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OPINION: Time for an Indy qualifying rethink
Friday, 20 May 2016


Robin Miller and Marshall Pruett / Images by LAT, IMS Photo It's billed as the opening day of qualifying for the 100th Indianapolis 500 but, in truth, what is happening Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is just positioning for setting the starting lineup on Sunday.
Or, to be blunt, it's a day that confuses the fans and doesn't make a lot of sense in the "risk versus reward" category because it doesn't pay any money or points. It's a glorified practice day where drivers run their cars in the riskiest configurations for no reward. And there's no bumping.
The only thing that will happen during a long Saturday – from the start of practice at 8 a.m. to the close of "qualifying" at 5:50 p.m. – is the top nine drivers with a shot to earn pole will be identified and separated from everyone behind them. All speeds from Saturday will then be erased.
After running on the ragged edge on Saturday to help IndyCar find its top nine, drivers get to come back Sunday and do it all over again. There are only 33 car-and-driver combinations in Gasoline Alley this month; everyone is going to make the May 29 show, so it doesn't behoove a team without a shot at the Fast Nine to spend Saturday pounding around the track trying to improve their position.
It makes you wonder why today's 33 speeds that were set during Fast Friday – with qualifying turbo boost levels – wouldn't suffice. Even more absurd, $10,000 was given to Will Power, Friday's fastest driver, at the end of an official practice session. If Power does it again on Saturday, he'll go home empty-handed.
Months ahead of Indy 500 qualifying, IndyCar knew it would only have a maximum of 34 or 35 cars based on the number of engine leases Chevy and Honda publically stated they would provide. Even with the possibility of one or two cars being bumped, it sure seems like there was a guarantee not much would happen on Saturday.
Sure, the final two hours will be televised on ABC (4-6 p.m. ET) so if you're one of the 11-15 drivers expected to be contesting for the Fast Nine, it's valuable network time for your sponsors, plus the fact you'll be going for the pole position 24 hours later.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense, but there's the TV part to consider," KVSH Racing's Sebastien Bourdais said. "It seems like a lot of risk for not a lot of reward. I think [IndyCar] should consider just making it 33 [cars]. Nobody can really afford to go home these days, so just make it 33 cars, then come up with a new exciting process for one day. Make it very dramatic."
Brett "Crusher" Murray, who put the deal together for Matthew Brabham to run as Bourdais' teammate under the KV/Team Murray banner, is a fan of the Frenchman's plan.
"If I'd have been guaranteed a starting position in this race six month ago when I was putting this program together, I'd have another half-million dollars in sponsorship," the Aussie said. "The sponsor I was talking to said if he knew I was starting in the race, they would have signed the check, but without that guarantee, they didn't. Now that we are guaranteed [to start], we're hoping some sponsors come out and take a look because we have some extra space."
If anything, a team with a smaller budget would seem wise to make one run at any speed and wait until Sunday when it actually determines where you will be starting.
Come Sunday, points will be awarded to all drivers, with 42 going to the polesitter along with $100,000, and the Fast Nine payout is $30,000, $25,000, $15,000, $12,000, $10,000, $8,000, $5,000 and $3,000.
Scott Dixon won last year's pole at 227.041mph after it was decided not to add extra boost or go with qualifying aero packages following three different flips during practice.
Saturday's speeds are expected to be considerably higher and in the 230-plus range, but Arie Luyendyk's 20-year-old, four-lap record of 236.986 mph isn't thought to be in any danger.
In fact, the only thing we're in danger of on Saturday is boredom.

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INDY DIARIES: How Roger Penske accidentally gave Mario Andretti his start Monday, 23 May 2016
Marshall Pruett / Image by
Over 99 runnings, the Indianapolis 500 has become the most famous event in motorsport. That iconic status is built on a bedrock of hundreds of small stories, and to celebrate the centennial race, RACER.com has asked some of the people who are part of Indy's fabric to share a few of those stories with us. Check back with Tampa racing every day between now and race day for a new 'Indy Diary' entry.

Mario Andretti's third-place finish in 1965's Indianapolis 500 earned him that year's rookie-of-the-year honors. Four years later, he won the race. The key? Talent - and an eye for an opportunity.
"I look back and I can spot key points in my career which made a difference. It's just amazing. The opportunity came up – boom, seized it. And what if I hadn't? My first test, my first time in a roadster ... it was a tire test, and I got it because Roger Penske couldn't make it. He was supposed to do it. I killed his career as a driver!
"My confidence came from being with top teams. I knew enough to know that I needed to be with a top team. And at that time, the Dean Van Lines Champ Car was one of the top three. They gave AJ [Foyt] the rookie test, and they had Jimmy Bryan, and all the guys that drove for them ... and of course they were one of the top teams on Firestone tires as well, so that was a big deal because they helped with the development, so you got a lot of [testing] miles, a lot of opportunities.
"And they hired me, and the first test was at Trenton. They had Rodger Ward, and Parnelli Jones, and I think myself, and they wanted to get feedback from somebody fresh. So I started that way, and developed a relationship with the Firestone engineers. And all of those miles of testing were just precious. I was pinching myself. I wanted to be in a race car, and I was in a race car all the time. If there was a test coming up, boom, we were there. And I was so lucky to be able to accelerate my learning curve because I was just getting a lot of miles under my belt."

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Videos - VIDEO: 2016 Indy 500 Pole Day highlights

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More aero packages .....click here
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/c...ml#post9377889

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[h=2]INDY DIARIES: The Brickyard's original Dario[/h] Tuesday, 24 May 2016


Mark Dill / Images by IMS Photo and Mark Dill
Over 99 runnings, the Indianapolis 500 has become the most famous event in motorsport. That iconic status is built on a bedrock of hundreds of small stories, and to celebrate the centennial race, RACER.com has asked some of the people who are part of Indy's fabric to share a few of those stories with us. Check back with Tampa Racing every day between now and race day for a new 'Indy Diary' entry.

In 1916 Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Carl Fisher and his fellow co-founders of the great track experimented with their still-nascent formula of a 500-mile race on Memorial Day. In the only time in the soon-to-be 100 runnings of the classic, the contest was planned for 300 miles. The race has been shortened due to rain on several occasions, but the 1916 edition was the only time the Indianapolis 'Sweepstakes' was scheduled for something less than 500 miles.
Dario Resta had burst on the American racing scene the previous year armed with the Peugeot EX3 of the French manufacturer's New York importer Alphonse Kaufman. It was arguably the finest and most advanced racing car on the planet. He put it to good use in dominating the American Grand Prize and Vanderbilt Cup road races, as well as a 500-miler on Chicago's board speedway. He battled eventual winner Ralph De Palma through most of the 1915 Indianapolis 500, finally finishing as runner-up after an unbalanced rear wheel forced him to slow.
He came back in 1916 to dominate the 300-mile race at Indianapolis, leading 103 of the 120 laps. Despite its abbreviated distance, the race is treated by the official record of the Speedway as the sixth running of the classic. Dario again dominated the season by winning his second Vanderbilt Cup as well as events at Chicago, Minneapolis and Omaha. The season was the first Indy car national championship awarded on points as determined by the American Automobile Association (AAA) sanctioning body. Resta emerged the champion after a season-long battle with Johnny Aitken, another Peugeot driver with Speedway co-founder Jim Allison's team.
While Resta raced in Europe prior to his arrival in America with some success - especially in record trials at England's high-banked, concrete-paved Brooklands closed circuit - his first two years in the United States were clearly the pinnacle of his career. The Italian-born driver was raised in England and married American Mary Wishart, the sister of promising young driver Spencer Wishart and the daughter of the wealthy Wall Street investor George. Spencer had lost his life racing in 1914 and Mary fretted over the specter of the same fate befalling her husband.
The tug of war between Dario's love of racing and his wife's fears must have put him in a tough emotional dilemma. He retired from racing in 1917, but returned a few years later and even earned a front row starting position for his third and final Indianapolis 500 in 1923. Despite that success he never really returned to his championship form of 1916, and unfortunately Mary's worst fears were realized when he lost his life chasing records at Brooklands in 1924.
With thanks to www.firstsuperspeedway.com

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[h=2]INDY DIARIES: Irrepressible Andy Granatelli[/h] Wednesday, 25 May 2016


Robin Miller / Images by IMS Photo





Over 99 runnings, the Indianapolis 500 has become the most famous event in motorsport. That iconic status is built on a bedrock of hundreds of small stories, and to celebrate the centennial race, RACER.com has asked some of the people who are part of Indy's fabric to share a few of those stories with us. Check back with Tampa Racing every day between now and race day for a new 'Indy Diary' entry.

He was larger than life, literally and figuratively, and one of those mercurial, dynamic characters that auto racing desperately needs right now.
Andy Granatelli gave the Indianapolis 500 his heart and soul for the better part of four decades, whether he was trying to drive, fielding the star-crossed Novi, shaking up the establishment with the turbine or putting STP on the map.
He was a masterful promoter, brilliant businessman and spirit of those wild, wonderful 1960s at Indy.
"Andy didn't look through the same set of eyes that everyone else did," said three-time Indy winner Bobby Unser, who got his start in 1963 with Granatelli. "While we were looking at next year, he was looking waaaaaay down the road a few years ahead of everyone else. He was an amazing person."
Even though he won Indy twice with Mario Andretti (top) and Gordon Johncock, part of his fame was his gut-wrenching losses. Parnelli Jones was six laps away from an easy victory in 1967 when the revolutionary turbine broke down and Joe Leonard was leading with eight laps left in 1968 (above left) when his turbine conked out.
"Andy cried like a little baby in 1967 and I felt terrible because he'd snookered everyone with his idea and deserved to win," said Jones, who was paid $100,000 by Andy to drive the turbine and led 171 laps that day.
As he was instituting fresh ideas on the competition side, Andy was also changing the face of the racing business. In an era when sponsorship was small potatoes, he pushed the STP Corporation into a new age of identification and awareness. Whether it was commercials, STP pajamas or STP stickers on every school boy's lunchbox, he was a marketing maven.
"Andy did more for the promotion of Indy car racing than anybody at any time," continued Jones. "He had Johnny Carson drive my turbine around the Speedway – think about that.
"He was also a domineering personality but that's what made him such a great businessman. He was always thinking and had so many fresh ideas. And he was as famous as most of the drivers."

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JBM12 What great memories during those times at IMS. I still have "Indy 500 Winner" STP stickers from when Mario won in 1969 that I would get for free at gas stations when my dad filled up the car. Pulling in to stations with "Welcome Race Fan" banners were always a good sign that I'd be leaving with some sort of racing stickers; it always pays to be polite.

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Mike I must have seen a million photos of Andy's legendary kiss on Mario's cheek, but I somehow never noticed the STP sticker someone had slapped on the Borg Warner trophy. I'm not a superstitious guy really, but if you're looking for the roots of a "jinx" on Mario and his progeny at Indy, I'd say that's as good a reason as any for the racing gods to do some smiting.

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hotrodgeek I was at the race when Rick Mears won his fourth. Mike had led practically all day long, running in fifth gear with the boost up and rpm's maxed out. Mears never got below fifth place, like a cat just lurking back there. Michael blew the motor with about 35 laps left and here came Mears seemingly from nowhere. He set the fast laps of the race and led the last 30.

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1977 Indy 500 Wide World of Sports
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogKf_xxH1PU
by andrew sopher