Winning in the CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) World Series is no mean feat. As North America's premier motorsport category, and one of the world's most respected super high performance formulae, winning becomes a science, a philosophy and an all-consuming desire.

The commitment to success must be absolute, the vision of victory crystal clear. The stakes are high and the effort enormous - but then so are the rewards!

Rivaled only by Formula One, Champ Cars (formerly known as Indycars) nevertheless place an equally high emphasis on precision, attention to minute detail and flawless teamwork. The desire to win burns through every member of the team - it has to. Any team is only as good as the sum of its individual talents, and any weak link quickly highlights itself. Winning is no coincidence, it is a mind-boggling co-ordination of factors and application of strategies.

To turn just any team into a winning team requires an incredible unity of effort, a common and pervasive belief in the ability to win and an unflinching faith amongst all team members - from the top to the bottom.

As distinct from F1, CART has only five chassis manufacturers and four engine suppliers, making for extremely close competition. Often the only deciding factors are teamwork, setup, driver skill and a few tenths of a second.

Reynard has all but eliminated Lola as the dominant chassis, the latter now restructuring itself after a demoralising 1997 and a disastrous foray into F1. Swift are the emerging newcomers, supplying two teams, while the Penske and Eagle crews choose to make their own.

Honda, in only its fifth season, has swept most competition aside, fielding, along with Reynard and Chip Ganassi Racing, the last three champions. CART stalwarts, Ford Cosworth, have supplied the fiercest competition, while the once dominant Mercedes-Benz has been forced to take a back seat. Toyota is still developing its Champ Car program, and has yet to make a real impact, while Chevrolet, Buick, and Alfa Romeo have all withdrawn in recent years.

Honda's switch from all-conquering F1 supplier to CART "newbie" was a calculated leap. It also threw the R&D emphasis over to American Honda Motor Co, a continually developing sector of Honda's worldwide automotive network. To confirm this commitment, American Honda formed Honda Performance Development (HPD) in April 1993 after announcing the Turbo V8 project at January's Detroit Motor Show.

HPD embarked on that odyssey of development armed with Honda's formidable reputation in motorsport. Nevertheless, it soon became clear that some of those early experiences would need to be relived. HPD's first turbo V8 incarnation, the relatively crude, iron-block HRX did not deliver and Bobby Rahal washed his hands of Honda at the end of their rookie season, 1994. Back to the drawing board!

A new all-alloy engine was debuted at the 1995 Indianapolis 500. The HRH, as it was called, certainly had a touch of majesty about it, propelling PPG Cup "also-ran" Scott Goodyear onto the front row. Teammate, Andre Ribeiro became the fastest rookie in Indy 500 history. Ribeiro later scored Honda's first CART victory after winning from pole in that year's New England 200.

The now-crowned HRH catapulted the Target/Ganassi Reynard to a flying start in 1996 with a first up win to Vasser at Homestead. That year would be the turning point, with first and third in the Drivers' Championship (Vasser, Zanardi) as well as the coveted Manufacturers' Championship

By this time development was in top gear and a new V8, the HRR, takes Zanardi to his 1997 title as well as de Ferran and Vasser to second and third respectively.

When it appears the competition are gaining momentum, HPD speed up testing of yet another new powerplant for 1998; the smaller, lighter, more powerful HRK. 1-2-3 again and Honda are delirious! The fruits of labour are harvested, shared around and enjoyed.

But in top level competition there is no room for complacency. Sports history is littered with those who thought they were unbeatable. Many have said, "In order to win, you must first learn to lose" and Honda, like so many before them, has been through those painful hoops, suffering the derision of critics, but ultimately emerging victorious.

Team Owner and former racer, Chip Ganassi, currently finds himself in an enviable position as winnerof the last three Drivers' Championships. Ganassi avoids taking personal credit for his team's achievements, instead deferring to "the good people around me". But there is no mistaking his style. Often gruff and emotional, the crusty Ganassi believes that staying focussed, setting attainable goals and pure hard work are what makes a winner.

"Winning might not be everything," claims Ganassi trying to avoid philosophy, "but it sure is the fuel that fires our dreams!"

Ganassi's major protagonist would have to be ex-pat Aussie, Barry Green, owner of Team KOOL Green. Green was back in the "hoops of pain" last year, but is now revitalised. Fielding an identical Reynard/Honda/Firestone package with two new drivers, Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti, Green, also a former racer, now believes he has the total package. In something of a contrast to Ganassi, the tall, slim Green is suave and charming, but likewise stresses the importance of teamwork and "chemistry' - and of fulfilling dreams.

Both readily cite Honda as a key ingredient in their individual success formulae. "The will to win" is almost a Honda trademark, and that hunger for success spills over into all the teams carrying their engines. The source of that "hunger", that essential vitality, can be traced back to 1954, when Mr. Soichiro Honda decided to take his then little Honda Motor Co. racing. As part of a prophetic statement to his faithful workers, he proclaimed that "along with my fellow employees, I will pour all my energy and creative powers into winning!"

Robert Clarke, a former Notre Dame professor and now General Manager of HPD, remembers with great fondness his moments with Mr. Honda. "He believed that racing was just about the most adverse environment possible, and that if you could succeed in racing, you were guaranteed to succeed in whatever else you did."

Honda commits considerable resources to achieving its results, and like Ganassi and Green, cannot underscore the element of teamwork highly enough. Clarke is responsible for the daily operations of the HPD team, and says "We work very hard with our teams to ensure that they reach that required level of "teamwork". It means working very closely with electronics, component and chassis suppliers and their engineers as well as those of the teams involved. We pride ourselves on that and I believe it has helped our teams reach the level of competitiveness they're at."

Clarke's calm and measured voice belies his intensity. Behind him twenty-something white-shirted engineers, in an imbroglio of cables and connectors, pore over notebook computers. The array of faces is a curious mixture of frowns, concentration and poker-face neutrality, the silence of the tent only interrupted by sporadic bursts of keyboard patter.

During racing and qualifying, the platoon disperses to their respective team awnings behind the pitwall. Taking their expressions with them, they ponder and muse over the secret messages displayed on their tiny screens. Occasionally one will cross briefly into pitlane and plug himself into the data acquisition point behind the driver's head. Again, the look reveals nothing as the slim computer teeters magically on a carefully placed leg. A barely perceptible facial twitch is the only sign that the data is captured, the plug is withdrawn, the laptop is carefully shut and the technician gone. His brief intrusion unnoticed.

In light of this, you might begin to think that the drivers' role is becoming insignificant. It may be true to say that a driver is the last addition to the equation, even though he may be the first held to account should something go wrong. Although hundreds of others may have designed and built his car, he is the only real "human" element in the machine. He is usually the first to be congratulated on a win, and literally bathes in liquid kudos on the podium.

This brings us to another distinction between F1 and CART. F1 drivers are quick to say, "I did this" and "I won that". Champ Car drivers, on the other hand, almost always pay homage to their crew and machinery first. Dario Franchitti, winnerof three of the four GPs prior to the Honda Indy at Surfers Paradise, was one of them. When asked; "What makes you a winner?" he instinctively answered "Team KOOL Green!"

If you were a student of philosophy, you could extract some potent theories about management styles and personal ethics from this sport. Greater good versus self-fulfilment versus team loyalties etc. But in the end, no matter who or which team you root for, you're getting behind a winner. The car you drive home from the circuit and to work the next day contains technology developed at the track. Brakes, engine components, metallurgy, safety, fuel economy and performance are all honed on the fierce whetstone of competition and delivered to you, gleaming, on the showroom floor.

Now who's the winner?

Originally Published in Honda -The Magazine