Tag: ganassi

Chip Ganassi, we salute you and your underground test track [w/video]

Filed under: Motorsports, Etc., Videos

chip ganassi tunnel test track

Chip Ganassi’s underground test track – Click above to watch video after the jump

Floyd Ganassi Jr, better known as Chip, is a fixture in the motorsports industry. He currently operates vehicles that run IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am races. That requires knowledge of a variety of racing vehicles, and Ganassi has a unique way to test his vehicles – in a mile-long tunnel built into a Pennsylvania hill.

Opened in 1940, the Laurel Hill Tunnel was originally intended to be a railway tunnel before becoming a part of the local turnpike. Ganassi has since turned the tunnel into his own test track. Vehicles run down the straight roadway, hit a pre-determined speed and then coast while aerodynamic forces are measured. At each end of the tunnel sits a turntable so that the vehicle being tested can quickly be rotated and sent back in the other direction.

A hiker walking by the tunnel managed to capture beautiful noises emanating from within, and you can listen in by clicking past the jump. We also recommend heading over to Racecar-Engineering for a detailed look at what’s going on underneath this hill in Pennsylvania.

[Source: Racecar-Engineering.com via Inside Line]

Continue reading Chip Ganassi, we salute you and your underground test track [w/video]

Chip Ganassi, we salute you and your underground test track [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chip Ganassi Racing expands to four-car Indy mega team

Filed under: Motorsports, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs

You’d have to search long and hard to find a racing team as successful as Chip Ganassi Racing. The team has won four Champ Car titles (before the series shut down), three Indy Racing League titles and one Grand-Am championship.

This year alone, CGR took home both the IndyCar and Rolex Grand-Am titles, and won the Indianapolis 500, the Brickyard 400 and the Daytona 500 in the process. Names like Franchitti, Dixon, Stewart and Montoya race under the Ganassi banner. And this coming season, the team has taken a big step forward by expanding its IndyCar team by two drivers to make for a four-car mega team.

Joining two-time champions Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti this season in a parallel team will be Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball. Rahal is the son of Indy 500 legend Bobby Rahal, and himself became the youngest ever race winner in the series’ history when he won the season-opener at St. Petersburg in 2008 – his only victory to date. Kimball, meanwhile, is moving up the ladder from the Indy Lights feeder series having competed overseas in the Formula 3 Euro Series, Formula Renault 3.5 and A1GP.

Both drivers are American in an increasingly foreign-dominated grid, and bring much-needed sponsorship cash along with them at a time when some big name teams are struggling to make ends meet.

[Source: Autosport | Image: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty]

Chip Ganassi Racing expands to four-car Indy mega team originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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