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Please
note, all Month of May content will be posted in a latest news
first format.
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(Editor's note) Amanda Grayson is an Indy
area High School student with a big time love for IndyCar
racing, particularly Panther Racing and Tomas Scheckter. Amanda also won an IMS ride in the IndyCar
"two-seater" that was rescheduled for later this
month. She has agreed to post
"Brat Chat" for us here, and promised a full recount
of her two-seater experience, with pictures.
Amanda recently sent me some
IMS pictures, the one shown below is of Buddy Lazier and Tomas
Enge at speed on the backstretch at IMS. Look for more of
Amanda's pictures here...
She says "she has tons more on the way."
An update, I have just
posted Amanda's recap of her 2005 Indy 500 experiences
on her Brat Chat
page as well, with more pictures on the way.
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O/IRR Photo by
Amanda Grayson
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(6-2-05) When it became obvious
that I wasn't going to be able to spend as much time at IMS this
year as usual due to work issues, I was concerned that I
wouldn't be able to get the pictures and inside information I
like to post, the stuff usually not found elsewhere. Then I got
an E-mail from aXe, saying "he would be at Indy all
month," I tried to piggyback a credential request for him
when I sent mine in. Unfortunately, the .com sites, though still
supported well, don't get the number of credentials the deadline
media gets and all I could get was mine. As it turned out, aXe
got a Bronze Badge birthday gift from his son and we all benefited
as well, thanks Lee, and thanks to you as well aXe, from all of
us. Here is aXe's final report from Indy. MN
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***
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My
wife and I will be heading for Texas
this
afternoon, the speed plant at 16th St. and Georgetown
Rd.
is quiet
now, the dust is settling at IMS as the trash from hundreds of
thousands of race fans is being hauled away. We are finally
going home, the whole month was great. I’ll have to find a way
to get more sleep, falling asleep making the 5 or 6 mile drive
to or from the speedway doesn’t get it, I’m lucky I
survived.
The
race was one of the better ones. Lots of unforeseen and
unexpected stuff went on as usual. Buddy Lazier was the highlight of the race for me. If it
weren’t for a few glitches and far too much contact, he may
have challenged for the race lead and eventual win.
I
was surprised that Danica Patrick had such a hard time passing
not only lapped cars, but cars that were obviously slower than
her that she was stuck behind after stalling the engine in the
pits. She needs to go to Draft-Passing 101, but near the end of
the race she became a lot better at it, she must be a very quick
learner (Editor’s note, after the race Danica admitted that
she “learned a lot about setting drivers up for passing).
As for Sam Hornish Jr., what can you say, he’s too nice a guy,
Sam said, "I gave him (Bourdais) all the room I
could," that is until Bourdais ran Sam up into the marbles
and into the fence… Tony Kanaan didn’t have the speed he
needed when it counted as the race wound down, after setting the
fastest single lap speed in the race at 228 mph plus. (Darn, I
had Tony in a “pool,” and missed out on the pot)! Helio
Castroneves sure had his hands full keeping that car going in
the right direction; and he did a heck of a job dodging the
Larry Foyt car after it bounced off the SAFER… As for “Sea
Bass,” did he miss getting in the way of anybody out there, he
finally even managed to crash himself out of the race and ruin
whatever chance there might have been for Vitor Meira to make a
last lap pass of Wheldon on the backstretch for the win… Hey
Scott Sharp, I see you got your 20 foot wide ride back. What, it
wasn’t that wide; Brian Barnhart must have thought so. I guess
you just kept the extra width in reserve in case you needed it
late in the race. You must have felt the grass on the
backstretch needed mowing, and thought Buddy Lazier was the man
for the job…
We ended up with a great 500 winner in Dan Wheldon, who just so
happens to be on a roll, winning four of five IndyCar events
this year. Dan knows his 500 history, and knows who his fellow
countrymen were that have also won the Indy 500. In Dan Wheldon,
I think we are looking at the next IndyCar Champion, he isn’t
the crasher he was when he first joined the series, and the
Honda engines are as reliable as they come.
What a great start we had to this years 500, with everyone in
almost prefect alignment; I had almost forgotten what that
looked like. I sure hope they get to do this again next year,
I’m thinking there are those that will tell you that TG has
lost so much $$ this month, that it might be a problem getting
more than 300,000 people to return next year, but somehow I
think he’ll manage. I hope to return, but for now I’m
heading back to Texas
and in two
weeks I’ll be at TMS for the Bombardier Learjet 500.
Here
are some additional O/IRR "aXe at Indy" photos.
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We have a friend on the O/IRR
PRIVATE IndyCar forum from New Zealand that asked about the kind
of equipment it took to "diamond grind" the newly
paved surface at IMS, so "45," here's the picture. Not
shown is the water tank that follows the rig. As for the forum,
it is only "private" to the extent that we you need to
register and follow the simple rules that keep it IndyCar
friendly. If you are interested and wish to register, simply
click here...
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Winning Wheldon donuts...
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Tony Kanaan, followed by Sam
Hornish, Scott Sharp, Danica Patrick, Helio Castroneves and
Vitor Meira early in the race, I believe Dario Franchitti was
leading the race. During the next week I will post more
Indy pictures from my collection.
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For
more of aXe's pictures from Indy, click here...
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(5-30-05) On a picture-perfect day
at IMS weather-wise, Dan
Wheldon won the race he had been shooting for all year, the Indy
500. In doing so, Wheldon has now won every 2005 IndyCar race
but one, but this time Dan didn't inherit the win after another
drivers misfortune. Wheldon passed Danica Patrick for the 2nd
and final time on lap 190 and held of Vitor Meira until the car
of Sebastian Bourdais pushed up into the north short chute wall,
causing the race to end under the caution flag. I'm sure Meira
had plans for a last ditch, final lap run down the backstretch
to try and overtake Wheldon, but we'll never know if that would
have worked. All afternoon we had been treated to Indy's version
of the "Daytona slingshot," a draft down the
straightaway resulting in a last moment pass going into turn's
one and three. That was how Patrick was able to wrest the lead
from Wheldon on the lap 190 restart. Earlier Patrick had led
from lap 172 until Wheldon had passed her just before the
caution flag was thrown for the turn one mishap of Kosuke
Matsuura. While some in the stands wondered how the Wheldon pass
of Patrick at that point in the race was any different then the
Paul Tracy pass of Helio Castroneves that was disallowed three
years ago, in fact Wheldon did pass Danica before the T&S
loop at the "yard of bricks," and THEN the caution
light came on. More on Danica and Dan later, let's look at the
early stages of the race, at times dominated (?) by Sam Hornish
Jr. with his Penske Toyota engine (not to be confused with the
other Toyota engines in the race).
Hornish
managed to lead close to 75 the first 120 laps of the race, but
he had a lot of help in doing so, all the Honda drivers let
him. When it became time for the run to the finish, after
the caution period for the Dixon/Hearn crash in turn one, and it
was time to put some distance on Sam, and get him out of the
mix, Kanaan and Franchitti picked up the pace, swapped the lead
6 times and left Sam in their wake. Hornish was able to hold
onto 3rd position for a while, but eventually slipped back to
about 7th position before Sebastian Bourdais ran him out of
racing room and into the turn one SAFER barrier on lap 147. For
his part in the Hornish crash, Bourdais became instant enemy
number one. In truth though, Bourdais had been no worse than the
other rookies in the race, including Danica Patrick, and better
than most, and also better and safer than a couple of veteran
drivers, namely Jeff Ward and Jimmy Kite, who were a hazard
until they both were "parked." A word about the
Dixon/Hearn incident, Scott Dixon was doing very well with the
Toyota "TCGR version," at the time of the crash, I
think he was in 9th position as he dove under Hearn far too late
and low to complete the pass and make the corner, he was either
going to bounce off of Hearn and drive on, or they were both
going to crash, and that was the final result.
There
were far too many needless incidents in the 500, it all started
with a struggling Larry Foyt being warned that "the leaders
were coming" at a point where he could hardly drive the
car, and he backed it into the turn one SAFER among them,
amazingly everyone missed him. In what would become the order of
the day, it took far too long to restart the race. In recent
seasons, IndyCar has done a great job in track cleanups, even at
Indy, this year it appears they have reverted to their old ways.
I am all for safe driver extraction, but once that is
accomplished; you have to try hold your TV audience by returning
to racing as quickly as possible.
On lap
77 AJ Foyt IV became the reason for the 2nd crash of the race,
turning down into the turn two entrance and making left front to
right rear tire contact with race contender Bruno Junqueira, who
was lapping him. The resulting crash was one of the hardest I
have been that close to and seen at IMS since 1973. Junqueira
had been as high as 3rd or 4th in the race standings and would
have been in the mix all afternoon. Forget spotters, the driver
has to be aware of his mirrors and traffic, especially
approaching the turns when going as slowly as Foyt was.
Junqueira suffered a concussion and has two broken vertebrae and
is scheduled for surgery today (Monday). Little has been said
about his condition since the accident, and that worries
me.
Actually
we were lucky that they didn't stack the field up like cordwood
behind the slow-paced Jimmy Kite, Marty Roth, Jeff Bucknum and
even Jeff Ward. Ward knew enough to hold his line, but still
managed to get his wheel clipped and the car wouldn't steer well
after that. The other three tried to drive out of the way of
oncoming traffic, and caused several fast cars to come all the
way out of the throttle to avoid them. Roth and Kite were gone
on lap 47, Ward lasted until lap 92, and Bucknum survived long
enough to be part of Danica's late-race carnage. Had they taken
Foyt out of the race when they removed Roth and Kite, Bruno
might have been part of the race for the win. At one point in
the race, Jimmy Kite was lapping IMS at 206 mph, while the
leaders were running a 222-mph pace.
Before
the race could be restarted after the Hornish crash, there was
an incident in the north short chute involving several cars that
were weaving back and forth, scrubbing off the tires and getting
some heat in them before racing resumed. Danica Patrick was the
driver that got sideways and caused all the contact. It appeared
that Danica didn't allow enough space between her and the car of
Scott sharp, who was ahead of her at the time. Sharp slowed and
caught Danica in mid-wiggle, forcing her to brake and the car
turned 90 degrees sideways and was hit on the left front wing by
the car of Tomas Enge. Tomas Scheckter spun to miss the mêlée
and hit the inside wall. Patrick Carpentier claims a piece of
debris got into the air inlet and ended his day.
By the
time the race was eventually restarted, they were just inside
the 100-mile to go mark. Patrick had pitted to have the nose and
front wings replaced, and came back in before the restart for
fuel and tires. Herta stopped as well. The longest IndyCar run I
can ever recall on fuel, with the aid of caution flags, was 100
miles, so if Patrick and Herta were to go the distance, they
would need some caution periods.
Help
was on the way, nine laps after the restart the caution flag was
out again, the car of Roger Yasukawa showing smoke. I had been
listening to the car as it passed for several laps, and it
sounded like there was a broken exhaust header, and once they
reach burn through, anything can catch fire. I don't think there
was the "blown Honda" many are claiming. All cars were
incapable of going the distance without fuel, so most came in
during this caution period, Patrick and Herta remained on the
track. The caution period only lasted 3 laps, the race was
restarted on lap 174 with Patrick in the lead, but with the
exception of Herta, everyone else was on fresh tires, and able
to go the distance on fuel, it was still doubtful that Patrick
and Herta could. Wheldon was in 2nd and content to let Danica
lead, she was lapping the track at a 221-222 mph pace. At the
start of lap 186, Wheldon passed Danica at the start/finish line
as Kosuke Matsuura pushed up into the wall, ending up in turn
one. The caution was only out for three laps. On the restart,
Danica set Wheldon up for the pass perfectly and got him going
into turn one. Four laps later, as I was saying to a friend that
"I didn't see Wheldon being able to pass Danica, and fuel
was her only issue left," Dan drove right past her going
into turn one, she then lost two more spots to Meira and Herta,
and was probably on the way to losing more if Bourdais hadn't
made wall contact, causing the race to end under caution.
Wheldon wins!
Some
are saying that it was "old" tires that caused Danica
to lose those positions, I suspect a fuel pickup issue. I think
Herta stopped just after her, so late in fact, that he was
behind the pack of cars on that first (Yasukawa) restart. As for
Danica's tires, they were only seven laps "older,"
than Wheldon and the rest, and some of those laps were caution
laps. Danica drove a great "rookie" race, she bounced
off of Matsuura going down the frontstretch once, she had more
than her share of trouble negotiating lapped traffic, and
stalled the car on pit road early in the race. Her RLR team was surprisingly
unprepared for that, even teams with veteran drivers have the
starter over the pit wall and ready in case of a stall. That
stall also provided insight into another Danica/rookie issue,
there is no way to practice and prepare to pass drivers that
even though slower than her, didn't want to give up the
position. All month they had sent her out on speed runs, any
drivers on the track at the time were warned she was coming and
let her go, while she had learned to pass at the full-speed
tracks like Homestead and Motegi, she still had to learn on the
fly Sunday. When she ended up at the back of the pack twice
Sunday, even with Hornish lapping at 221-mph, she was 11 seconds
behind on that restart, and close to 16 seconds behind at the
next caution period. That isn't all that bad, but if the race
went green for an extended length of time, or the AGR guys had
decided it was time to set sail, it was a ticket to being
lapped.
There
is one other issue that I would like to address, I saw Scott
Sharp take Buddy Lazier all the way down to grass once with one
of his blocking moves, clearly fines and warnings aren't enough
for Sharp, who I thought could win the 500 on his own, I think
he needs to miss the Texas race, but with Delphi so important to
the series, I doubt we will see that anytime soon.
Speaking
of Buddy Lazier, this is the 2nd Indy 500 in a row that he has
outran teammates, and this time he did it in a repaired but
untested car. It is time for Panther Racing to realize that
there best chance for a win lies with Buddy Lazier, not the two
drivers they have now. While either of the Tomas' might beat
Buddy at the two road races left, neither of them will win them
anyway in my opinion, but Buddy can get them an oval track win.
I expect contrasts are an issue, so guys, let's run three cars
the rest of the oval track season, I'll buy some extra ROCKSTAR,
and go to Jiffy Lube for my "platinum" motor oil, I
promise. I'd even look at buying a Chevy if they would re-up for
three more years of IndyCar.
What an
Indy 500, a big hit at the track, and an even bigger hit in the
TV ratings, thanks to a 5'2", 100 pound "racer."
Here's
my attendance rant, as soon as technically possible, I will post
"people" pictures, you will see that the north short
chute stands were no more than half full, if that. The south end
of the Northeast Vista stand was sparse as well, but there are
far more spectators on the "mounds" from turn two,
down the backstretch and around to the frontstretch, than it
would take to fill all those empty seats. This is not the same
world we live in as those who like to compare pre-IRL Indy's to,
there is far more things to do and far more varied interests.
Some of those "Indy-dedicated" people from that era
are now either too old to come anymore, or are no longer with
us. Yesterday I didn't see the walk up, late arriving crowd I
saw in 2004, and I didn't see scalpers with stacks to tickets so
big they could hardly hold them. In fact, I heard more "I
need tickets" than "who needs tickets." I can
only hope that a way can be found to keep this car/engine
package we have now for five more years, if that could be made
possible, the Indy 500 will again be as special as it ever was.
In my mind, it already is.
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Saturday
at IMS, while others were watching the mock drivers meeting, I
previewed the race and made my picks, saved and explained below.
I blew the Fernandez call, he wasn't a factor all day, but I
kind of like the rest of my choices.
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In summation, my "pick
five for the race" is, (and not necessarily in this order), Sharp, Wheldon, Fernandez,
Meira and Lazier. Let me explain the above, in racing there are
so many things that can happen to take a selected winner out of
the race that long ago I started picking a 5-driver list that I
thought the winner would come from, and for many years I nailed
it. That hasn't been the case lately, let's see how I'll do this
year.
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All
Indy 500 race preview content and pictures are now located
here...
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(5-26-05) I am in the IMS Media
Center on a day that we would usually call Carb Day, but this
year it is the P&Q day for the Futaba Freedom 100, The MIPS
race that will be part of the new Friday Carb Day program. Of particular
interest to us today is the run of third generation racer Cole
Carter, in a car setup by good friend John Jones. Setup indeed,
Jones, Carter and the crew nailed it and the Carter posted a
3rd-fastest practice speed of 188.858. "Q" runs are
about to begin. (More later)
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(5-23-05) Sunday morning at this
time I wrote "AJ doesn't need bubble protection, there are
two slower Toyota powered cars behind the Larry Foyt entry, so
as long as there is a Foyt car or two around, there is always a
chance of Bump Day hijinks." Well I nailed that one, and
depending on what chicken or egg story you believe coming out
the dead-air time when there is no TV coverage from Indy, the
impetus for Foyt's Bump Day heroics either came out of the fear
that the Luyendyk/Beck effort would either never make a
"Q" attempt, or would be woefully and embarrassingly
slow. There was also the very likely possibility that the Kid
would stick the car in the fence, but to his credit, that didn't
happen. We do now know what did happen, the car did qualify too
slow, but the questions remain about how the Foyt deal came
about, and who and how many had to come together to make it
happen. I'm sure that sometime during the past two weeks Felipe
Giaffone or some of "his people" had talked with AJ,
but I seriously doubt that Foyt had a scrap of paper in his
pocket with Giaffone's cell phone number on it. I also doubt
that Foyt had any plans of running a third car at this time
Sunday morning. There is one thing about Foyt that you have to
admire though, if you present him with a problem involving IMS
and The Indy 500, he will do whatever it takes to fix it. The
laundry list of those Foyt has helped get into the 500 on Bump
Day is long and distinguished and often involved the same final
hour heroics that we saw Sunday.
I wasn't at IMS yesterday, but
I know how things work there and understand some of the
requirements that a driver must go through to get all the
paperwork done before they can even get in the car. While
Giaffone was working a Mo Nunn deal, he hadn't taken a physical
or done anything else to become eligible to drive, and there had
to be a high-level spirit of cooperation to get all this done in
a three hour period, and I suspect a certain amount of financial
backing and the OK from Toyota as well.
Yesterday I also mentioned that
before any Bump Day deal could be made, an "engine
agreement had to be secured," and that "none of the
three 'providers' wanted to be party to the bumping of one of
their teams or by inviting a 'future payback' by bumping an
entry of one of the other two." Since Chevy will leave the
IndyCar Series at the end of this season, they must have become
fair game. I wasn't 100% correct in everything I said yesterday,
I did say this, "as for Toyota, I expect they are
embarrassed by their weak-sister teams at the bottom of the
chart, why encourage another?"
There had been rumors that
Giaffone was going to get a Mo Nunn backup car, but when that
fell through (I can only guess that Honda said no), he booked a
flight for Brazil and was ready to leave. After yesterday's safe
and solid run, one that brought the field speed differential in
just under the 10-mph mark, Giaffone will be on a different
"flyer" this morning, the IndyCar charter flight to
New York City. For those that think a ten-mph speed differential
is a bad thing, there have been times in past 500 history when
that was a goal. It wasn't until 1993-1995 that the disparity
dropped into the 6-mph range. Before anyone points out that was
part of the CART era, the three "CART" years before
that saw gaps as large as 13-mph (in an era some claim 'to be
the best ever'). In the ten year IRL experience, there have been
speed gaps that were close to 4-mph.
What we have now is what we
have, so there is no use complaining about it. This
"500" stacks up as one of the most solid fields ever,
and one of the best prepared. While the schedule was condensed
and rain shortened, when the cars were on the track, they were
out in force and in packs, working the aero packages and finding
ways to run better in traffic. I remember sitting high in turn
one last year watching the cars circle single file and in
100-foot intervals most of the race, Buddy Rice and Tony Kanaan
were among the few that could advance their position in traffic,
one of the others was Buddy Lazier. With the pack running we
have seen this week, and almost two-wide action in the turns, I
expect that if the weatherman gives us the perfect day, we will
see an Indy 500 unlike any seen since they put the wings on the
cars.
Sometime in the next 48 hours
before I catch my flight to Indy, I'll take a team-by-team look
at the Indy 500. Early on I thought Dan Wheldon would win, but
now I am beginning to get a SHARPer image, I'll make a final
call at that later in the week, but I still think you will have
to have a Panoz Honda to win. Here is the latest
"look" at the 2005
Indy 500 field, I'm sure a couple cars will receive
"paint" jobs soon.
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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Once the 500 starts, Team Penske
will again be ready to adjust the rear wing angle on the fly
during pit stops, another indication of the team's attention to
detail. This is a new simplified and lighter version of the
adjuster used last year and shown below. To see how some of the
other teams "covered" the adjuster issue last year,
look at Friday's O/IRR file photo's here...
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O/IRR file photo by
Miles Nelson
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(5-22-05) There are three cars
that drew for positions in the qualifying at IMS today, the #98
Beck car, and two Foyt entries. AJ doesn't need bubble
protection, there are two slower Toyota powered cars behind the
Larry Foyt entry, so as long as there is a Foyt car or two
around, there is always a chance of Bump Day hijinks. At least
one of the IndyCar forums is reporting that "Playa del
Racing will bring out their backup car for Jon Herb if the Beck
car fails to fill the 500 field." In looking at the Bump
Day possibilities over two weeks ago, I had that one penciled
in. Herb has run the 500 once for Tony Stewart, Larry Curry and
Tri Star Motorsports in 2001, he started 18th and crashed out of
the race. Herb would have to pass a refresher test.
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(5-22-05) Engines are hard to
come by, and I'm not sure that any of the three manufacturers
wish to shake another one loose. The downside to the field
shortages of the last three years is the reluctance of any of
the three "providers" to be party to bumping either
one of there own entries, or one from the other two, possibly
inviting a future payback. I think the only thing that could get
another Honda in the show would be a last minute doctors
clearance for Buddy Rice, and I doubt that will happen. Chevy
has met their 6-entry goal if Arie Jr. can keep the car out of
the fence and show respectable speed. Arie made wall contact
yesterday at 213-mph. I doubt IndyCar officials will let him in
the field if he can't run 218's. A better choice might be to put
someone else in the car and tell Arie to come back next year. I
see little difference in him and Scott Mayer, other than the
famous name.
As for Toyota, I expect they
are embarrassed by their weak-sister teams at the bottom of the
chart, why encourage another? One more thing, I am sick of
hearing "Toyota is a week away from more power," if
they had it, they would have shown it by now. We have heard this
stuff since before Motegi, and Toyota keeps falling further
behind. I'll recap Bump Day later this afternoon, I am slated to
get off work early, so I could do a last hour running recap,
watch for the link.
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This
afternoon they came close to filling the Indy 500 field, but I
was very disappointed in most of the speeds, and gratified that
Kenny Brack helped support my contention that if you have the
right stuff and right conditions, you can come very close to any
tow assisted practice run. Brack's crew admitted to a conservative
approach to his "Q" run, and when questioned as to how
much they "laid the wing back," they readily admitted
"not as much as the other two." Read more on the
Saturday P&Q results and see more informative photo's here...
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(2:20, IMS
time) Arie Jr. is on the track and appears to be in phase four,
running above 210. Now he is above 213, a couple of laps more
and he should be cleared. he is back in the pits, has run 27
laps, and other than his speeds being inconsistent in the final
phase, he may be finished with ROP.
(5-21-05) Yep, to me at least,
it is still day-three, since last Sunday we had the combination
of the 1st and 2nd days of qualifying. There are 10 cars that
could fill the field today, barring "contact," a
couple of these teams probably have only one chassis, in spite
of what the entry list says. The 11th and final car is the #98
of Arie Luyendyk Jr, and he is on the IMS track as I write this,
having passed two phases of his ROP effort and running 206 mph.
He will probably get the job done before I can hit
"safe." I expect the fast three today to be Brack,
Briscoe and Carpentier.
(A partial Luyendyk update)
Arie is shown as only completing 26 laps, with the same best lap
result of 206 mph. The track is "yellow for pace car
rides," so Arie Jr. has not passed ROP yet.
I have had a scheduling
change at work, so I will be unable to do a running recap of
today's "Q" runs, I'll do a recap later this evening.
There will be plenty of "dead" TV time today, but
there is always the T&S link to keep you posted.
I
have finished the Friday recap here...
Above the final T&S chart, I have included some interesting
commentary about practice speed "groupings," that is
worth a read, and added some pictures from aXe at Indy as well.
Later today I
will post a link to the recap of today's qualifying runs.
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(5-20-05,
10:00 AM, IMS time) Yes, I know that there are two days on Indy
500 qualifying left this weekend, but what we will see this
Sunday could be the downside to the great new four-day Indy 500
qualifying package. That is unless we see a return of the Bump
Day deal making that has eluded the 500 qualifying process the
past two years. In 2003 and 2004 there were Bump Day deals, but
instead of deals made to attempt to unseat a qualified car, the
deals made were just to fill the field of 33. Read more on what
I expect from this the 2nd
weekend of IMS qualifying here... Also, don't forget that
there is still practice today, and the ROP run of at least Arie
Luyendyk Jr. Now if we were to hear that Thiago Medeiros
was going to make a ROP
attempt as well, we might have a story, but that isn't likely,
and I'm sure that is absolutely the last ROP opportunity.
This
is the best IMS weather link I've seen anywhere... Once they
get started, it looks like they will run all day today, here is
the T&S
link... Then I click on "Full Results."
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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On
Sunday, after seeing some dazzling early speeds in practice, the
cars got slower, and in "Q" runs we never saw a lap
turned above 227.566 mph. Was I wrong about the loss of the
"tow" being negated by fresh, purpose built
engines, careful "body massaging" and optimized wing
trimming and tire stagger? Clearly for that day, time and
conditions, I was wrong, but not because of a missing tow, blame
the weather-related track conditions. The picture above is of
Kenny Brack, returning to the Indy 500 as a replacement driver
for the Injured 500 defending champion, Buddy Rice, read
more here...
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O/IRR photos by
aXe
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The top picture shows Tony Kanaan
as he starts his pole winning run Sunday. Because of the
intensity of the young lady, I'm not sure if this picture was
taken before her amazing qualifying effort, or after the
disappointment after the big first lap wiggle.
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Tony
Kanaan may have won the Indy 500 pole position on Sunday, and
Danica Patrick, with her amazing save and captivating recovery
after a first lap bobble in turn one may have been the show, but
it will be Indy 500 fans everywhere that will be the long-term
winners. The new 4-day qualification format, revised due to the
Saturday rain-out, turned out to be as exciting as forecasted.
Winning the Indy 500 pole position is such plum, that time after
time, team owners and drivers were more then willing to take
what amounts to “points of the scoreboard” in withdrawing
already qualified cars from the lineup and making another pole
run. Unfortunately, the one re-run everyone wanted to see, never
happened, another attempt at the pole by Danica Patrick. Read
more of my Pole Day review and see more pictures from "aXe
at Indy" here...
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We are a little more than two
hours away from the most frantic 90 minutes of practice
seen at IMS every year, the practice session that precedes pole
position qualifying. I am setting up a P&Q page and will
post in live running recap format all day, from the minute the
practice session begins until the final gun sounds to signify
the qualifying session has ended. At that time I can only hope
that there is a car exiting pit road that will still be a
serious pole contender. With the new qualifying format, whereby
each entry is allowed attempts per day, I think there will be
plenty of action, all day long. My
new Pole Day qualifying page is here, I will attempt to post
all the 4-lap average speeds and slot them in the correct order,
commenting as needed.
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(12:15,
IMS time) Work issues continue to keep me away from Indy for
most of the month of May again this year, but I have been fortunate
enough to have had sympathetic and understanding employers that
I have only missed one Indy 500 since 1993. I'm sitting here
watching the TV coverage and building this pole day page. As
I posted earlier here, I doubt they will wait long this
afternoon before calling off the Pole Day qualifying runs.
IndyCar officials won't want to start qualifying so late in the
afternoon that there isn't enough time to give every driver a
run at the pole position. As I write this, I just got
the phone call, the day is a washout, they have postponed Pole
Day, and will run tomorrow, qualifying 22 cars in one day.
Like everyone with a love for Indy
events, I was disappointed to learn that we wouldn't see the
first example of the new qualifying format today, whereby only
the fastest eleven cars would have been slotted, but not locked
into the Indy 500 field. I'm felling much better about the
decision now, having just watched the ESPN interview of Brian
Barnhart, I'm anxiously awaiting the Sunday "Q" runs.
Read more about my revised Pole Day expectations here...
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Friday
was Tom Carnegie Day at IMS, and O/IRR's track reporter and
photographer aXe sent this picture of "The Voice,"
taken yesterday...
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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Well
Fast Friday has come and gone and quite a few never noticed it
was also Tom Carnegie Day. When this guy ends his 60-plus year
career at IMS, he will surely be missed. What a voice, it will
never be duplicated or replaced by anyone else. Just to hear him
say "and heeeee's on it!" is an Indy experience one
will never forget.
There
is also that other phrase he started, "annnnd it’s a
neeewww traaaack reecccord” that we don’t hear much any more
that will surely missed by all.
My feelings about that are to bring it back by just having a
“formula” record, you know, a record for the 3 liter, 3.5
liter, 4 liter engines, “turbo” and normally aspirated
engines as well. Then ya have to throw in a whoosh-mobile record
too. It would surely be nice to hear Tom saying that phrase
again.
The
record books have no way of telling you how the cars stacked up
against each other without this direction. There have been cars
there with engines of 300-plus ci., and also those with 91 ci.,
how can the track record be a blanket deal if it doesn’t take
this into account? How 2,500 pound car with over 300 cubic
inches compared to a 1,500 pound “light-weight” is such too
tough a call to make. What is the 3 liter, light-weight record
now? I'd say the fast speeds set on Pole Day Sunday, because the
entire field will probably qualify faster than the pole speed of
2004. Old Tom might lose his voice saying those famous words so
often, but it would be fun to hear him do it.
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There has
been a lot of talk about wing trimming for qualifying; here is a
shot that shows a wing setting from Fast Friday. If they were to
trim the leading edge any more, it just may start to provide
some lift! (editors note) I cropped the picture tight to the
wheels to show the amount of camber in the setup of the car,
notice how the top of the tires are angled towards what would be
the inside of the track. You can't see it in the picture, but
there is a slight toe-in to the rear wheels as well. MN
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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Photo by Steve
Snoddy/IRL on Sun, 08 May 2005.
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I don't have a picture of Danica's
rear wing from behind the car like I do for the Scott Sharp car,
but in this shot it is clear to see that the trailing edge of
the wing is tilted up into the slipstream. In the picture above
that, trailing edge of the wing on the Scott Sharp sits below
the lead edge, at a negative angle. Actually, the setup on the
Sharp wing is fairly conservative.
Scott will be first to qualify Sunday, when the fastest 22 cars
are slotted into the 500 field, and I see no shortage of takers.
Since bumped cars have a total of three attempts per day, there
will be few early wave-offs. Once you begin a run, you may as
well finish it, because it counts against you anyway.
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"Fast Friday" has long
been a favorite of mine, in the past it was a day always shared
with my two son's. Adults now, they still fondly remember those
trips and the two days of qualifying that would follow. Every
year, when I return to IMS, I look up to the penthouse seating
area where we used to sit (it was directly across from the
entrance to Gasoline Alley), and recall the good times we had.
Yesterday, Fast Friday started out by playing up to it's name,
as Tomas Scheckter posted the fastest speed of the month, and
with an eye to the southwest, those at IMS had to feel that if
the advancing storms would somehow manage to skirt IMS, they
were in store for a day at IMS to remember. Then the afternoon
turned scary/ugly when Paul Dana became the third driver to lose
control in turn two in three days, and impact the SAFER barrier.
Dana hit in almost the exact spot as Darren Manning did the day
before, and we saw the same images of amazing SAFER deflection.
The day before that, Buddy Rice was the "first-in,"
but he hit earlier in the turn, and I'm convinced that there was
a mechanical failure that caused that one, I can never recall a
car crashing that way, and in that area, Buddy had hardly turned
in to the corner. unfortunately, Paul Dana was injured,
suffering a fractured spine and concussion, he is out of the 500
this year. Sam Hornish Jr. got caught up in the debris field and
did an abbreviated and low altitude version of the Mario
Andretti blow-over of 2003. I'm sure that the reason Sam didn't
get to Andretti altitude is that he was entering turn two
instead of turn one, where the turn-in speeds are higher. Also,
those cars, with 3.5 liter engines, were quite a bit faster at
turn entrance. Fortunately, Sam was uninjured and has been
cleared to qualify today. before the debris field was cleared,
the first rain storm hit, and there was an attempt to dry the
track and clean up the accident scene simultaneously, but it was
all for naught, as often happens at IMS it's the follow-up storm
that ends the day before the track has a chance to completely
dry. Actually, Hornish was party to a last minute attempt to get
one more setup check in as the sky turned ominous looking.
Weather plays a big part in the Indy experience, yesterday was a
day of opportunities lost.
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Unfortunately, Indy and IMS is
facing the same wet forecast today, it is raining hard there as
I write this, and the sky is in solid overcast. I called aXe in
Indy at 7:15 and he reported that is was raining where his son
lives, 6 miles from the speedway. There is no way that they will
start practice on time, actually, the best case scenario would
have them ready to practice at 1:00 PM Indy time, the time when
"Q" runs are slated to begin. There is one other
"time stamp" to be aware of, IMS/IndyCar officials
won't start "Q" runs if there isn't enough time left
to run through the entire "Q" line once, my guess is
that if they aren't on the track and practicing by 2:00 PM, they
will call it a day. I don't wish to spoil everyone's day, but I
would rather have a washout then a one-run effort. Sunday and
Monday look to be dry. If they run today, I'll cover the run's
in a live running recap
format here...
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(5-13-05)
It's "Friday the 13th," and we will be lucky if the
cars are still turning laps come happy hour, the forecast
doesn't look promising,
but the track opened on time, and T&S was late to appear,
the first serious laps put Helio Castroneves at the top of the
chart, but not for long, now it's Scott Dixon setting a 223-mph
pace. I'll comment on
the days action here all afternoon, or at least until the rains
hit the IMS area... As for the
weather forecast, it looks like they will get at least 3
hours in anyway. For those away from Indy and sneaking a
peak at the results, here is the Indy
weather radar site. FYI, it is clear of "blips"
for now. To learn more of what I thing of "towgate, follow
the ling above, it will be a work-in-progress as I cover the
afternoon practice. OBTW, Look at Scheckter go (same link)!
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(5-12-05)
After practice was cut short by rain Wednesday, I was listening
to an interview with the days pacesetter, Tony Kanaan, who had
posted a month-to-date best speed of 227.453, and you would
think he was almost embarrassed by being caught at it. Tony
couldn't have looked more guilty if he was caught peeing in the
neighbor's pool as a kid. Read more about the mind games drivers
play at Indy every year here...
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Once
you finish the above reading assignment, if and when the
weatherman allows, follow my Fast Thursday coverage here...
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Finally
the day I have waited for! Those Big Dogs took to the track and
immediately got up to 220+ mph with no Sweat! There was even a
little side by side running, wow, that’s exciting. This is
what opening day is all about, just beautiful weather and lots
of cars on the track and going fast.
The first car out of the pit lane was Helio Castroneves; the 2nd
was his teammate Sam Hornish. So much goes on in these practice
sessions that it's hard to know where, what or who to watch. Not
showing your hand too early here is a long standing practice,
what you see just may not be what is actually happening. Helio
went by me one time and his car seemed to be just coasting.
Well, I could hear him and he was just driving hard into the
fist and second corner, then he backed off some, so no one knows
what a real fast lap by him would be? Oh, one more thing, the
games played by these people are fine and dandy with me, but
there is one thing that they can’t rely on, how the conditions
are going to be when it is their turn to qualify, that‘s old
Mother Nature’s deal.
When
it’s your turn to qualify, she just may not show up for you.
Then, not matter what you do, you just may be a tad short of being
real quick-timer. Oh Well, that’s just one of the games played
here, not only this month, but every year
Being a novice observer at this plant for the whole month, there
is lot to learn in watching these people prepare for the
GREATEST SPECTACLE in RACING! I’ll be here most days watching
them get ready. By the way who is that guy in the 33 car running
like he is being chased by a bunch of Big Dogs?
aXe
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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Helio
Castroneves at speed in the MTP Dallara Toyota at IMS
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O/IRR photo by
aXe
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"That
guy" aXe was writing about, rookie driver Ryan Briscoe. aXe
has his own page here at O/IRR, follow aXe at Indy here...
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(5-11-05) On
Tuesday, after two days of not so exciting ROP action (?), which
probably wasn't a good idea that many drivers are unhappy about,
IMS finally opened for full-field practice, and while things were
slow at times in the heat of the afternoon, that wasn't the case
early on, when in rapid succession, first Ryan Briscoe, Helio
Castroneves, Kosuke Matsuura and then finally Dan Wheldon posted
surprising early speed. Wheldon's run was amazing, it came when
the car was fresh out of the garage and hadn't been on the track
yet. Dan drove right off pit road and was above 223 on his third
lap, by lap five he posted a 224.998. Later in the day Briscoe was
on the top of the speed chart again, but in an amazing Happy Hour
run, several drivers topped his speed. Read more about Tuesday's
Practice and see the final speed chart here...
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(5-11-05) When the
Speedway opens for practice today at noon Indy time, it could be
81 degrees and on the way to a high of 85. There is also a forecast
of possible strong thunder storms late in the afternoon that
could spoil Happy Hour runs, but let's hope the bad weather will
come later in the evening. Tuesday served as a reminder to us of
Happy Hours past, when changes near the top of the speed chart
came in rapid succession. Yesterday, try as they might, no one
could top Dan Wheldon's 226.808 Happy Hour result. Today, backed
by a safe baseline setup, the teams will start to trim out the
cars in search of more speed. One driver in serious need for
more speed is Scott Dixon, shown in the picture below in one of
TCGR's new Dallara Toyota's. Dixon was unable to run 220
mph yesterday, and is 7 mph off of Wheldon's pace and on a steep
learning curve. I will follow today's practice in a live running
recap format here...
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Courtesy of Toyota
Motorsports
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O/IRR
Indy 500 Photo Pages
Perfectly Penske,
a look at MTP's attention to details.
Tuesday,
First full day of practice in recap format Gamesmanship,
a Tuesday Pre-Practice Report
ROP
Day-Two (Monday) Results
Opening
Day Results and Commentary
Opening
Day at IMS
IndyCar
off-week Notebook
A
special flight into Indy
Amanda's Brat Chat
aXe at Indy
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