Friday, May 15, 2009

So who’ll make the cut this weekend?

As many of you already know, this is the final weekend of qualifying for this year’s upcoming Indy 500 as several competitor’s attempt to make the starting grid for the 93rd Indy 500 or “I500” as Matt likes to call it.

Thus by my very non-scientific assessment, there’s A Baker’s Dozen of Car/Driver combinations planning to take their respective shots in the I500 lottery, which could lead to another tepid “Boomp Day?” (Hmm? Where’s Tony Stewart and ‘Ol Super Tex when yoose needs ‘dem, eh?) As Dreyer & Reinbold Racing attempts to get 75% of their entries qualified, while Davey Hamilton currently has the slowest speed. HVM will seek to get both of its single car entries, sans Back-up’s into the show, along with N/H/L/R eager to get Rookie Robert Doornbos qualified.

Meanwhile RLR has just announced a “One-off” for Indy with Oriel Servia at the keyboard and I’m not certain what’s going on with Stanton “I feel the Need for Speed!” Barrett, whom I’m assuming will take up Marty Roth’s tail ender position and fail to qualify for Indy..., While Alex Tagliani will most likely have a new teammate named Tomas “Rockem-Sockem” Scheckter at Indy? And scratch Darren “Dangermouse” Manning who will be at Laguna Seca racing Sports Cars this weekend. Hence I’ve come up with the following list... Thanks to Matt “Cham-wow” Chamois of The Other Side for doing The initial “Heavy Lifting,” since I borrowed extensively from his 93rd I500 Entry list...

NOTE:
And perhaps it’s just me? But I’ve never had so much trouble trying to locate the “Offical” IMS Indy 500 Entry list... After having stumbled upon it by shear accident yesterday when finding the Shuttle info while searching for Robin Miller’s favourite Fish wrap... Indy Star’s At the Track Blog; go Figure? I managed to “Boomp” onto the Entry list which of course was in PDF file format which is NOT compatible with my screen reader... URGH!!! So good FREAKIN’ luck! As it’ll all be academic after this weekend, eh?

Original Entry List
UPDATE:
Matt has just informed me that apparently Bruno Junqueira is set to fill in at Conquest Racing. As the clock ticks away...

Potential Second Week Qualifiers
(Car #, Driver, Team)
#8 Townsend Bell – KV Racing Technology
#13 E.J. Viso - HVM Racing
#17 Oriol Servia - Rahal Letterman Racing
#19 Tomas Scheckter - Dale Coyne Racing
#21 Ryan Hunter-Reay - Vision Racing
#23 Milka Duno - Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#24 Mike Conway - Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#34 Alex Tagliani - Conquest Racing
#36 Bruno Junqueira - Conquest Racing
#43 John Andretti – R.P.M./ Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
#91 Buddy Lazier - Hemelgarn Racing
#98 Stanton Barrett - Team 3G
#00 Nelson Philippe - HVM Racing
#06 Robert Doornbos - Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing