The season long IndyCar Series teams are ready for the month of May's
"Greatest Spectacle of Racing" in the city where many of them have their
shops. Indianapolis is a beehive of activity from opening day thru the
winner's photo shoot on Monday following the race.
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Dennis Reinbold, Robbie Buhl, John Andretti and Richard Petty unveil the No. 43 "Petty Blue" Dallara. Photo by Ron McQueeney - IRL.
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In reality the city and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have been busy
working together as a team for the 93rd running of the event. While
the Indy 500 is held on Sunday, the 24th, planning for it takes into
consideration more than just the days of on-track activity. The city
and the Brickyard are hosts to many social functions, fan festivities,
entertainment and many off-track activities.
It stands amongst many other events held worldwide as one of the
must-see races of the year. Others would include Monaco Grand Prix, the
Daytona 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Famous races at popular venues.
The Speedway is the host and runs the show even though sanctioned by the
Indy Racing League. It is a show, garnering broadcast and radio ratings
that have top the charts over the years. While the ratings might have
gone up and down and the spectators may have faded and returned, one
thing is certain, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 has a place in the
IMS Museum and his or her name will be known for years to come.
One such hopeful is John Andretti who will drive the first ever entry
of one of the most famous names in NASCAR: Richard Petty! For the first
time, racing fans will see the famous "Petty Blue" turning laps in the
Indy 500. Dennis Reinbold and Robbie Buhl's team Dreyer & Reinbold
Racing has partnered with the "King".
For the renown Speedway, which has hosted Formula One, and currently has
two other major events: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and MotoGP, this year
is one which includes its own celebration. 2009 marks the start of the
Centennial Anniversary of the racetrack from its opening in 1909. They
will continue to celebrate through 2011, the 100th Anniversary of the
inaugural Indianapolis 500.
Ray Harroun driving a Nordyke & Marmon entry took the first Indy 500
victory after racing for six hours, 42 minutes and eight seconds. His
average speed back then was 74.602 miles per hour. Compare that with
last year's winner, Scott Dixon who toured the 2.5-mile oval in just
three hours, 28 minutes and 57.6792 second with an average speed of
143.567 miles per hour in the Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara with Honda
power.
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Scott Dixon, Winner Indianapolis 500. Photo by Michael C. Johnson.
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If one is in Indianapolis on May 1 to May 3, they can see a different
spectacle, this one in the sky. A field of 33 hot air balloons will come
from 13 states to launch off from the Speedway's infield. Thirty-three
is the number of starters at the Brickyard for the "Greatest Spectacle
of Racing".
While not all the races have completed 500 miles due to rain, most of
them have ran the full distance. Quite a good record when you consider
the years involved. While the speedway will have 100 years in the book,
the race itself will not due to war time. Still 92 Indy 500s are in
the books and now the question is who will win the 93rd running of the
prestigious event.
Three racers have notched four wins in May: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr., and
Rick Mears. Five have taken consecutive victories: Wilbur Shaw, Mauri
Rose, Bill Vukovich, Al Unser Sr. and Helio Castroneves. In 1992, the
closest finish occurred when Al Unser Jr. won by 0.043 seconds over
Scott Goodyear.
One of the controversial finishes came in 2002 when Paul Tracy took the
loss to Castroneves amongst confusion and a crash on the final lap that
brought out a yellow. Tracy moved past Castroneves but the yellow came
out and per the Indy Racing League, the running order reverts to the
last completed lap.
That was the last time the Canadian was in the Indy 500 field
until now. Tracy will return to the famous Brickyard to try again
to earn the right to drink the milk in Victory Circle. He will
drive the KV Racing Technology entry with sponsor from GEICO. How
the deal came to pass can be found in Joe Jennings' article: Colorful Paul
Tracy returns to Indianapolis in May
"The only reason I want to go there is to try to win. It's not to go
there to qualify and make the field and have a good day," admitted
Tracy in today's IRL teleconference. "I said at the press conference in
Long Beach the reason I'm going there is to win. If we can do that and
generate a lot of media for our sponsor with GEICO, hopefully we can
grow this into something bigger and better. Right now the focus is just
on Indianapolis. If that goes well enough, then maybe we can get into
the races in Canada or maybe more."
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Paul Tracy. Photo by Covy Moore.
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Tracy has always been outspoken, both on and off the track, but once
the Champ Car World Series closed down due to the amalgamation between
the IRL and CCWS owners, the popular Canadian was left rideless.
Ironically one of the main players in the merger deal was Kevin
Kalkhoven, co-owner of CCWS and now it is the team owned by Kalkhoven
and Jimmy Vasser that Tracy will race for at Indy.
Tracy is definitely itching to get back in the cockpit on full ride
effort as he said, "Obviously with either a win or a great result in
Indy I would hope that it would open the door to racing on a full-time
basis. Last year coming back at Edmonton to come right out of the box
and be in the top five or six in every practice session with Tony's
(George) team, then finish fourth, I thought the expectations of that, I
think everybody exceeded what we had planned to do. The excitement level
after the race for that three, four, five days post race was very good.
I thought, 'OK, I'm going to be in a car here.'
"As time passed by, it just kind of fizzled. You know, nothings a
guarantee. Obviously this is a good opportunity. It didn't come out of
the blue. I've had to generate the sponsorship to do this and find the
money to do it. Nobody has handed me a ride. It takes money to run these
cars. It's going to take finding a full-time sponsor to get me on the
track," added Tracy.
Tracy is not the only racer returning to Indy, Scott Sharp returns
in the cockpit of one of the Panther Racing entries. It will be his
13th start in the 500 race and like Tracy, he wants to land his first
victory. Sharp's best finish was sixth in 2007 -- the last full-season
he had in IndyCar before moving to the American Le Mans Series marking
his return to sportscar racing.
Sharp earned the IRL's 1996 split-calendar championship in the
series inaugural start-up. The Indy 500 pole winner will have Patron
as his sponsor. One can view Sharp's story on Motorsport.com: Sharp teams with
Panther to mark Indy 500 return
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Scott Sharp. Photo by Ron McQueeney - IRL.
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Sharp said during today's IRL teleconference how much this means to him
as he commented, "I think it's going to be pretty tough, for sure. No
doubt the series is really competitive. It looks like a lot of the teams
have closed up on the top couple teams. Maybe some of the advantages
they've had in the past are a little more widely available now. And I
think certainly I imagine that five through 15 type spots are going to
be really, really tough. It's going to be a tenth of a mile an hour over
four laps that's going to be the difference. I'm expecting it to be
competitive. There's nothing like qualifying at the Indy 500. Something
I've always gotten really pumped up for. I think it's going to be great
to be part of it."
Sharp knows the challenge that is ahead of him, having been racing in a
different type of car: a prototype versus the open-wheel machined, but
shows his confidence of getting back into an IndyCar cockpit; especially
at IMS. "You know, I've been around there a lot, fortunately. Had the
opportunity to do the race as many times as I have. I simply love and
cherish every lap around that track.
"I've dreamt about it so much over the years, I think I could do it in
my sleep. So I'm pretty hopeful once I get out there, it's all going to
come back pretty quick. I was listening a little bit there with Paul's
interview," Sharp said. "We're going to try to run a little bit of ROP
as a refresher sort of as a casual way to get back up to speed. I'm
expecting that to all come pretty quickly, so..."
And then there are the rookies, only four of them named thus far and
with rookie orientations coming up on May 5th, one should expect that
Raphael Matos, Robert Doornbos, Mike Conway and Stanton Barrett are the
ones aiming to earn not only the top rookie honors in the demanding race
but perhaps the sip of milk at the end.
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Stanton Barrett, Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G. Photo by Andy Sallee.
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All four are competitors in this year's IndyCar Series. Barrett hails
from California made the switch from stockcar racing to single-seaters.
One of his dreams has been to make the Indy 500 field, even when
he attended the event as a spectator. The rookie races for the
CURB/Agajanian/Team 3G team.
In today's IRL teleconference, Barrett said he knows the difficulties
that lay ahead, "We have to make the race first to be able to have the
pleasure and opportunity to be able to race the race. That's going to
be kind of back in the days, I feel like the days of NASCAR for me,
where each race was all or nothing. There's a lot on the line. I have no
experience there in an open-wheel car. There's a lot of differences from
what I've tried to learn and gather from people. I got to go out and do
my job and the team has to do their job and we need to work as hard as
possible, and hopefully we'll be able to live that dream and be in the
Indy 500."
May 5th will see on-track activity with Rookie Orientation and the first
practice for the Indy Lights Series. Opening Day is May 6th with rookie
practice in the morning and the full field of entries will take the
first practice at 2:00pm local time.
