Clarke paused to reflect, then continued. “There have been many great moments. Our first championship at Laguna in ‘96 was very special, and we had the pleasure to work with many great drivers. You hate to single anyone out, but Jimmy Vasser brought us our first championship and Alex Zanardi was a tremendous driver and just a delightful person. But again, there were many great drivers--Gil de Ferran was an excellent test driver. And of course, Dario and Tony Kanaan. We’ve had a lot of very, very good drivers. One of the things I miss on the IRL side today is that there’s no special relationship with our drivers because all of them have our engines.”
Over the coming years, the ALMS sports car programme with Acura will increasingly be the focus of American Honda’s racing efforts.
The plan for the Acura programme was to race in the LMP2 class for two years before moving up to LMP1 in 2009 although that may change following the ALMS and Automobile Club de l’Ouest’s decisions to introduce a new ‘Evo’ closed car in ‘09.
“The final decision will be made around the end of the month but we’re remaining on course with our plan to be in P1 in ‘09,” Clarke said.
“We haven’t backed off that schedule. The decision will be either to stay the course or to delay and go directly into the new Evo class. Those are our options. For sure it will be an all-new Acura design. It will not be a customer car conversion. It will be a no-compromise design by Acura. The decision is imminent and it’s my proposal that we stay the course which will have us in P1 in ‘09.”
To read the rest of this Gordon Kirby column and other 'The Way It Is' columns go to www.gordonkirby.com
