Honda Celebrates 20th Anniversary of 1st Indy Car Win

Honda Performance Development celebrates the 20th anniversary of its first Indy car win this week. On Aug. 20, 1995, Andre Ribeiro drove his Honda-powered Tasman Motorsports Reynard to victory in the New England 200 at what is now called New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It marked an incredible turn of fortune for HPD, which failed to qualify a car for the 1994 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race, then nearly won the '95 Indy 500 with Scott Goodyear - until Goodyear was penalized for passing the pace car during a late caution period. Perseverance and hard work paid off with Ribeiro's win, the first of what is now 216 and counting for Honda in Indy car competition.

"When I started with HPD, it was at the depths of our despair, if you will, as we just had not qualified for the (1994) Indy 500," said Steve Eriksen, currently HPD's COO and vice president who was a Honda associate at the time. "We set about resolving our issues and trying to be successful and, in fact, the next year rolled around and we were heading out to Surfers Paradise (Australia) and I'm not going because I'm with the test team and there was a test at Indy.

"I remember that test vividly because it was the first test that we ran over 230 mph around the track. We did it on a test day when there were no other competitors there and no public and we pulled the transponder out of the car because we didn't want anyone knowing how fast we were going. We did our lap, videoed it and photographed it and came back to pit lane. That was sort of the defining moment that said, 'We've done it, we made it.'

"The Ribeiro win was bound to happen," Eriksen added. "We got the pole position in July ('95) at the Michigan 500 and I was (working) on Parker Johnstone's car when he got the first pole position. You could see the power was there."

Honda attained its 200th victory in the 2013 Verizon IndyCar Series race at Pocono Raceway, which hosts this weekend's ABC Supply 500.

Since its inception in 1993, HPD - a wholly owned subsidiary of American Honda with headquarters in Santa Clarita, Calif. - has expanded its offerings and expertise. The aerodynamic bodywork platforms introduced to the Verizon IndyCar Series this season, tuned in conjunction with the 2.2-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine, are an example.

"It's a new era," Eriksen said. "It's interesting to look at the progress that we've made from what was a very narrow set of responsibilities in North American racing to such a broad range; the depth and breadth of what we do now is frankly incredible. It's really gratifying to see that we're able to spread the joy of racing that we feel at Honda to such a broad group."

Contact:

mkitchel@indycar.com

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