Indy Qualifying

May 25, 2011





Pole Winner Alex Tagliani

Indy Qualifying

Qualifying for the Indy 500 is always full of drama and excitement and this year featured the additional drama of the largest group of car/driver combinations (41) in years and the impact of the crazy May weather which cost the teams days worth of potential practice and created havoc during the qualifying. It made conventional planning obsolete and made for plenty of nervous teams vying for the coveted 33 starting positions.



Oriol Servia

The newish qualifying rules called for the fastest 24 drivers to qualify on Saturday, with the remaining nine on Sunday or “Bump Day”. There is also the race to get in to the fast nine on Saturday which led to a shoot-out for the top nine spots at the end of the day. Throw in the threat of rain and it made for a very interesting couple days of qualifying.





The big surprise was the success of the smaller teams at the expense of the larger better funded operations. Alex Tagliani led the way, snaring the pole by being fastest in both rounds of qualifying in an impressive effort for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. He beat the perennial front row team of Chip Ganassi, which suffered uncharacteristic mistakes by running their cars out of fuel in the final round. Scott Dixon still managed to take the second starting spot, salvaging something for the team.



Paul Tracy

Of course, Ganassi had a great day when compared with team Penske- which only got two of three drivers in the top 24, with pole favorite Helio Castroneves managing only 16th quick- his worst Indy start ever. Will Power was their best effort- managing only 5th.





Worst of all was the performance of the famed Andretti Autosports team which managed only 1 car in the top 24 (part-timer John Andretti), then suffered through a wickedly bad bump day as well when two of their drivers failed to even qualify for the race. Marco Andretti actually had to bump his teammate Ryan Hunter Reay as the final gun sounded on Sunday. It was tough to watch, especially since my friend Jason works for the team. Hopefully a great race will erase those memories.



Scott Speed

Larry Foyt, Jamie Little & Jaques Lazier

It was an exciting weekend overall and I was thrilled that four women drivers made the show- including an amazing effort by Simona De Silvestro. Pippa Mann, Ana Beatriz and Danica Patrick also qualified for what is one of the deepest fields in terms of quality drivers in years.

Justin Wilson



It looks like it is going to be an exciting race and I can’t wait to get back to participate in all the fun and excitement of the centennial celebration this week.



Dario Franchitti

Back Home Again In Indiana

May 24, 2011









Back Home Again In Indiana

In spite of not having lived in Indianapolis for 20 years (it was almost 20 years ago exactly when I up and moved to Key West), Indianapolis is the place that I always will call home. I have managed to keep in touch and visit regularly with the large cadre of family and friends who remain there and while at the time that I left, I could not get away fast enough- I relish my trips back. It is always awesome to see friends and family and to see how much the city continues to grow and improve. I might not have ever left if the city was as dynamic 20 years ago as it is now.





The place is flourishing and it offers a continually growing plethora of entertainment options to choose from. This trip up, I stayed at the legendary Canterbury Hotel located in the heart of downtown. The beautiful historic boutique hotel is probably best known as the place where fighter Mike Tyson was arrested after raping a Miss Black America contestant in his room. That is unfortunate, because the hotel maintains a level of style and grace that belies that horrible incident.





Being in the heart of downtown, I was able to spend the evenings exploring the vibrant night life that happens there each night. Once known as “Nap” town, Indianapolis is thriving these days as I visited such downtown establishments as the famous St. Elmo’s Steakhouse and the relatively new Kilroy’s Bar & Grill.



This weekend happened to coincide with a visit to the city by my mother, Marta- who now lives in Winston Salem, but had been invited to spend the weekend with my sister Michele and her family and to attend a huge party at the Indianapolis Museum of Art where she was to see tons of old friends as well. I joined Marta & Michele and two of my nephews, Jerome and Patrick at another area of Indianapolis that is a local hotspot, Massachusetts Avenue.

Michele, Pat, Marta & Jerome



Massachusetts is with-in walking distance from downtown and is home to a variety of bars, restaurants and hipster joints and along with Broad Ripple and Fountain Square is among the best places to hang out while in town. We ate at a restaurant called Mesh on Mass. It was a nice, though too brief chance to catch up with family.

Amanda, Kristi, Laura & Jody

Stephanie & Kevin

Saturday, after spending the day at the track, I met up with my friends Amanda, Jody, Kristi & Laura for our annual May dinner gathering. Friends for thirty some years, it is always awesome to get together to laugh about old times and create new ones. This year we met at The Bosphorus- a funky and yummy Turkish restaurant. It was only the start of a fun night as after dinner we all headed to the Northside home of our friend Kevin who just happened to be hosting a party. Kevin’s party was another great opportunity to see all sorts of old friends, many that I had not even seen in over 20 years. It was a great night and one of the reasons that I love coming home.

EJ, Melanie & Joe

Laura, Jody, Michael & Kristi



On Sunday before flying back to Key West, I visited what is undoubtedly my favorite area of the city, Broad Ripple. This is the hip area on the near Northside where I spent much of my youth and where many friends still live and hang out. My favorite Indy bar/restaurant Brugge is there and this weekend Broad Ripple was hosting one of the premier events of the year, The Broad Ripple Art Fair.







The huge Art Fair has been held for years on the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Center and is something that I attended with regularity when I lived in Indiana. Many of the best artists in the state exhibit there and many were there who have been there for years and years. Art, food, entertainment, beer and friends- what more could one ask for except perhaps the beautiful sunny warm weather that blessed the fair during my visit.



Phil & Kerry



Indianapolis Arts Center

Centennial Celebration

May 23, 2011



Oriol Servia





Centennial Celebration

This year marks 100 years since the first running of my favorite event, The Indianapolis 500. The first race was held in 1911 and it has been run every year since with the exception of the war years when the famous race was not held. The race is something that is a part of the life experience of everyone who grew up in Indianapolis like I did and I had been going out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every year since my father and grandfather took me for my first visit in 1968 at age four.

Dario Franchitti



Each year I return for the Indy 500 and this year will mark my 39th straight year of attending the race. For the past few years, I have also managed to cash in some frequent flyer miles to attend the qualifying weekend and with this being the centennial, I flew up to Indianapolis last weekend to see the final practice and attend the two days of qualifying for the race, before returning home to work this week before heading back later this week for the race itself.

Bob Jenkins & Jon Beekhuis



The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is doing all sorts of cool stuff to honor its 100 year history and this year I wanted to take as much in as possible considering how important the race is to me personally. Sadly once again, Kathy is in her final weeks of school and was not able to attend with me. She really enjoys going and has been able to make it on a few occasions, but not this year.

Willy T Ribbs



I flew up late Thursday after work, so that I could be out at the track early on Friday for Fast Friday, the final full day of practice for the race. This year there were 41 car/driver combinations attempting to get in to the 33 car field, the most in years and making the race was more difficult than ever.





The weather, which had been terrible during the first week of practice, was spectacular. On Friday meaning the teams were all out trying to find the speed necessary to qualify for the race. It was a very busy day of practice. Every team save one made it out to practice. The one that didn’t was that of Simona De Silvestro who had been involved in a wicked crash the previous day (see video below). Remarkably, Simona walked away and only suffered burns to her hands. She was cleared to attempt to qualify over the weekend and the team spent Friday preparing her back-up car.

Simona De Silvestro’s Crash

On track, Helio CastroNeves had the fastest time of the practice with a lap at 228,611 mph, leading 6 drivers who were over 228 and 12 over 227, It was a fast and busy day. Off the track there were some special events as well, such as the unveiling of a brand new postage stamp that commemorates the 100 year history of the speedway.



Bryan Clausen

Lindy Thackston

I also paid a visit to the Hall of Fame Museum located in the infield. There they had the largest assemblage of winning cars ever brought together in one place. Every car on display was a past winner. Having witnessed close to 40 of them in person over the years, it was like a trip back down memory lane. It made me recall my father and grandfather and that day in 1968 that I only recall from grainy home movies and all the many years and good times that I have had at the Speedway since.