American Indycar Series

American Indycar Series

Sport	Auto racing
Jurisdiction	United States
Abbreviation	AIS
Founded	1988
President	Bill Tempero
Closure date	2005

The American Indycar Series (AIS) was an American open wheel racing series founded in 1988 by racing driver, owner, and businessperson Bill Tempero. The series utilized year-old (and older) chassis and engines from the CART series and later the Indy Racing League. CART and IRL drivers including Buddy Lazier, Jaques Lazier, Robby Unser, and Johnny Unser found early career success in the AIS.

In the mid-1980s, the once-popular Can-Am series was withering, and most teams had already defected to CART or IMSA. The last holdouts formed "CAT" (Can-Am Teams) in 1986 to take over sanctioning of the series as part of the SCCA. Two plans emerged, one keeping the Formula 5000-based cars, and others, led by Bill Tempero who favored using old CART Indy car machines. During 1986 and 1987, the CAT races were run essentially as two-class races, with the familiar full-bodied Formula 5000 cars racing alongside ex-CART Indy cars.^[1][2] CAT folded after the 1987 season.

Tempero then broke off and started his Indy car-based series in 1988. With an emphasis on cost savings, ex-CART Indy car chassis were powered by 5.9 L (360 in³) normally aspirated, stock block Chevrolet V-8 engines. Buddy Lazier was the first season champion. Tempero himself won one race that year, and placed third in the final season points standings.

As the series slowly began to gain competitors, the teams were allowed to run a choice of multiple powerplants. The aforementioned stock block Chevy, or the Buick V-6 in turbocharged or normally aspirated configuration. Some entries even showed up with the turbocharged Cosworth DFX, once a mainstay of the CART Indy car circuit. An equivalency formula was created to provide for competitive balance among the different engine combinations. The chassis utilized were the March, Lola, Reynard, Eagle, and Penske from CART competition. In later years, G-Force and Dallara chassis from IRL competition saw use as well. Over the years, the AIS series had a predominantly western-based schedule, but early on did have races in New York and in the South. International races were held in both Canada and Mexico. AIS raced on mostly short ovals and road courses, occasionally splitting a bill with Weekly racing series, Late models, and other short track series. A few street circuits and "roval" races were also held.

The original Tempero-era American Indycar Series ceased at the end of the 2000 season. The AIS was sold to a group led by Barry Brooke and Bobby Brooks. However, the series subsequently folded permanently after only two race meets had been held in 2002. A new management team formed the United States Speedway Series (USSS), which started racing in 2001. The USSS ran for five years under mostly the same format, featuring older chassis from CART and the first generation of IRL (G-Force and Dallara); with a variety of normally aspirated and turbocharged engines. The final season of the USSS was in 2005.