As Roger Penske was leaving the 1993 Indianapolis 500 which he had won, he was already focused on winning the 1994 race. Always looking for the “unfair advantage,” he had carefully read the rules. One seemingly unimportant rule implemented in 1991, got him to thinking. Was there a way to take advantage of this rule to create an unfair advantage? Jade Gurss tells the behind-the-scenes story of how The Beast, the nickname for the Ilmor engine, was conceived and developed in secrecy in 10 months and won the 1994 Indianapolis 500.

The stock-block pushrod engine wasn’t competitive with the double-overhead cam engines. The stock-block engine was a relic of an earlier time yet it was important to those teams who operated on a shoestring budget.  The engine had a dismal record—in nine tries, only one engine had gone the entire 500 miles. Not only was it unreliable, it wasn’t competitive. In 1991, USAC modified the rules removing the words “stock-block” which would allow additional boost (power) for the engine to make it more competitive with the dominant double-overhead cam engine but nobody had taken advantage of the rule change. By removing those two words, the rules would permit a special built engine rather than one based on a production engine (the type you would find in your car).

There was one caveat in the rule book which gave pause to Penske and Ilmor’s founders, Paul Morgan and Mario Illien. The sanctioning body, United States Auto Club, reserved the right to change the boost for any event. If word leaked out, USAC could change the amount of boost and take away any advantage the engine might have. This meant the engine would have to be built in strict secrecy.

The Ilmor team, based in England, had a lot on its plate. They designed and built engines for both Formula One as well as Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) and needed to keep that side going as the Beast was designed and built. There were a myriad of details including which suppliers the company could trust to deliver a quality product in a short time.  They decided to use companies they had worked with for a long time such as Zeus Castings, which had built the engine block since the very first racing engine produced by Ilmor.

Ilmor had been delivering engines for CART races under the Chevrolet badge which owned 25% of Ilmor. In the early days of the project, Chevrolet, which was having financial issues, decided to step away from auto racing. This void could have been disastrous for the project and for the company. Penske used his many contacts throughout the world and Mercedes-Benz agreed to replace Chevrolet.

Six months after Mario Illien first sketched the engine, it came to life on the dynamometer but it produced only 30 more horsepower than the regular racing engine. At a minimum, the prototype engine needed 900 horsepower, not the 850 that the test revealed. The search for increasing the power kept coming up empty. A newly designed camshaft was the magic elixir. The engine’s power increased to 970 horsepower. The development of the engine occurred after the regular shop hours when most employees except for those involved in the project had left for the day.

Then came the testing. Penske owned the Nazareth Speedway which was nearby Mario Andretti’s home. Yet, the team was able to keep the engine development a secret while they tested in the coldest winter months. From there, it was on to Michigan International Speedway for more testing during April. The engine had to be reliable to compete in the Indianapolis 500. The team overcame problem after problem yet by the end of April when the engine should have been race ready, it still could not go the 500 miles.

Team Penske arrived at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in early May. Rumors were abundant that there was a new engine but Penske was elusive. Other teams noticed that during practice the Penske drivers, Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser, Jr. and Paul Tracy, would let up as they rounded the corners. The competition believed that Team Penske would dominate qualifying but that did not happen as Tracy crashed during practice and suffered a concussion. He would qualify the next day. Unser Jr. started from the pole and Fittipaldi on the outside of the first row.

By race day, the spec engine was ready to go in all three Team Penske cars. The engine performed flawlessly. Halfway through the race, Team Penske drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser, Jr. had lapped the field. The racer driven by Paul Tracy had a turbocharger fail on lap 92. As the race was winding down, Fittipaldi and Unser were clearly in charge—leading the remainder of the field by more than a lap. Then Fittipaldi, who was leading, crashed on lap 184. Unser went on to win the race.

This is a compelling story about how a strong vision and a unified team can overcome many obstacles. It is enriched by many of those involved with the development and construction of the engine as well as the drivers and their teams contributing to the telling of the story. For those who are not engineers, the book contains many sketches to help in the understanding of the engine. I highly recommend this book.