On the high of a hill in a sprawling Santa Clarita industrial park within the shadow of Magic Mountain’s curler coasters, a major chapter within the historical past of motorsports was written.
However the story isn’t completed but.
From the surface, the constructing is nothing particular. Behind its partitions, nonetheless, has designed, examined and constructed the engines which have gained 14 of the final 21 championships and all 5 IndyCar races this season. In , a race Honda has gained 15 instances since 2004, 4 of the highest six starters can have Honda engines, together with two-time winner , who certified second.
It’s a degree of dominance unmatched in IndyCar historical past — in a sequence Honda most likely helped save.
Amid the open-wheel civil warfare between Championship Auto Racing Groups and the Indy Racing League, Honda was ready to stroll away. , who began Honda Efficiency Improvement (earlier than it was renamed HRC in 2024) and made it a cutting-edge analysis and improvement facility, satisfied American Honda president Koichi Amemiya to produce engines to IRL groups in 2003 after Honda left CART in 2002.
“It simply was not Honda’s picture of what a race automobile ought to be. That’s why Honda initially didn’t wish to be concerned,” Clarke stated. “In my dialogue with the president it was ‘OK, we developed all these abilities and know-how. Are we simply going to offer that up and simply stroll away?’ That’s loopy.
”We invested actually billions of {dollars}. And we’ve seen the success.”
Chevrolet and Toyota finally did give up, leaving Honda as the one IndyCar engine producer for six seasons. Amemiya then doubled down, funding Honda’s transfer to its 123,000-square-foot residence whereas increasing its workforce to 250 from an unique employees of fewer than 10.
Honda hasn’t regarded within the rearview mirror since.
Clarke, 75, left Honda in 2008 although he’s nonetheless one thing of an govt emeritus, one who wears the model on his sleeve and infrequently refers back to the firm with the collective pronoun “we.”
He was 10 when his father took him to his first race to observe a good friend run in an novice open-wheel occasion. When younger Robert was invited into the storage and allowed to work on the automobile “I used to be hooked,” he stated. “My bed room partitions had been coated with footage of Method One automobiles and every kind of racing.”
He took the lengthy street to Honda racing, although, learning structure and artwork/industrial design in school, then educating for 5 years at Notre Dame. His first job at Honda was within the bike accent and product planning departments however when the corporate introduced it was going to enter open-wheel racing, Clarke volunteered and he was quickly tasked with constructing this system from the bottom up.
That was in 1993. By the point Clarke left Honda 15 years later, the corporate’s place as a significant power in IndyCar racing was safe and Honda’s two-story hilltop headquarters turned his legacy.
The main target of labor within the constructing now’s primarily on supporting Honda groups in IndyCar and the . As such, it has develop into a one-stop store for racing groups, housing complete engine analysis and improvement operations; prototype and manufacturing elements manufacturing; engine preparation and rebuilding; a cloth evaluation services; greater than a half-dozen engine dynamometer take a look at cells; a machine store; electronics lab; elements middle; a number of convention rooms; and administrative workplaces.
Subsequent yr it’ll present help for Honda’s effort to produce Method One engines to Aston Martin.
Largely the constructing is a maze of quiet workplace area the place engineers sketch out their designs on laptop screens, well-lit meeting bays the place mechanics assemble the prototypes, and the noisy high-tech dyno rooms the place these prototypes are examined. Each stage of a racing engine, from conception and development to being shipped to the observe, is managed on the facility.
“We develop the know-how rapidly,” stated David Salters, the British-born engineer who heads HRC. “We attempt them. Generally they work, generally they don’t work and also you attempt once more. The purpose of getting a racing facility inside your organization is you may be agile. You possibly can attempt stuff. You possibly can prepare the individuals.
“The individuals are an important factor of all this.”
The entire course of is extra NASA than NASCAR in that there’s not a speck of grease or oil on the brilliant, white vinyl flooring and everyone’s fingers are clear.
“This can be a world-class facility. It must be scientific {and professional} within the processes and methods we’ve right here,” stated Salters, who was head of engine improvement for the Ferrari F1 group and held the same place at Mercedes-Benz earlier than becoming a member of Honda a decade in the past.
“It’s like an working theater. We’re mainly coping with engines or electrical methods, that are like jewellery. They can’t tolerate dust or something like that. All the things must be spotless and clear and well-organized. That is aerospace.”
And when the engines don’t work, they’re introduced again to HRC and the engineering course of is repeated in reverse searching for flaws. As for why they’re doing all that in a sleepy bed room group higher identified for its paved bike paths and rustic mountain climbing trails than for its motorsports historical past, that’s straightforward: Location, location, location.
Clarke initially anticipated to recruit engineers from Indianapolis and Charlotte, N.C., the heartland of American racing, whereas Honda insisted on preserving its operations close to its company workplaces in Torrance. Clarke feared dropping individuals from the Midwest and South into L.A.’s traffic-clogged sprawl could be such a tradition shock, he’d lose his finest engineers.
So he selected Santa Clarita, which was remoted sufficient to not really feel like L.A., however shut sufficient to Torrance to be accessible. And the constructing got here with an “Solely in L.A.” function: It shares a driveway with the studio the place the favored TV sequence “” is filmed.
“Once in a while a helicopter will land within the automobile park and we’re all instructed we are able to’t go exterior in case we get swept away,” Salters stated with a chuckle. “There was some ‘Star Trek’ factor the place they determined our lobby might be helpful. So for just a few weeks we had a film set in our lobby; we rented it out.
“You’ve acquired to take a look at enterprise alternatives.”
It’s early on a cold Saturday in March and HRC’s headquarters is generally empty save for one nook on the constructing’s second flooring the place practically a dozen individuals, some sporting headphones, have gathered behind laptop screens dealing with six big TV screens.
A continent away, in central Florida, greater than 50 automobiles are lined up for the . Every driver with a Honda engine has an engineer monitoring their automobile’s efficiency.
Earlier than the pandemic, engineers would journey and work with race groups on web site. However for the final 4 years the engineers have been working largely at HRC, monitoring in-car telemetry that gives real-time details about the whole lot from engine standing and tire stress to suspension habits.
“Knowledge is king,” stated Adi Susilo, one of many HRC engineers. “People make errors. Knowledge not often does.”
F1 groups have monitored telemetry remotely for years, nevertheless it didn’t develop into frequent in IndyCar racing till 2023. Now it’s a significant a part of each main racing sequence, together with NASCAR.
Engineers work out of what seems like a university classroom, solely quieter. When the sound of a disembodied voice does cackle out of a headphone, it seems like NASA Mission Management, the tone flat and unemotional, the dialog quick and to the purpose.
“It’s higher for fixing issues,” stated Susilo about working away from the observe. “If there’s an issue, you simply stroll downstairs and speak to the man who constructed the engine.”
That gained’t be the case Sunday. For the Indy 500, Susilo stated it’s all fingers on deck, so most of Honda’s race-day engineers are in Indianapolis the place the telemetry shall be broadcast to their work stations in trailers on the observe.
“Just a few of the IndyCar races are run that means,” he stated, “however the 500 is nearly at all times run that means simply because everybody’s out right here for the occasion. We’re additionally testing a brand new, hopefully extra sturdy, telemetry streaming because it’s a lot tougher to ensure we get 15 automobile’s value of information.”
At first, the thought of getting engineers looming electronically over the timing stand was a tough promote. Trusting somebody with clear fingernails watching the race on screens 1000’s of miles away wasn’t straightforward for some crew chiefs.
“What occurs for individuals like me is that it’s a must to erase the old-school mind-set,” stated Mike Hull, a former mechanic and driver who’s now the managing director for Chip Ganassi Racing and chief strategist for driver , a six-time IndyCar champion. “You’re electronically shoulder to shoulder with them.
“If you happen to don’t take heed to what someone has to say, it stifles free considering. Free considering sends you down a path that you could be not have initially been on, however makes you stronger at what you’re doing.”
Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 champion who will begin Sunday’s race within the second row, agrees. Which is he why he’s made a number of journeys to HRC to personally thank the engineers who design his engines and those that assist direct his races.
“You at all times really feel like there’s an enormous group behind you,” he stated. “You simply don’t get to see all them in a single place however you understand the machine is there, working fairly laborious.”
One downside, Dixon stated, is it’s a must to watch out what you say on the radio throughout races since you by no means know who’s listening.
“Twenty individuals at residence, simply on the group facet, shall be listening simply on that one automobile,” he stated. “So the communication may be very broad open. You undoubtedly have to observe your Ps and Qs.”
Two years later race groups have grown so comfy with individuals wanting over their shoulders, the engineers have develop into as a lot part of the group because the automobiles. So when a close-by wildfire compelled the evacuation of the constructing, Honda rented rooms at a close-by resort, arrange their TVs, laptop screens and a espresso machine in a convention room and labored from there.
“We’re fairly blind with out it. The race groups are fairly aggressive,” Susilo stated. “They really feel that intuition nonetheless does work. Nevertheless it’s extra data-driven.”
Given the funding, the stress may be intense.
“Each two weeks we wish to have the newest improvement. We wish to have made progress,” Salters stated. “Each two weeks you’ve got a deadline and the deadline doesn’t transfer. It’s not like they’re going to say ‘OK, we’ll simply delay the race every week.’ The flag drops, you’ve acquired to be prepared.
“It’s form of an engineering sport isn’t it? It’s like a real sport; the most effective group will win.”
If the IndyCar-Honda marriage has largely been good for each side, it has just lately hit a rocky patch.
Honda’s provide contract with IndyCar ends subsequent yr and the corporate hasn’t hid its distaste over the dishonest scandals which have just lately tarnished the sequence. Final week Staff Penske drivers , the two-time defending Indy 500 champion, and Will Energy had been compelled to the for the beginning of Sunday’s race after illegally modified elements had been discovered on their automobiles. Staff Penske, which makes use of Chevrolet engines, was additionally caught dishonest on the .
On Wednesday, the group . IndyCar, which is owned by Roger Penske (additionally the proprietor of Staff Penske) stated it’s exploring the creation of an unbiased governing physique absent of Penske workers.
That will not be sufficient to revive belief within the sequence. Honda, which provides engines to 13 full-season IndyCar entries and three Indy 500-only automobiles, has declined to touch upon the foundations violations, however confirmed its continued participation within the sequence past 2026 could depend upon Penske’s skill to separate himself from policing the sequence he owns and likewise competes in.
Honda stated in a written assertion Thursday that it has many considerations, amongst them “the comparatively excessive general price to take part as an engine provider” and “the potential (perceived or actual) battle of curiosity which can exist” with Penske’s possession of the racing sequence, three of the automobiles competing within the sequence and his “vital stake” in Ilmor Engineering, which designs and manufactures engines for Chevrolet, Honda’s largest competitor.
“Honda continues to have ongoing negotiations with IndyCar’s administration and technical groups concerning our future as an engine provider for the sequence,” stated Chuck Chayefsky, supervisor of Honda & Acura Motorsports.
No matter street Honda takes with IndyCar, it’s unlikely to vary many of the day-to-day work at HRC, which is closely concerned with IMSA and can quickly be engaged on F1 power-unit improvement.
So whereas the automobiles could change, the racing won’t ever cease.
“Thirty years in the past our sole goal in life was to take care of racing in North America for Honda and Acura,” Salters stated earlier than final week’s occasions in Indianapolis. “Final yr we modified that. We’re now a part of a worldwide racing group. That’s one other alternative for associates right here.”
“The automotive world, it’s pivoting,” he continued. “We try some new stuff. We’ll see the way it goes.”
One chapter has been written. However the story isn’t completed.
