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Throughout your successful careers in the auto racing industry, what do you accredit for having such a successful family business in auto racing that you have today? (Laura, Greenfield, Indiana)
From Larry Foyt, (our team director and A.J.’s son): “Everyone knows luck can play a part in racing, but many times you make your own luck by the preparation that has happened before a race. I think much of the longevity of our racing team and the successes it has enjoyed stem from two things: 1. A.J.'s desire to be a winner, and 2. A.J.’s complete understanding of racing cars and what makes them work. By his knowing every part of his race cars, he was able to prepare them to win, and his desire to win is why he is still so hands on today.”
Now that the series is unified there are a lot of "experts" saying the Indy cars should switch away from normally aspirated motors to turbos. I find that interesting since F1 dropped turbos several years ago. Since AJ has driven and owned both, which are better overall and why? I like the normally aspirated as I think they sound more like a real race car, not a vacuum cleaner. (Mike, Coppell, Texas)
A.J. has been pretty busy lately, so we asked our engineer Mike Colliver to answer this question. He wrote: “In general: Normally aspirated are simpler engines to install and maintain - have less "packaging issues" for the mechanics, etc. In general they are heavier and more reliable. They turn less RPM to achieve their top horsepower.
I would consider them "closer" to a production based engine even though they are specifically designed for racing.
Turbos are smaller displacement, lighter and make similar or more horsepower depending on how much turbo boost you want to run. They usually run more RPM and are slightly less reliable. They can change the top horsepower relatively easily by changing the "boost" level. This is what makes the "more power rule" that was used by CART easy to achieve. I would consider them more of an exotic thoroughbred "true" racing engine.
My personal favorite is the turbo as I love the crisp sound, "big" throttle response and higher pitch that they produce.”
What has happened to A.J's Gilmore Racing Coyote Foyt car that won the 1977 Indy 500? [James, Oak Park, California)
That car is in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum along with his winning cars from 1961, 1964 and 1967.
How and where can I get Mr. Foyt’s autograph? (Steve, Lansing, Illinois)
Send a self-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage to insure its safe return to you to our shop: A.J. Foyt Racing; 19480 Stokes Road; Waller, TX 77484. Be sure the envelope is large enough to accommodate an 8 inch by 10 inch hero card.
My name is Richard. I’m a huge fan of the IRL. I've always been an AJ fan. I was wondering if you guys will start a 2nd team in the near future?
Well that depends upon whether or not we secure sponsorship for a second car. We would certainly like to do it but not without the proper funding.
Have you found out what the problem was with the car or if there was a problem with it in Kansas. I am still looking forward towards Indy and I still believe you can make the first 11. You guys were so close last year. (Bret, Kirkland, Illinois)
Thanks for your support—we really appreciate it, especially after a race like we had in Kansas. We looked over the car pretty closely and didn’t find anything wrong mechanically. We just didn’t have the right set-up on it—-or at least a set-up that Darren could drive.
When you go to the wind tunnel for testing can you test for specific tracks or is it generic to setup being road, short oval, superspeedways, or Indy. [Bret, Kirkland, Illinois]
From our chief engineer Mike Colliver: “It is generic. Exactly like the questioner surmised. We break it down into Superspeedway (1.5M high-bank), Short oval, Road Course and Indy. Some of the stuff will crossover and be applicable across the board. Other stuff might cross between the RC and short oval cars since they are closely related aerodynamically. Other parts of info will cross between Indy and Superspeedway since they are "closely related" and some info/testing will pertain only to one of the four subsets. Our recent test was dedicated to Superspeedway with some of the info geared towards helping our Indy program also.”
Does A.J. drive a Foyt Mustang? [Joe, Waynesboro, Pennsylvania]
A.J. can’t really fit in a Foyt Mustang. His knee problems (the one that hasn’t been replaced doesn’t bend as much as it needs to) make it difficult for him to get into a sports car of any kind. Most of the time he drives pick-up trucks because they are a better fit and better for working on his ranch.
This may seem like a very strange question but an answer would settle a bet between my friend and myself. We are both in our late 50's. We were talking about seeing A.J. Foyt Sr. at some races we had attended and noted that he was much "larger" than the other drivers. By "larger" we mean bigger in size and taller. My friend says that he was not that tall. I said that I was sure that he was over 6'. [Bruce, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada]
Well we hate to disappoint you Bruce but you will have to pay up. A.J. probably looked taller when he was standing next to Mario or Gordie but in reality, he was never over 5’11” and now has ‘settled’ into about 5’10” if he were to be measured. As for the weight, well we just aren’t going to go there now but in his youth he probably weighed in at about 170-175. A.J. IV is 6’ and he towers over his grandfather.
Is there any truth to the rumors of A.J. fielding a dirt Silver Crown for Donnie Beechler this year? [Joe, Peoria, Illinois]
Although A.J. and Donnie are good friends, A.J. isn’t fielding a Silver Crown car (dirt or pavement) this year—the cars are up for sale.
I didn't see Abe Lincoln in Homestead, is he still with you? I also saw a Red AJ Foyt Racing truck on the road in Homestead, was it just an old one or is it a testing rig? Nice run in St Pete, too bad about the gearbox. Good luck in Japan. [Dave, Holland, Michigan]
“Abe” aka Lew Parks was not in Homestead this year but we hope that he can be with us in Indy and will most probably be with us at Watkins Glen, N.Y. which isn’t too far from his home. The red A.J. Foyt Racing transporter that you saw in Homestead was delivering an Indy car to the IRL for one of the transition teams from Champ Car (and no, we don’t know which team received the car). Our regular ABC Supply rig took our Homestead car and went to Marietta, GA between the Florida races for some wind tunnel testing. We hope that info will help when we go to Japan and other superspeedways. Thanks for the good wishes.
Do you think Darren being spun by #19 Mario Moraes in the final warmup could have had anything to do with gears being jammed? I noticed after the spin in the warmup they were having trouble getting it into neutral. BTW, keep on keeping on and the breaks will start coming your way. Good Luck and Good racing in Japan. [Bret, Kirkland, Illinois]
That is an interesting observation but no, it played no part in the problems that we had in the race. Thank you for your support. We certainly appreciate it and we will keep on keeping on!
Do the Foyts have shop tours like the Nascar teams do? Does AJ have a museum like Petty & RCR Racing? [Jeff… Chicago]
A.J. Foyt Racing does not have tours on a regular basis but groups have called ahead and depending on the team schedule they have been able to tour the Showroom which has many vehicles (including the 1993 Indy car that A.J. retired in and the “Indy Pros Series” car that A.J. IV won the title with in 2002), plus many photos and trophies. The showroom is not a museum, but it is an interesting display of some memorable moments in the Foyt Racing legacy.
How does the Honda lease work? do you get the same motors all the time or are they rotated among the different IRL teams. Do you have any say so over the motors? Can your team do any work on the motors race weekend or does Honda do that? [Dale…Tucson, Arizona]
This answer is straight from the Honda P.R. rep: “The engine lease works like this: There is a "pool" of 84 engines for the season, all are dyno'd to the same horsepower and torque numbers, with a tolerance of plus-or-minus less than 1% difference of one another. That's as close to perfectly equal as we can make them. Each engine has an assigned serial number that does not change. Although we have the performance numbers for every engine, we keep that information internal.
The IRL has the serial numbers, but that's all. The IRL then tells us which engine (by serial number) goes to each team and we ship it. That way neither Honda nor the IRL can favor a particular team or driver with a particular engine.
No, the teams cannot work on the engine, other than to install it and remove it. We have an engineer assigned to each team to monitor the performance of the engine, and technicians available to do any required maintenance/inspection work (such as borescope, leakdown, etc).”
Why can't I send an autograph request to AJ Foyt IV? Your web site says you cannot honor autograph request. [Jay…Columbus, Indiana]
Well you could but he doesn’t live in Texas anymore (and when we posted that, he was racing in NASCAR so we never saw him much). Now he lives in Indianapolis so it would be more efficient to write to his team at VisionRacing.com so you could get it more quickly. However, we have spoken to his team and they will be sending us a stash of cards to accommodate such requests in the future.
How many miles per gallon does an Indy Car get on an oval like Texas (TMS)? Also, will Indy Cars get better mileage using Ethanol vs. Gas Racing Fuel? [Rob… Katy, Texas]
Indy cars get around 3.2 miles per gallon on ethanol. On racing gasoline, the cars would get around 5 miles per gallon. Ethanol has fewer BTUs than gas so you need more for the same power. Conversely Ethanol is more efficient than methanol—the cars use 30% less ethanol than methanol. Ethanol has less toxic emissions than gasoline and it has a higher flashpoint (that temperature at which it will ignite), making it a safer fuel to use in the Indy cars.
Where's Pablo Donoso? Indy only in the #41? [Brad…Round Lake, Illinois]
Pablo is currently running the SWE Racing Team’s No. 43 in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. Our management hasn’t decided who will be in the No. 41 at Indy.
Any chance of adding Paul Tracy to your IRL Drivers? He is great and should be racing this year!!!! [Robert…Cedar Rapids, Iowa]
We haven’t had any discussions with Paul Tracy about driving for us so we don’t know what his plans are for this year. Right now, we don’t have the sponsorship to field a second car so it’s a moot point.
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