Penske-Mercedes banned after first Indy 500 race

There are not many cases in the history of world motorsport when, due to the total superiority in speed over rivals, a racing car was banned after one single race. The Brabham BT46C was widely known as the car that started the official competitions once. After a confident victory at the Swedish Grand Prix, the rivals did everything possible so that the “vacuum cleaner” would never again start. Niki Lauda, ​​who drove this car, later said that the victory was the easiest in his long career. But today's story is about another car.

The 500 Indy 1994 was won by Al Anzer Jr. in a Penske-Mercedes

Penske pilots won Indianapolis before and after this event, but the victory in 1994 was special, and for good reason - Mercedes-Benz. The Germans returned to Indianapolis, and immediately won, which in itself is unique. But the rivals believed that this engine gave Penske an "unfair advantage", so they tried their best to ban it before the race. Well, or at least load the Gray Roger fireballs with ballast.

Normal heroes always bypass

For another victory in Indianapolis, Ilmor Engineering decided to develop a new engine for Penske, developing under 1000 horses, which would be 200 horsepower more than the competition. 


– Mario Illien, creator of the Ilmor 265E engine (Mercedes 500I V8).

The USAC, which set the rules for the Indianapolis race, allowed for two engine options:

✅ The first is a racing V8 with a working volume of 2.65 liters, with 4 valves per cylinder and equipped with a single “turbine”. 
✅ The second is a “stock block”, or “push rod”, with a volume of 3.43 liters with a lower camshaft, also with one turbocharger. 

In the second version, in addition to the increased volume, it was allowed to use a higher boost pressure, which allowed such engines to compete with European power units specially designed for racing. 



In 1991, USAC slowly removed the requirement for the mandatory use of serial cylinder blocks for engines with a lower camshaft. This was done to maintain the competitiveness of the American Buick engines, whose power was 800 horses, while the Chevrolet 265C - 775 hp. With. It never occurred to the compilers of the rules that the British would take advantage of the changes in the rules by creating their own “pushrod”.  

Birth of the "Beast"

The new engine was developed in the strictest secrecy - even at the Ilmor factory, few people knew what the "special department" was working on. In the course of the work, it turned out that there would not be enough money to complete the project: just at that time, Ilmor Engineering lost financial assistance from Chevrolet. Mercedes-Benz agreed to sponsor a promising project, because the victory at the Old Brick House is a good advertisement in the USA!

Road tests of the "Beast" were carried out on a one and a half kilometer oval in Nazareth - on the track owned by "Captain" Roger Penske. Of course, there was no talk of any journalists, or even just outsiders. At the same time, the first samples of the miracle motor were not reliable: the pilots and engineers doubted that they would be able to reach the finish line of the 500-mile race. Meanwhile, bench tests confirmed that the engine turned out to be very powerful - 1024 horses, that is, 200 horses more than the rest!  



Specifications:

✅ Configuration: V8 72°, OHV
✅ Displacement: 3.43 liters
✅ Bore and stroke: 97mm and 58mm
✅ Power: 1024 horsepower at 9,800 rpm
✅ Torque: 755 Nm at 8000 rpm
✅ Turbocharger: Garrett AiResearch TA74, 1,86 bar boost pressure

Preparing to start

The engineers' fears about the endurance of the Penske PC23 were not in vain! After one of the races, Emerson Fittipaldi complained to the mechanic about the vibration from the wheels. He noticed that the mark on the tire, which initially coincided with the valve, was shifted by 20 centimeters, that is, due to the frantic thrust of the engine, the tire turned on the disk. But this is not the end of the story. The tire specialist noticed that the mark was 20 centimeters away, not in front of the valve, but behind it - the tire turned on the rim almost a full turn! Surprised looking at this miracle, the team members were finished off by Rick Mears (three-time CART series champion, four-time winner and owner of 6 Indy-500 pole positions) asking: “are you sure that the tire was turned only once?”. As a result, the wheels were sandblasted to increase the grip between the rim and the tire. 



But despite the huge speeds on the straights, and in qualifying the Penske PC23 pilots reached a speed of 255 mph, or 420 km/h, in the corners the pilots of the "Gray Roger" were the slowest. Among the cars of the top teams, of course. The best in qualifying was Al Anzer Jr. with an average speed of 228.011 mph (366,9 km/h).


– John Buslog, Penske manager

Maximum speed was an advantage for the Beast, but it handled poorly: understeer was almost unbeatable - the huge torque available from the very bottom simply “took” the front of the car past the corners! At the same time, in order to overcome this phenomenon, it was impossible to “press the gas to the floor” - the wheels were slipping!

Torque of Truth

After qualifying, it was obvious that the victory would go to the guys from the “Grey Roger Gang” Penske. And this greatly angered both rivals and Tony George, the owner of the Indianapolis Speedway. 



From the start, Al Anzer Jr. took the lead, but he was in the lead only until the first pit stop, at which his engine stalled. Al himself would later say that stalling at idle is a feature of the Beast. The engine was started, but Emerson Fittipaldi intercepted the lead, whose advantage over “little Al” in speed was obvious. And so much so that towards the end of the race, Emerson overtook everyone by a circle! Emo seemed to win confidently, but 15 laps to go, the Brazilian makes a mistake and crashes into a wall! In the end, Al Anzer Jr. won.


– Al Anzer Jr.

And a storm struck

Opponents, as well as USAC and Indianapolis Motor Speedway management Tony George, felt that the Penske-Mercedes team had gained an "unfair advantage" by exploiting a loophole in the rules. The regulation for "stock blocks" has been revised. At first, boost pressure was reduced for them twice, eventually equalizing it with 2.65-liter overhead engines, and in the end it was banned altogether: Indinapolis 1994 was the only race for the thousand-horsepower Penske-Mercedes pushrod and the only victory. The wave raised by the Mercedosaurus eventually led to the split of the PPG Indy Car World Series into two championships: 

✅ CART Championship Series
✅Indy Racing League

In the first one, "international" teams and tracks remained, as well as imported Cosworth and Mercedes-Benz engines. And in the second they raced only on "ovals", using "born in the USA" Buick engines. By itself, neither the Penske PC23, nor its engine posed a threat to the Indycar, probably in a year Cosworth would have created a similar unit, and the balance of power would have been restored. But politics intervened. 



Tony George saw this as an opportunity to lead America's premier open wheels championship, something Roger Penske disagreed with. As a result, from the confrontation between IRL vs CART, the winner was ... NASCAR! Managed to raise TV ratings higher than ever before.