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[LenAshburn]

Indy 500 Race Day @Speed Reports, May 27, 2007

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It's five ayem, what happened to the bomb? It didn't go off! Oh, they moved the start ahead to 1:00 PM so the gates open at six, not five as in the ancient past. Something tells me they did the same thing last year but I tend to live in the past, roadsters, Cromwell helmets, and rubber dust faces with wide white eye shadows revealing where goggles with thick glass lenses provided protection.

Team Ganassi has presented itself at the front now with Scott Dixon leading and Dan Wheldon in third. In the Ganassi sandwich is Marco Andretti in a wild struggle to stay there, using every inch of his line and more. Fifty laps have been completed. We are at the quarter pole of this.

Lap 52 and Jon Herb has taken a hard crack into the Safer barrier in turn one similar to Moreno earlier. Herb appears to be stunned and Dave Brown and his rescue team are tending to him gingerly. The cockpit collar is removed and Herb is lifted out but he is able to walk away escorted. And it five o'clock in the pits at lap 54 as all the front runners come in for service.
Back to the morning paper, then. It's so peaceful outside, I think as I stroll down the driveway, wet with the residue of overnight sprinkles. That little water does tend to hold down the revelry that always accompanies the night before at Indy. Of course, someone always has to blow off fireworks in the campgrounds around the track.

I finished the main part of the Star, then went outside at 5:55 AM to hear the bomb echo through the suburbs. Some clowns over in the Legion Lot on Georgetown must have had good watches because they shot off a salute just ahead of the Speedway bomb. For the first time the opening bomb was a double, like an air vessel breaking the sound barrier, like the shuttle returning to earth from orbit.

Helicopters! I don't know what so many helicopters have as their missions to be up flying around at six ayem. There were at least four that could be seen wop wopping around the perimeter of the speedway. They weren't bringing passengers because it was still dark out and they couldn't land on the helipads inside.

The skies are cloudy but broken so we expect them to dry up enough to permit a dry track at starting time of 1:00 PM. We have been promised an early window of dry conditions but with the threat of showers at any time. It's the usual crap shoot at Indy, part of the contract one gets for coming here.

7:00 AM still cloudy but not raining in this zip code.

I snuck out for a while to clean up and beat my house guests to the hot water. Every bed in this bungalow is filled with folks from Florida, Alabama, and Michigan. Fellow internetters Ron & Connie Felix are camped on the lawn out back and Ray & Betty Vlasek from Nebraska have their usual spot in the driveway.

8:00 AM and the race fan's horror, rain, was beginning to all around the speedway. It's only a light rain but sufficient to put a small hold on things for a while. The bands have not begun their parade and everyone's justa waitin' and seein'.

9:00 AM Still rainin'.

10:00 AM Not raining but sticky. Local radar doesn't look encouraging and the TV reports carry some pessimism along with a lot of hope.

11:00 AM The sun is breaking through, the temp is warming up, and we're looking toward an on-time start for the 91st Indy 500. It's about time to head for our press room location after we take a stroll through the garages and pit line. Be back in about an hour.

12:00 PM I'm finally inside the track following the usual impediments of crowds, crowd control, and the plethora of yellow shirts. I have been coming into this track the same way for thirty years but this year some power mad guru threw up a fence, put in a pedestrian gate, then locked it and went away. This aptly described the thousands of little fiefdoms that exit around the speedway. Anyway I got in without even getting my feet muddy.

12:30 PM Goodness! We've been having so much fun here at Indy we find ourselves just 30 minutes away from an ontime roll off. The cars have all been moved by hand from the pits, around the inside wall and into their starting positions on the front stretch. Driver introductions are underway.

1:00 PM - The hour is upon us. The anthem is played by the Purdue Band and a medley of singers from the Armed Forces. The F-22 flyover from Langley Field, VA arrived right on time as the flyovers almost always do. The crowd is up and ready to sing, in place of Jim Nabors, 'Back Home in Indiana'.

1:04 PM - All 33 cars have fired but No. 3 Castroneves with some difficulty. The crew was perplexed but finally got Helio away and into his pole spot.

What a Start? The leaders are dicing away already with Helio and Kanaan swapping the lead twice in the first three laps. The start was questionable because Helio sped well ahead before the start but no yellow was shown.

Tony Kanaan is settled into the lead with Helio second and Dario in third. Hornish, Wheldon, and Michael Andretti ride in the next three spots.

Lap 13 and pit stops begin because of a yellow for John Andretti losing a mirror from his No. 33 Camping World Dallara. The Foyt garage has scoured up a mirror for J.Andretti who will not be allowed to leave on his next pit stop without the mirror.

The green is out again on lap 16 with Helio back in the lead with Kanaan second but not for long. Tony goes outside and back into the lead. Hornish has moved into third after the first pit stop and is hounding the No. 11 of Kanaan.

At this point in the contest the passing prize would go to Jacques Lazier in the 21 Indiana Ice Panoz who has moved up from 28th at the start to 19th by lap 30. Truly remarkable for a Panoz. Davey Hamilton deserves similar credit as he has come from 20th at the start to 18th at lap 33.

Marco Andretti has advanced himself to second place by lap 37 but the yellow comes out at that point as Roberto Moreno pushed out of his groove for no obvious reason and smacked the wall in turn one. He stopped on the track with the right front wheel stuffed back toward the sidepod.

Milka Duno is running in 26th, Sarah Fisher is 30th, out of contention but Danica Patrick is farther toward the front in 11th.

Helio experienced a slight fueling problem on his second stop but was soon away. The miscue was a dead man's valve and it cost No. 3 a move to the tail end of the field in 29th. He repeated his stop on lap 42 and return to the pits, apparently in need of fuel.

Jon Herb hit the turn one wall in car 19 on lap 53 causing rash of pit stops. On his stop Davey Hamilton in No. 02 left without his right rear but the crew was able to correct their error and rests in 25th.

The right rear tire changer on Al Unser, Jr. No. 50 had his left foot run over and was taken to the Clarian Care Center for XRays.

On lap 66 Milka Duno has spun early in turn one, shot across to the Safer Barrier spinning clockwise, tagged the wall three times, and stopped on the track. She climbed out of the car and appears OK. She has had more experience at Indy but not the right kind. This was the 4th caution of the day.

Dario Franchitti passed Sam Hornish, Jr. for the lead around lap 75 and is firmly in command. Tomas Sheckter's Vision 2 is third, Dixon 4th, and Jacques Lazier amazingly has moved from 28th to sixth on lap 84.

Scheckter subsequently had an on track touch with Hornish, cutting the LR tire on No. 6 and bending Scheckter's front wingtip. He will have to pit and change that. The stop moves the South African to 27th.

We are having trouble with this long thread. Half of what we put here gets lost so this thread will be suspended and another started as a continuation.
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Len in Indy

[ferrari frau]

Thanks for the wonderful report. Sure hope the rain moves on through and allows the track to dry. My family will all be gathered at my mom's for a big fish fry with hushpuppies and french fries, etc. where we are hoping to watch the race, so we need sunshine! It has misted most of the morning here in southern Arkansas, but appears to be drying out a bit now, so maybe Indy will get dry, too. We'll keep our fingers crossed. Be sure to tell us about the sumptuous press buffet so that we can live vicariously through your experience. :-)

Say hello to the race fans bunking down at your place. Are you sold out for F1? I sure wish we could make it this year. I am due to receive my degree May 8, 2008 so I am sure HOPING to come to Indy next year. Until then, I'll just read the @speed reports and dream of being there.

CH

[Ron Felix]

Hello everyone,

It's been a while but wanted to say hello from everyone in the Felix household. Connie says to say hello.

As Len mentioned, he was gracious enough to allow us to park in his yard while we peruse and work the Indy 500 for SpeedNewsNow.com.

We are currently in a rain delay, under a red flag and it's starting to look more and more like they may be able to get the track dried. 15 minutes ago I wouldn't have given a plugged nickle for the chances of get this race finished today, but strange things occur at race tracks.
_________________
Ron Felix
http://insiderracingnews.com