Thread: Honda Engineers win prestigious Schwitzer Award
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Old May 22, 2004 | 05:25 AM
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Default Honda Engineers win prestigious Schwitzer Award
From www.speedtv.com

Honda engineers win Schwitzer Award

Four engineers involved in the development of Honda’s 3.0-liter IRL IndyCar Series engine were awarded the prestigious Louis Schwitzer Award on Friday.

Honda engineers Yasuhide Sakamoto and Steve Eriksen and Ilmor engineers Steve Miller and Steve O’Connor were co-winners of the 38th annual award, presented annually by the Indiana section of the Society of Automotive Engineers for engineering innovation and excellence.

The new Honda HI4R-A engine dominated last weekend’s qualifying for the Indy 500, sweeping the first seven positions in the race, including Buddy Rice’s pole-winning effort of 222.024mph.

The specs for the IRL’s 3.0-liter engine were delivered to manufacturers in December, with official introduction set for May 9, the first day of practice for the 88th Indy 500. Thus, as manufacturers were racing the 3.5-liter engine, they were developing the 3.0.

In its last race with the 3.5, Honda won at its own track, Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. Many observers felt that the effort expended to win at Motegi would hamper Honda’s effort with the 3.0 at Indy. After a few slow days of testing, the Honda suddenly became the dominant engine of the month of May.

"We had to develop these engines in tandem," explained Robert Clarke, Honda Performance Development’s program manager. "This truly is our best performance to date, tackling both programs in parallel. … We didn‘t expect to be so dominant."

Louis Schwitzer was the technical director of Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1919 to 1945 while serving in a variety of influential engineering positions in the fledgling automotive industry.
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