM engine possibilities. However, he has not confirmed or denied anything, simply playing a torturing game of "True or False".

Read the article here... Marshall Pruett's SPEEDTV.com article.

So, personally, for Marshall to fuel the fire in regards to multiple engine manufacturers in 2012 would be terribly mean if he didn't know something was up. I mean, some of the rumors he lists are pretty juicy, including Mark Cuban joining the Indycar ranks in 2012. But, really, if Marshall did all his research and found out that these rumors were all false, he would be pulling a mean stunt if he continued to push the rumors to the masses, including new ones.

The Mark Cuban rumor is actually slightly telling, as the Dallas Maverick's owner attended at least one race this year, I believe as a guest to De Ferran Dragon Motorsports. If he were to join the ownership ranks of the Izod Indycar Series, it would be another big step in significance.

I think, unfortunately, we have to sit around, and play the waiting game. Marshall mentioned at the end of his article that an announcement was possible in a few hours, on friday, on monday, or never... I will keep my eyes glued to my inbox in regards to Indycar press conference announcements, hopefully we will get some news in regards to GM or some engine manufacturer.

Hold tight folks, we'll know soon enough.

GM to Indycar?

Well, rumors popped out over the weekend that GM is preparing to announce it's return to Izod Indycar Racing by building a Twin-Turbo V6 for the 2012 engine regulations. The original article popped up on Autoextremist.com, then subsequent articles and rumors appeared on Speedtv.com, Indystar.com, autoracing1.com, and Autoweek. Most of the articles discussing the original Autoextremist.com news does not confirm the news, but do tend to lean in the direction that GM will be joining the Indycar series.

Autoextremist.com author Peter M. De Lorenzo says that an announcement will be made this Friday November 12th, noting that a possible announcement will be made at IMS.

Another central piece to the story is that the connection between GM and Chip Ganassi in both Nascab and the Izod Indycar Series. De Lorenzo states that Ganassi was being woo'ed by Ford to switch engines and cars for the 2011 Nascab season, but the decision by GM to go to Indianapolis in open wheel machinery in 2012 made the decision easy, and he will compete in 2012 with GM engines in both the tin tops and the new Izod Indycars.

Now, this news is not confirmed yet. Even Randy Bernard was quoted as saying the news is premature, however, he did not outright squash the rumors as he could have. He left it open, saying they expect to land atleast one engine competitor to join Honda in 2012.

Even if this news is not confirmed as of yet, where there's smoke, there is usually fire. I think the tie up between Ganassi and GM in Nascab is one of the defining factors of the story, and lends credence to the rumor. Also, let's face it, De Lorenzo is reporting this as pretty much fact, and with such a large news piece (and even citing it as breaking news), he is weighing his reputation on this. Leads me to believe that unless this is a horrible joke, he must feel this has a pretty good chance of coming true.

But if it does come true, and we see Honda battling GM/Chevrolet in the Izod Indycar Series in 2012, along with potentially one other engine manufacturer and a couple of aero kit constructors including Dallara and Lotus (potentially GM as well, as they were originally very interested in the aero kit concept), would be huge, and would definitely be a strong step in the right direction to lure some Izod Indycar fans back to the series.

Keep your fingers crossed, and let's see how this plays out.