RAHAL LETTERMAN RACING INDY CHARGE BLUNTED BY FUEL PRESSURE WOES
INDIANAPOLIS - Oriol Servia's charge through the Indianapolis 500
field was almost too good to be true as the driver of the #17 Rahal
Letterman Racing DAFCA Special needed just 97 laps to storm from 25th to
ninth.
But happens normally when things appear too good to be true, things
went bad in hurry as a failure with the fuel pump feeding Ethanol to the
team's Honda powerplant stopped the car in its tracks. Servia had
just moved into ninth place, owing to Tony Kanaan's crash, but as
he described it, 'the car just shut off like someone threw a
switch'.
The engine stopped running on the backstretch of the 2.5-mile
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, leaving Servia to coast back to the pits as
the RLR squad waited to diagnose the problem. The team quickly diagnosed
the problem and tried a couple of remedies before discovering that the
problem was terminal.
"The car was really good and I was faster than most of the
people around me all day," Servia said. "I was just waiting
on the race to play out but I honestly felt that we had a car that could
win the race. Everything was going according to plan. The car was
amazing."
It didn't take long for Servia to show that he would be a
force in the 200-lap race. After a Lap Seven restart caused by an early
incident between Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti, Servia started climbing
to the front. Having started 25th, Servia had gained six spots after just
nine laps. He kept moving through the first quarter of the race, and had
slipped into 15th by Lap 50. Strong work on a Lap 61 pitstop moved Servia
up to 11th by Lap 75 and he eased into the top 10 with a strong pass to
the outside of Paul Tracy on Lap 92. But everything was erased just five
laps later and the team ended up being credited with a 26th-place finish.
"Well, they knew we were here today," said team co-owner
Bobby Rahal. "I am very proud of what this team and Oriol
accomplished this month and this should serve as proof to any sponsor and
any partner that Rahal Letterman Racing is a strong racing organization
and always puts together a competitive race effort."
The run was the second at Indianapolis for Servia, coming on the
heels of an 11th-place finish a year ago. For Rahal Letterman Racing, the
finish snaps a streak of five consecutive seasons with a top-ten finish
in the Indianapolis 500.
"I have to thank Bobby, Dave, DAFCA and the whole team for
putting this together this month," Servia said. "We had a
great car. We were running 10th and moving forward. We were fast and the
car was a pleasure to drive. I was having my dream race out there
today."
-credit: rlr
