Indianapolis 500 Time Trials [May 9th]

Mike Olson

David Jundt

Brad Salmon

Petr Hlavac (currently 30th)

Filippo Marazzi (currently 31st)

Alan Forster (currently 32nd)

Petr Hlavac (currently 31st)

Filippo Marazzi (currently 32nd)

Man, I almost made my goal speed of a 196 MPH average but I will take a 195.7 after having such little practice this past week. I was stuck working on the rustiest truck I have ever seen. I'm glad I did a bit of practice at Ontario when I had time because I ended up going to a different setup from those sessions and added a bit more wing and found just enough speed to feel comfortable.

Thanks to everyone for the Broadcast, I had a great time watching. Congrats to those that made the field. It was great fun watching the bumping. Here's to another week of practice and a safe 500 miles next Sunday.

Very surprised to even make P18 with a bend rear.

wish i had more time to practice  to see without that were it put me on the grid

cheers Jacob,  again!

Awesome broadcast , great support by good friends and a lively chat for the CAT

STEVE!! good to see you here mate!!

Task list for an off weekend:

- Pick the slowest available car: Check!

- Work out a decent setup: Check!

- Put down four clean timed laps: Check!

- Have a blast: Check!

- Get bumped of the field: Fail!

And now from the beginning. I seriously considered doing the Indy 500 this year, after all, I still got something to settle with the brickyard after all those years. But somewhere during last weekend, I realised that the situation at work just won't allow me to get into the right mindset for oval racing. Rushing home from a late shift, eat something and get behind the wheel works on a road track and can actually be a good workout and way to get your mind free after an exhausting shift, but oval racing needs a whole different focus. But there is a time trial before the actual race, which is a competition in its own right, and I had an off sunday yesterday. After reading a line or two about the Sugai Fox, and how it hasn't been allowed to qualify, I knew it would be the car I'll take. I won't take a competitive car of the grid, and if you get the car right, these four timed laps are a total rush, an one of a kind experience I really didn't want to miss out, and that feeling is the same if you're in a pole candidate or try to get a box of tangerines to speed. And as there's always one guy every year not really getting his stuff together, so I might even have a chance not to be last! Lastly, as chances are rather slim to make it to the grid, I wouldn't take someone something away. So every day I spent an hour or two on the server, to my surprise, I quickly got under the 180 mph the real car never made, and for quite a while, I was under the Top 20, and then still a long time in the Top 30s. Whoops, did I take the whole thing a little to serious, perhaps? On Friday, I was able to put down a run with all four laps under 47 seconds, a particularly good run not representive, but hightly satisfying. Then came the Saturday update, and suddenly, I was unable to get the car into the 46, I lost almost exactly half a second over each lap, adjusting the wing restored the aero balance, but the time was gone. Maybe if I'd spent some more time yesterday, but the weather was way to good not to go outdoors. The last 30 minutes before my timeslot, I practiced a bit offline, adjusted tire pressure a bit, and the balance felt better than the day before - offline that was! I also made fourth gear a sliver shorter, but that one wasn't really deciding

So my run came and I jumped into the car, out of the pits, through T2, that building on the right passed me, so I opened up the pressure valves, entered T3 - WTH? Suddenly I experienced a massive turn in understeer. I know conditions off- and online are always a bit different, but that really caught me off guard. And that turn in understeer wouldn't dissappear over the whole run, which affected my run pretty badly, as I had to force the car harder into the corners than good, still unable to get the car near the apron, but that force used on corner entry lead to an oversteer mid corner and exit. That took quite a lot of my confidence away, and the timing chart reflects it pretty good. L2 much slower than L1, normaly I progressed from L1 to L3 with L4 being slightly slower.

I'd classify my run as a mixed bag: The car not in the right shape allowing me to fully exploit its potential, but myself being on the point for once. Complete tunnel vision, no idea what's happening around me, not the slightest blink for the gauges, no idea how many laps I had been running so far. I remember reminding myself on the backstraight of ... dunno, lap 3? "Breathe! Breathe!" That ultimate time trial experience I have been looking for! That's what I worked for the whole week!

And then, the anticipation, waiting to see myself slowly falling of the grid. Just didn't happen, Petr couldn't make his last run stick, so I had the bad luck of having qualified my shoe box in 33rd position. One one hand, it puts a big grin on my face, on the other hand, I'm a bit pissed, because now I have to explain why I put so much effort in it, just to have to give it away because I never wanted to race in the first place. Next time I insist on driving the Mallard! I'd like to see the effort as a honour to all the guys, the teams, the drivers, who hauled their equipment to the Brickyard, on a shoestring budgets, with high hopes and good ideas that never worked as intended, but never stood a chance to make it into the 33, but tried it nontheless!

Fun fact: I can now claim to have qualified cars in a way I had all other 32 cars in my mirrors, and now all other 32 cars in front of me! Now who else has such an achievment on his palmares?