Every year, the Indy GP comes and goes. And every year, I am taken by surprise at how quickly they clear up the marbles, block off the road course, reverse the track direction and get the track ready for the high speed Indy rectangle. Meta-commentary aside, it’s the Indy 500!!one
Do you remember last year’s event? I only remember the end because the closed-doors event was held on my Dad’s birthday and I only got home in time to see Oliver Askew crashing his way out of the race and also a promising Indycar career. However you’ll probably remember that the race resolved into a three-way battle between previous one-time winners Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi, which became two after Rossi got a penalty for bad pit etiquette and then crashed, which became a second Indy 500 for the Tokyo-born quadragenarian after he out-ran Dixon until another Young American, this time Spencer Pigot, had a big crash and ended the race under a caution.
That was the first Indy 500 held under Roger Penske’s watchful eye, although under few others because they locked everyone out. That’s going to change this year though! Give thanks to whichever god or saint oversees vaccinations, because the grim pandemic situation in the USA has un-grimmed to the extent that IMS will open its doors to 135,000 fans, which obviously won’t look like very many people but is equivalent (in some ways) the population of Watford.
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So in brief, what are we looking out for this fortnight? Chip Ganassi’s boys – at least, his two favourite sons, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou – look like 2021’s drivers to beat. Indy is about nothing if not the huge cast of others aiming to beat the favourites, or at least stay on the same lap as them, and this year, none of the four closest points chasers to the Ganassi pair have won the Indy 500 before. Josef Newgarden has come closest, losing to Carlos Munoz on the line for the A-strategy 2016 race in which both were beaten by B-strategy’s Alex Rossi. Graham Rahal was the lesser end of a Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan 1-3 last 500, but has been having a strong if embattled start to the year, and outsiders Pato O’Ward and Rinus Veekay have (very) recently picked up debut wins in the series. O’Ward even did it on an oval!
So much the drivers upon whom 2021 has smiled sweetest. Driven by vengeance and inadequacy are the drivers who have received, at best, indifference from the MMXXI. They include Will Power, most experienced Penske driver yet the lowest-ranked in points, Takuma Sato, winner of last year’s big race but with a best finish so far of sixth at St Pete, Felix Rosenqvist, who desperately needs his career racing for Sam Schmidt, Zak Brown and Arrow Electronics, Incorporated to begin, and the Andretti Autosport regulars (that’s Colton Herta, Alex Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Hinchcliffe, in that order), who in one way or another all falling short of their individualized expectations.
The wildcards? If you wanted to find out how Juan Pablo Montoya (McSchmidt), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank), Sage Karam (Dreyer and Reinbold), Santino Ferrucci (Rahal), Simona de Silvestro (Paretta) and Tony Kanaan (Ganassi) are doing these days, you’ve come to the right place! They’ll have a week of testing to get up to speed, but some of them already are. After Cody Ware’s semi-inevitable drop-out, we’ve got a 35-car field. Simona in the Paretta car and RC Enerson for the Top Gun Motorsports team represent the two outfits with the least experience, so practice will be crucial for them to find enough speed to avoid the early trip down I-465 to Indianapolis International.
Of course, qualifying at Indy pays out some points (9 for pole, 8 for second etc), so this assessment may have all changed long before the green flag drops. Besides, it’s amazing what pole at Indy will do to all the nay-saying naysayers, at least temporarily.
So, when’s it all happening? Same as usual. We start with the somewhat patronizing but probably quite useful rookie practice for the race’s three beginners (Enerson, Scott McLoughlin and Pietro Fittipaldi, cursed to fill in for Romain Grosjean for all eternity) on Tuesday, and then it’s laps laps laps until Saturday afternoon, when it’s properly timed laps for proper qualifying runs. The business end of qualifying – Fast 9 determining the front of the grid, the Bump session for determining the rear – is on Sunday, then it’s a long old break for drivers to fulfil their sponsor duties before we reconvene on Friday for Carb Day, and Sunday for big race. Unless it’s rained out, which it won’t be.
Tuesday, 18 May
10am-2pm: Rookie orientation
3-6: Practice 2
Wednesday, 19 May
12 noon-6pm: Practice 3
Thursday, 20 May
12 noon-6pm: Practice 4
Friday, 21 May
12 noon-6pm: Practice 5
Saturday, 22 May
9.30am-10.30: Practice 6
12 noon-6pm: Qualifying
Sunday, 23 May
11am-12 noon: Practice 7
1pm-2.30: Bumping (final row qualifying)
2.30-4.30: Fast 9 qualifying
4.30-7: Practice 8
Monday 24 May-Thursday 27 May
Start thread for race
Watch old Indy 500s?
Friday, 28 May
11am-1pm: Carb Day practice
Saturday, 29 May
Empty. I think MotoGP's at Mugello.
Sunday, 30 May
9am: Race broadcast start
12.20pm: Race
OK! Fill this thread with your idle speculation, keen observations and really anything else that your web trawling has thrown up. Photos, personal reportage, reminiscence and references to IMS Radio and 1070 The Fan strongly encouraged, and I mean strongly. Here we go!
Checking the proper
