Drivers – Start Your Motors – The Whizz-ardry of Electric Racing

[Note: BLOG 2021 published on Tuesday due to the Memorial Day Holiday.]

Sunday was another exciting day in Indianapolis as 135,000 fans watched the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500. Quite a few records came out of the race: the fastest time at 2:39:50, Helio Castroneves only the 4^th driver to win four times (A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears were the others) and at 46, Castroneves was one of the oldest drivers to win. An exciting day for racing.

Here’s a short video of the Top Five Finishes to get a taste of the race (just in case you didn’t watch.

Now – watch it again with the sound off. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Was it as exciting? Did you get that sense of the speeds these cars travel? I’ve been to live races, and the screaming sound of an open-wheel or sports car heading down the straightaway, hard breaking into a turn and then accelerating, is exhilarating.  How much of that exhilaration is the sound of the engines?

What happens when Indy Car racing goes electric? There is a circuit that tests that question, the Formula E. These cars look like Indy Cars but don’t make quite the same sound as you might imagine. And they race differently—slower speeds, switching cars mid-race, standard cars—only the power train and software can be modified (although that is changing this year). Here’s a short video of some race scenes and information about the sport: Formula E Racing.

I would say this could be exciting. I’ll look forward to when the circuit comes to a track near me. It seems the schedule (as noted in the video) focuses on existing city street courses. Since none of these are near me—I guess I’ll just need to go to them—the sacrifices we make. It’s time to plan a trip to Monaco.

The key here, though, is that they’re racing electric cars. When you consider the primary purposes of fielding a racing team, electric vehicles will benefit just as internal combustion cars have. When asked why they race, many team managers certainly talk about the brand. But also, they race to train engineers and for the technology transfer. Many of the innovations that were developed for racing found their way into passenger vehicles in some form. You can see how the technology for squeezing an extra few laps out of a gallon of fuel in a race might help improve the mileage in your family sedan.

It’s reasonable to expect these same benefits to accrue to the general market from promoting electric racing—brand awareness, engineer training ground, technology transfer. I can’t wait for the electric car racing to come to a track near me.

So—drivers “Start your engines”—quietly.

[Disclaimer: Please accept my apologies for any ads that pop up before the linked videos. They do not reflect my position, nor do I endorse any of the products – it’s just a YouTube thing I can’t get around.]