"We all understand the reasons for the concept of the spec car," Lisles added. "But I think they could have made it a lot easier and better for everybody without changing the cost effectiveness of what they're trying to do."
Lisles debunked theories that the new Panoz was going to drive down budgets. He reports that Newman/Haas will spend $2 million more this year than last.
"The unfortunate result of the whole programme that we find ourselves in is that our budget this year is hugely more than last year because, A, we have to buy cars, and B, although we're not buying a lot of spare parts, we have to have a few spares on hand and, of course, we can't use any of the old Lola spare parts," he explained, "Then, C, the rules were written so that the data system we used last year is not legal this year and the new data system is massively expensive. And then, D, they made us buy new dampers [shock absorbers] and clutches as well. So our budget for this year is more than $2 million than last year!"
And Lisles is convinced that the restrictive spec-car concept will result sooner or later in an outbreak of NASCAR-style cheating in Champ Car.
"Basically, they're putting the squeeze on creativity in certain areas," he complained, "Obviously, we're working hard on the areas we're allowed to work on. But even all that is subject to the thinking that, yes, this is free, but you can only use these components. They'll let you clean it and polish it, but you can't change the shape. So I think there are going to be some difficult times ahead as the teams work harder and harder to get the best out of what they have."
Lisles also believes Champ Car is seriously understaffed and draws a comparison in this regard with NASCAR.
"One of the problems is there have been so many questions put to Champ Car regarding rule interpretation and the use of parts," he observed, "Our team alone must have averaged one question a working day since we got our first car. I think to a degree it's overwhelmed that part of Champ Car, as you can imagine. If you look at another national spec series that is actually less spec than our series, which is Cup or Busch racing, and you look at the number of engineers working for the sanctioning body compared to the number that Champ Car has, you can see there's a big difference.
