Honda-powered teams paced the field during last week's Spring Training, January 30 - February 1 at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex, and the new Honda V-8 "HRR" could be the reason.

Honda's newest development of the PPG Cup racing engine will make its competition debut at the start of the 1997 PPG CART World Series season at the Grand Prix of Miami, March 2, at Homestead. The HRR replaces the 1996 Manufacturer's Championship-winning engine, known as the HRH, used from the 1995 Indianapolis 500 through the end of the 1996.

With the 1996 specification engine, Honda won its first PPG Manufacturer's Championship last year, recording a total of 11 victories in 16 races for a 36-point margin over the competition. Six of these victories were 1-2 finishes for Honda-powered drivers. In 1995, Honda drivers using the HRH series engine scored Honda's first win, first pole position, led a race and set fastest race lap for the first time.

The 1997-specification Honda V-8 is a completely new design, the result of lessons learned in previous seasons of testing and competition. Some of these developments came about at Michigan International Speedway in 1995 and 96, when a maximum turbocharger boost limit of 40 inches was utilized by CART as a means of reducing speeds.

Track testing of the engine began in December, with the first public running of the powerplant coming at Spring Training.

This newest Honda V-8 engine will continue to be the manufacturer's official powerplant for PPG Cup competition throughout 1997.

Source: CART News Service