INDYCAR: Series closing on universal aero kit maker

The Verizon IndyCar Series expects to name the manufacturer of its new-for-2018 universal aero kit by the end of the year. Based on its previously announced plans to freeze development of the custom aero kits produced by Chevy and Honda for the 2017 season, IndyCar will commission a specialist firm to replace those kits. The new package will be used by every manufacturer involved with the series through the end of the decade.

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ARC, Dallara, Red Bull Technologies, and Wirth Research are among the companies known to have been engaged (or expressed interest) as potential suppliers of the 2018 universal aero kit. In concert with IndyCar's Tino Belli and Bill Pappas, Frye says his competition department has worked in a collaborative manner with those suppliers to achieve their goals.

"It's been a little bit of both," he added. "Last April, we came up with some ideas on the performance and safety, and then the next step was how it might look. We've had a lot of great feedback on how it would look aesthetically, and we have literally done thousands of versions of how it will look and have continued to change little things and then seek feedback.

"The Universal kit will be used through 2020, and then it will be followed by something new. The [current Dallara DW12] will be a hybrid of what we want it to look like until we decide what to do after 2020. The universal kit hasn't been a 100 percent clean sheet project, obviously, because we're working with the same [DW12] chassis, but a lot of the process has been working ideas back and forth to make it look as new as we can until we decide where to go with things after 2020."

At some point in the next month or two, Frye anticipates revealing a five-year plan that details IndyCar's road map for its cars, technology, and a variety of aspects pertaining to its future. Part of that plan will involve breathing life into the cottage industries that once supported the IndyCar paddock with custom designs and fabrication skills, and the universal kit, at some point, could be part of Gasoline Alley's revival.

"It's something we're interested in and we want to resurrect that industry so, once we're able to show the full five-year plan, you could see how it would work," Frye said. "We do have some timing constraints to get the universal kit going pretty quickly here so it can start testing next year, but after that, there are a lot of opportunities where production of the kit could work locally."