HVM Racing

Since the departure of Oldsmobile and Toyota following the 2005 IndyCar season, the Izod IndyCar Series (IICS) had been dependent on Honda as its sole engine provider. However, beginning with this season, the IICS welcomed the return of Chevrolet and Lotus as additional providers.

Although Chevrolet has been on par with Honda throughout the season, Lotus has been far from it. It remained to be seen just how far behind Lotus' engine program was, but Indianapolis has shown that they are lightyears behind.

Coming into the month of May, Lotus provided engines to Dragon Racing, Dreyer and Reinbold, Fan Force United, HVM Racing, and Team Barracuda-Bryan Herta Autosport. However, Team Barracuda-BHA and Dreyer and Reinbold both terminated their agreements with Lotus prior to the opening of IMS.

Dragon Racing, mired in a lawsuit with Lotus, secured two Chevrolet engines for its drivers just yesterday. This leaves just two teams, Fan Force United with driver Jean Alesi, and HVM Racing with driver Simona de Silvestro using Lotus power.

In practice this week, Lotus driver Jean Alesi said, "I feel very unsafe, being quite slow in the middle of the track."

With his top speed of 205.389 was significantly slower than any non-Lotus car in the field.

Simona de Silvestro was slightly faster in Thursday's practice, with a top speed of 205.690. However, this does not make the required 105 percent-mark needed for race day speeds.

Although this brings up debate regarding driver safety, it also raises questions as to whether the Lotus cars should be allowed to attempt to qualify.

Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star has reported that A.J. Foyt himself has stated that the Lotus cars are too slow for starting spots, and has also raised the possibility of drivers fielding three cars to bump the Lotus drivers out of the field.

Foyt hinted that his team has prepped a third car in case of a crash by Wade Cunningham or Mike Conway, but that it could be used on Bump Day for an additional driver.

Other teams with the potential for additional drivers include Dale Coyne Racing, Schmidt Hamilton Racing, Ed Carpenter Racing, and, only if needed, Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. 

It is difficult to believe that a team owner would stretch his resources to the limits solely to bump Lotus from the field, but this may be a situation that proves to be true.

Additional drivers are available, with Vitor Miera, Davey Hamilton, and Pippa Mann all being spotted in Gasoline Alley, and Simona de Silvestro would be an asset for any of these teams if HVM decided to pull their Lotus entry. 

No matter what happens, it seems that Bump Day may have some excitement after all.

It's a normal Sunday, and we knock on the door of Mr. and Mrs. Casual Sports fan. The kids are home too, channel surfing and batting around ideas for afternoon plans.

There's a Nascar race on today. Four baseball games, a golf tournament, some monster trucks jumping over dirt mounds, and 150 channels full of everything you can name.

And on one channel, there is an IndyCar race. It starts in 30 seconds. We have to convince them to light it up.

"Premium branding" seems like a fairly simple concept. Many retailers use it in a variety of extra special ways. Sometimes all it takes is overpricing the competition to make people think they're getting the best there is. Or comparing your brand to all the others, and making the case. The clock is ticking...

"Wanna watch the fastest cars in the world?" you serve up.

"Is NHRA on?" pipes in Junior Sports. "Dixon won Top Fuel in Vegas, 313 MPH !!"

OK, not so casual sports fans...

"How about a contest between men and women on an equal playing field to see who has the most skill ?" I'm scrambling here, but a winning vote from the Mrs. might do the trick.

"Yeah, there's a female baseball player in Japan, she's my age", tosses out young Spicy Sports. "Do you think she'll get a shot? Do the women ever win?"

You're all set to explain that it happened once a couple of years ago, and there are at least two women who could possibly make it happen again. Maybe. 

You check you Tissot. 19 seconds.

Casual adjusts his Mark Martin cap. He looks bored.

Here goes....

A long distance runner requires great strength and stamina.
A bicycle racer requires guile and skill.
A swimmer relies on speed and persistence.

The champion of the Triathlon owns them all.

Come watch the world's greatest drivers as they master every challenge:
From road course, to street circuit, to the fastest oval races ever run.
Come watch the 2010 Izod IndyCar Series.

"I'm a pretty good bike rider", says Spicy, "But I can't swim for crap".

Mrs. Sports hates bad language in the house. "Let's watch a little bit of it Casual, they're our guests" she says.

"Nobody said they were staying" says Casual, eyeing the bowl of chips. "But we'll check it out for a minute".

Victory. We convinced the whole Casual Sports family to see what a real champion is made of.

"What about that trophy deal?" says Junior. "Don't they have three champions now, like one just for 9 races and another for 8 races and another champion for all of them?"

Let's get the heck out of here. You grab the chips.

Back On Track soon:

http://bleacherreport.com/users/268808-andy-bernstein

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