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There
are 8 drivers eligible to take part in the 2005 Rookie
Orientation Program at IMS beginning Sunday; Tomas
Enge
, Danica Patrick
, Ryan Briscoe
, Sebastian Bourdais
, Scott Mayer
, Jeff Bucknum,
Patrick Carpentier
and Paul Dana. Carpentier and Bourdais, because of their
involvement with both CART and the CCWS on high-speed,
high-banked ovals, have the option of passing on ROP.
Last
year there were 7 drivers eligible for ROP; and they got the whole
program in on one day. Darren Manning had the option of running
ROP and passed, but TCGR did get their "free test" in,
running rookie Luis Diaz for 95 laps. Diaz never made another run
all month. There was one driver that breezed through ROP in 9 laps
though, and that was Jeff Simmons, and he did it in 9 laps, which
appears to be a rules violation. Perhaps they counted Simmons MIPS
testing at 180-mph plus, and let him off with posting only the
nine laps "above 200-mph," when ten are required. I was
there; and Simmons was so impressive and quick in getting it done
that I didn't know it wasn't Larry Foyt in the car until Simmons
got out. In fact, Simmons was 2-mph faster than Larry.
Newman
Haas Racing has to get both drivers in the field safely in the new
convoluted and excitement-managed qualifying system, and with next
weeks weather forecast looking real wet most of the time, they
would be foolish to pass on Bourdaise making a ROP run.
ROP
rules are lost somewhere in the back my mind, but I know the final
segment is under IMS veteran driver evaluation, and can be at any
speed above 200 mph the driver is comfortable at. Last year; for
at least Marty Roth, the “comfortable speed” number was a 206
mph, and it became his signature speed until he finally found the
courage and setup for a 211 mph lap to qualify for the race.
This
year we may have two "Marty Roth's," Scott Mayer, who
may be worse than Roth, and Paul Dana, who has been unable to run
a safe race pace in three races. Mayer is in an AJ Foyt maintained
car though, and Foyt has IMS setups that most of us could drive at
ROP speeds. Mayer busted out of ROP in 2003 in a PDM maintained
car. I use the word "maintained" because I think Mayer
brings his own Dallara, often "dinged" by him, to the
Foyt team. Not to worry, "Oscar" was never going fast
enough to hurt the car, usually he would crash in either the warm
up laps or in the early laps of the race. As for Dana, his
Hemelgarn Ethanol team has been away from the IndyCars for more
than a year, and they weren't very good the last time they
entered, but that team has vast Indy 500 winning experience, if
Dana can't cut it in ROP, or tears the car up, the Ethanol folks
better look to another driver, and or team.
There
are two questions remaining other then the issue of the two CCWS
"rookies" running, who will set the pace, and if we will
see another "Simmons" emerge, a driver that seems to be
easy-fast on a very difficult track?
I
think Ryan Briscoe sets the ROP pace without a Bourdaise effort,
but if Sebastien runs or Tomas Enge, all bets are off. I
will have more on the Enge situation later. Carpentier
could also be a factor, but I have so little faith in the Team
Cheever setups that I don't see "Patreek" as a
pacesetter. Team Cheever has gotten a "wake up" call
from sponsor Red Bull, and Eddie has passed the word on down the
line, so who knows? I have watched RLR carefully bring Danica
Patrick up to speed in three tests now, I doubt they will let her
top the chart Sunday. Last year's ROP top speed was Ed Carpenters
215.5 mph, with favorable weather; I'm looking for
"217's." Since there is another issue we have yet to
hear about, the condition of Tomas Enge after his Motegi crash,
and whether he will be cleared to run ROP, I haven't included his
chances in this ROP update. If Enge is allowed to run, look for
him somewhere in the top-3, perhaps at the top overall.
As
for this year's "Simmons," there are reports that one of
the Chesson brothers will get a run, and one other driver, a name
I can't recall, has money for a ROP run, few teams do that
anymore, so if they roll out a PDM car (if they have one), we may
see a 9th or 10th driver.
As
I said before, there were seven "rookies" last year, and
they got ROP done in one day, not only did they do that, but there
was a short rain delay, and everything was over long before 5:00
PM, I have no idea why they need or will use two days. I hope they
will be flexible enough to open regular practice Monday as soon as
ROP is over.
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