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See You At The Races!!! |
| RACING
SCENE by Tim Kennedy |
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Los Angeles, CA. - The 87th Indianapolis 500 had pre-race coverage
by the ESPN2 daily track-side 30 minute show RPM2Night (host John
Kernan) starting Mon., May 5. ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 non-stop
coverage of "Pole Day" Indy 500 qualifying (12:00 to 6:00
p.m CDT) was most welcome as well. Bob Jenkins and Scott
Goodyear made the show interesting and informative. Jack Arute
and Dr.Jerry Punch supplied interesting interviews from garages and
the pits. This year 53 qualifying order numbers were selected Friday in a blind draw by 18 race teams for their primary and "T" cars. The qualifying order by car numbers/drivers was available on the IRL web-site. Only 17 of the 53 cars actually went out to qualify in their drawn qualification order. After almost two hours of entertaining qualifying runs (13 completed) the track was open for practice and teams could qualify whenever they were ready. Al Unser, Jr, A.J. Foyt IV, Robby Gordon and Scott Sharp qualified their "T" cars. In mid-afternoon Tony Kanaan became the 14th successful qualifier and provisional pole-sitter with his live run on TV. When the 6:00 gun sounded, 24 of 33 position were filled. The four consecutive laps of qualifying live on national TV have to be the toughest qualifying gig for any driver, especially with the 26-30+ mph wind gusts this year on pole day. Just logging four consecutive fast laps and keeping your car off the walls is an accomplishment. The news buzz between pole and bump days wondered if the field would have the traditional 33 cars starting this year. Following mid-week deals, a full field of 33 cars was achieved. For bump day teams pulled 15 qualifying order numbers for primary and "T" cars. It was good to see drivers Alex Barron, Richie Hearn, Robby McGehee, Vitor Meira and Airton Dare get rides and complete the 33-car field. When USAC open-wheel veteran Jimmy Kite went out to qualify first on bump day in the No. 18 PDM car he reeled off two laps at a 225.0 mph average. Then his engine shut off. The reason was? His crew forgot to put enough fuel in the car to run three warm-up laps and four qualifying laps. Kite went out 30 minutes later and ran four 224 laps for a 224.1 mph average, losing almost one mph by the delay. When qualifying concluded there were four former Indy 500 winners and nine rookies in the 33-car field. Oldest driver was Al Unser, Jr, 41, and youngest was Foyt IV, 19 on race day. Three of the record four Japanese drivers were 500 rookies. The field average was 227.125 mph. Chassis: There were 22 Dallara and 11 G-Force, including the winning car. Engines: There were 10 Chevrolets, nine Hondas and 14 Toyotas, including the winner. On Thursday, May 22 ESPN2 again covered the entire "Carb Day" final one-hour practice session and the $80,000 pit stop contest. Announcers Jenkins and Larry Rice were in the booth, with Arute and Punch doing the track-side reporting. Interesting fact: With the 35 gallons tank capacity, an IRL car carries 245 pounds when fully fueled with methanol. The four rounds of pit stop match races between pit crews produced a final match between Penske Racing's Helio Castroneves and Cheever/Red Bull's Buddy Rice. Eddie Cheever told his crew before the contest that if they won they would keep all of the $30,000 first place money. That helped motivate them, because Rice and his crew turned in a rapid 8.8401-second stop and beat the Penske crew in an upset. Penske held the lead with seven prior 500 pit stop competition victories. The 500 race has been covered thoroughly, so I'll mention that the Indianapolis 500 Radio Network coverage of the race is an informative option to the ABC telecast. It is carried every year on XTRA-690 AM in Southern California. Racing expert Mike King anchors the radio broadcast and analysts are 500-driver Davey Hamilton and 500 expert Donald Davidson. The usual array of reporters in the pits and in all four turns help keep listeners abreast of the action. I enjoy both productions simultaneously and skip commercials on both broadcasts. Other Indy 500 related telecasts deserve mention and help make the Indianapolis 500 "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" as advertised. The Saturday Indy 500 festival parade, which began in 1957, was back on TV on ESPN this year following an absence of several years. Hosts were Jenkins and Punch, with Arute curbside for interviews, including a curious exchange with the grand marshall, Winona Judd. The parade has the expected bands, floats and Shriners Club miniature racing cars. A parade featureeach year is the 33 Indy 500 starting drivers (some with family members) riding in 33 convertible cars in 11 rows of three cars per row just like the 500 race the next day. Missing at the parade this year was Robby Gordon, who was occupied with the NASCAR Winston Cup practice in Charlotte, N.C. The planned two-hour parade telecast (11 a.m to 1 p.m PDT) was cut drastically to 45 minutes this year when an NCAA softball playoff game started an hour late because of rain at the game site and then ran two extra innings before Oklahoma beat Alabama. The final Indy 500 TV show of the month was the Indianapolis 500 Victory Celebration Banquet Monday May 26 from a large banquet room in downtown Indianapolis. The two-hour telecast (tape delayed one day) deserves kudos for returning expert Bob Jenkins as host/MC instead of the "celebrity" host used last year. The banquet telecast on ESPN2 (5:30-7:30 p.m PDT) allowed all 33 starters to talk on camera (good move) as they accepted their official 500 finish check. Actually, Robby Gordon was still in Charlotte and missed the 500 banquet. Buddy Lazier was a deserving Scott Brayton Award winner. Tora Takagi deserved the rookie of the year nod for his excellent run over a strong rookie contingent this year. No other race in the world has a victory celebration national telecast like the Indianapolis 500. It's a fun night to see drivers in a different, non-racing or social setting. Another TV show on Wed., May 28 was the Speed Channel one-hour taped show that followed Gordon on his Indianapolis 500 and Charlotte 600 "double duty". The show followed Robby's treks between Indy and Charlotte for practice, qualifying and races at both tracks. Cameras rolled on board the Citation X Textron Corp. ten-passenger jet on which Robby and his entourage flew. TV showed Robby meeting fans and signing autographs the night before the 500. It also captured his displeasure when the 8:15 police escort from his Hyatt Regency Hotel in Indianapolis to the IMS track was a no-show. Robby arrived at his Indy garage at 9:30 for the 11:00 race. It showed Robby receiving his IV and eating a sandwich on board the flight from Indy to Charlotte. His early exit from the 500 gave Robby an extra hour to get to Charlotte for the 600. He listened to the final six laps of the 500 on the radio en-route by van to the Indy airport. The national security alert did not allow helicopter flights into the Indianapolis or Charlotte tracks on race day. Robby flew into the Charlotte track on the pre-authorized track Medi-Vac helicopter as arranged by cooperative Charlotte track management. He is shown entering his No. 31 Monte Carlo during the fly-over by military jets. ROBBY'S RECAP: (per the "R. Gordon Double Duty" TV show) - 14 airplane rides, 5,636 air miles, … one police escort missed, …two "Gentlemen Start Your Engines", …two golf cart rides, …five wardrobe changes, …two red flags (Charlotte 600 rain), …444 laps, 835 miles, …22nd at Indy (DNF-gearbox) and $256,250, …17th at Charlotte (down a lap) and $104,087, … earnings per lap - $811.57 and earnings per mile - $431.54. Robby concluded the day remarkably refreshed and he climbed from 13th to 10th in current Winston Cup point standings. |
