JANUARY 17, 2002

McLaren going back to Indianapolis!

THE McLaren name is to go back to Indianapolis this year with the announcement that California-based McLaren Engines is to prepare Chevrolet engines for Blair Racing. The team is planning to run one car in the Indy Racing League for former CART driver Alex Barron.

McLaren Engines can trace its history back to 1969 when Bruce McLaren set up an engine preparation business in the United States to prepare the company's CanAm engines. This firm went on to build the engines which powered Johnny Rutherford to victory in the Indianapolis 500 in both 1974 and 1976. In the mid-1980s McLaren Engines build engines for the Indianapolis 500 in partnership with Buick.

The company was eventually bought from McLaren and continued its preparation work in Livornia, Michigan, until it was acquired a couple of years ago by the ASHA Corporation of Santa Barbara, California, which then decided to change its name to McLaren to give the business a more dynamic image.

In recent years McLaren Engines has been preparing the Cadillac Northstar engine for the Le Mans 24 Hour program.

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