Ferrari Mailing List: Update 2nd Day Qualifying Report from Indy

[red5hilser (red5hilser]

>From Len, the guy that der Frau and I worked for at Prodigy [at] Speed in the 
>old days. Indy snuck up on more than a few people this year, with quailfying 
>being shown om Versus TV. A far cry from ABC.




Welcome Again from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Your Prodigys [at] Speed team 
is back at work in the press room, albeit a little late due to legitimate 
reasons. One, I, Len Ashburn, sing in a choir which serves two services and 
chose not to ignore that obligation. Second, Dave Carr returned to South Bend 
to attend to obligations there today, and Annie Carr is here manning her trusty 
camera through which the great shots we see on page one appear.

The track opened for practice Sunday at 10:15 AM under beautiful blue skies and 
a temperature of 57 degrees.

The green was only shining for two minutes when rookie Mike Conway backed the 
No. 24 D&R Dallara into the turn one wall. Conway was assisted from the car but 
taken from the infield care center to Methodist for further evaluation. It was 
announced later that he was admitted to Methodist for further observation of a 
bruised lung condition.

The green flag resumed practice at 10:31 AM and was out just five minutes when 
Alex Tagliani smote the wall in turn 1 in a half spin that severely marred the 
left side and left rear of the Conquest Racing No. 34 machine. He was unhurt in 
the mishap and is cleared to drive. Tag said in an interview that he expected 
the car to be repaired and hoped to make an attempte later in the
day.

The practice was ended at 11:15 AM having met the mandatory 30 minutes of green 
practice time before qualifying.

The track went green for 2nd Day qualifications and Sarah Fisher was first out 
at 12:02. She put in an irregular four laps but mustered an average of 219.911 
MPH.

There are now at 2:00 PM a total of 20 cars qualified of which Milka Duno of 
Caracas, VZ, who was second out in the Citgo car, is slowest at 219.072 MPH.

Next out at 12:12 PM was Vitor Meira in the Foyt 14 who grouped four consistent 
laps for an average of 221.934 MPH. Sadly, it was announced later that his time 
had been pulled due to post qualifying rules violation.
That infraction was reported later as too narrow tread width in post qualifying 
scrutiny. Owner A.J.'s radiator is still too hot to inquire further about the 
matter. Meira subsequently made another successful run at 222.777 MPH and A.J. 
was happy.

Paul Tracy, absent from the Speedway since 2002, was next out at 12:16 PM in 
the No. 15 KV Geico car. He managed four good ones at an average of 222.749 but 
allowed he began to 'lose the front end' as the track warmed and he rests now 
as 15th qualifier.

Justin Wilson was next out in No. 18 Z Line Designs car from the Dale Coyne 
stable. He posted quick time of the day so far with a 222.903 speed.

With the session only half hour old Hideki Mutoh was next out at 12:26 PM to 
redeem himself from being bumped late yesterday. He pulled off a good four laps 
a
bove 222 and became second quick of the day at 222.805 MPH.

The most familiar colors in motorsport, Petty blue and Granatelli day glo red, 
was out next when John Andretti put the No. 43 Window World car out of the D&R 
stable into the show with a commendable 221.109 MPH, about as good as was 
possible given the preparation time and wind conditions he experienced in 
practice.

Other cars that have slipped back into the lineup while I have been playing 
catchup are Ed Carpenter in the Vision Menards 20 at 222.780 MPH, Dan Wheldon 
in the Panther 4 at 222.777 MPH, and Sarah Fisher in the Dollar General Stores 
67 at 222.082 MPH.

Davey Hamilton has joined the provisional lineup with his HP D&R machine with a 
speed of 221.956 MPH. Another familiar name in the line up is A. J. Foyt IV 
driving the ABC Foyt No. 41 who posted a second slowest Sunday speed of 220.355 
MPH. There are 21 cars now qualified of which Milka Duno is on the bubble at 
219.072 MPH. 1436

Paul Tracy's team has him back out for another attempt at improving his 
security in Sunday's lineup. It's paying off as the West Hill thrill posts a 
better time of 223.111 MPH in the KV Geico machine.

Rain showers are showing on my radar screen, a thin east/west line marching 
from Greencastle and another thicker batch marching east on I-70 from Terre 
Haute. 1500Welcome Again from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Your Prodigys [at] 
Speed team is back at work in the press room, albeit a little late due to 
legitimate reasons. One,
 I, Len Ashburn, sing in a choir which serves two services and chose not to 
ignore that obligation. Second, Dave Carr returned to South Bend to attend to 
obligations there today, and Annie Carr is here manning her trusty camera 
through which the great shots we see on page one appear.

There are now 22 cars in the field with Milka Duno still the slowest and 
vulnerable on the bubble. The pretenders for that final spot are in practice 
mode but not many. Apparently the unqualified teams are more comfortable 
waiting for another day, like next weekend. The Taquila Patron No. 16 of Scott 
Sharp is practicing and it would not surprise to see him pull into the tech 
line pretty soon.

And, sure enough, Sharp slurps up four laps in the Tequila 16 at an average of 
221.103 MPH. That's so, so, but not good enough to go pack for his sports car 
gig next weekend. He's only one away from the bubble.

E. J. Viso, the Caracas Flash, has slipped out into qualifying. His first lap 
is very encouraging, low 222s. His four lap is 221.745 MPH and A. J. Foyt is 
now bumped out. 1605

The board is showing three withdrawn cars, the 16, the 15, and the 67, Sharp, 
Tracy, and Fisher. The weather has become more grey and the temps are dropping. 
I'll go take a fresh look at my radar.~~~~~~It's OK, all clear rain wise back 
into Illinois. We should be good until six.

There are 22 qualified cars, the field is full for a second day of qualifying 
and John Andretti is on the bubble in the=2
0Richard Petty co-owned No.43.

Well, he isn't any more! John Andretti in the 43 Petty blue machine crashed 
heavy in turn one and young Rahal in the 02 qualified car did a virtual skate 
stop to miss the stopped 43, else he would have run smack into him. Andretti's 
is a qualified car out practicing to possibly improve and Rahal was most likely 
doing setup for raceday.

The period from five to six PM at Indy has come to be called 'Happy Hour' and 
some of the strangest occurrences in motorsport take place during this time 
period. Today was no different. It was exciting, confusing, unreal, and 
puzzling. No less than Donald Davidson said it was happening so quickly he 
couldn't keep up with it. I tried and packed it up and went to penned notes so 
I could perhaps fill it in later. What you are reading now is that 
reconstruction.

Scott Sharp, whom I think you know had to qualify the first weekend due to an 
ALMS committment next weekend. Sharp found himself bumped at 4:05 PM by E. J. 
Viso. At 5:10 PM he went back out and managed 221.333 MPH to bump the battered 
car of John Andretti. But in doing so he put himself on the bubble because his 
speed was so slow.

A. J. Foyt IV was next out to qualify. A. J. had practiced in the 223s and 
looked promising to bump Sharp out again. He has matured so much at Indy and 
easily bumped Sharp with a speed of 222.586 MPH.

We were down to 15 minutes left and Sharp's crew put him in his pit to make 
adjustments. Meanwhil
e four other cars jumped in the line. None of them had a Chinaman's chance of 
coming up to speed. Ryan Hunter Ray went out and was flagged off too slow. Then 
E. J. Viso went out to a similar fate, too slow. E. J. Viso and Alex Tagliani 
had a spot in line and somehow the officials got them out of the way. With one 
minute to go before the six o'clock gun Scott Sharp got under way. The gun went 
off and Sharp braved it out with steel nerves and became the eleventh fastest 
of the day, locked in, and safe to absent himself to Laguna next weekend.

The last minutes of the day were pure drama you could even begin to script for 
a movie.

We enjoyed bringing it to you. Sorry if it was a little delayed but I was 
working alone, had problems being knocked off line, and just flat got too far 
behind to make sense of it. So there it is, finally. We'll being bringing 
updates during the week when practice resumes on Thursday. Saturday the final 
eleven spots will be sold and Sunday any car can be bumped from any of the 
preceeding days if its speed is exceeded.

Here are the final result of the first weekend of qualifying at Indy.

Qualifying Sunday for the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile 
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, 
driver, chassis-engine and speed:

1. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 224.864
2. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 224.083
3. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 224.010

4. (02) Gra
ham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 223.954 -
5. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 223.867
6. (11T) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 223.612

7. (5) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 223.331
8. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 223.114
9. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 223.028

10. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 222.882
11. (99) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 222.622
12. (2) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 223.429

13. (15) Paul Tracy, Dallara-Honda, 223.111
14. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 223.054
15. (1 Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 222.903

16. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 222.805
17. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 222.780
18. (4) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 222.777

19. (41) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 222.586
20. (16) Scott Sharp, Dallara-Honda, 222.162
21. (67) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 222.082

22. (44) Davey Hamilton, Dallara-Honda, 221.956
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