Indy Practice And Qualifying – Day 1

James Hinchcliffe. [Russ Lake Photo]

Call it “qualifying to qualify” if you will, but Saturday’s timed runs allow a driver to make the field while Sunday’s runs set the field for the 100th Indianapolis 500.

Drivers were after the Top-9 spots today, spots that would guarantee them a chance to run for the pole position tomorrow. And though those positions changed often during a wild qualifying day, James Hinchcliffe finally was the fastest; though it took two attempts to get there.

Ryan Hunter-Reay. [Russ Lake Photo]

Will Power. [Russ Lake Photo]

Helio Castroneves. [Russ Lake Photo]

Townsend Bell. [Russ Lake Photo]

James Newgarden. [Russ Lake Photo]

Mikhail Aleshin. [Russ Lake Photo]

Carlos Munoz. [Russ Lake Photo]

Simon Pagenaud. [Russ Lake Photo]

“I had to come back stronger after last year’s incident,” admitted Hinch who was so badly hurt in a terrible practice crash here in 2015. “The people of Indianapolis have been so supportive. This has been the hardest qualifying I’ve ever had here.”

But what could be a pole position win on Sunday was just a 230.946 mph run today in his Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda; but it’s a mark that will challenge the others in the Fast Nine Shootout late in the afternoon tomorrow.

“The other drivers didn’t always get the great runs today that they might have wanted,” noted the ‘Mayor of Hinchtown’, “so now that we’re in the Fast Nine we have to see what we’ve got and they’ve got.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay was second-quick at 230.805 mph in the Andretti Autosport Honda, after a battle with teammate Marco Andretti to see which one would end up in the top group.

Will Power, after requalifying his Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet due to a slower than expected speed in his first attempt, came back with a 230.736 mph run to stake-out the third fastest speed; and quickest among the Chevys.

“This was the toughest qualifying ever here,” the Aussie veteran noted in agreeing with Hinchcliffe. “The cars are constantly moving around.

“We were disappointed in the way we ran early this afternoon and hope we can do even better tomorrow.”
After a season-long domination by Chevrolet that dates back to last year, Honda captured five of the top-nine fastest speeds; a mark they will have to defend tomorrow.

Pippa Mann failed to post a time due to her incident today, while Max Chilton crashed during practice. Gabby Chaves pulled off during his attempt today but all three will be allowed to run tomorrow.

On Sunday, today’s top-nine qualifiers are locked into the Fast Nine Shootout for the Verizon P1 Award and $100,000 that go to the pole winner. Those nine quickest will vie for starting positions 1-9 for next week’s 500. The remaining 24 cars will move on to Group 1 qualifying to determine race-day starting spots 10-33.

NOTES:
• Pre-qualifying practice ended with rookie Alexander Rossi (Honda) quickest at 231.249mph. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda) was second at 231.107 mph while Chevrolets took positions 3-7. Only 21 of the 33 cars took part in the session that was delayed 1hour:27minutes by a wet track.
• Rookie driver Max Chilton shut down the track after just the first minutes of Group 1 practice when he spun his Gallagher Chip Ganassi Chevrolet entering Turn 2 and hit the outer wall with the left side. Chilton was uninjured but was through running for the day. He does have a #8T back-up car entered but it needs to be made track-ready. “I’m fine. A bit battered and bruised. The timing (of the crash) is pretty bad, but that’s the issue with practice before qualifying. I don’t have the experience to know what’s too much (speaking of too much on the front end). Now I know for future reference. It was my fault.”
• Of the 33 drivers entered in the 500, just 14 list a U.S. hometown.
• Pippa Mann became spin victim two as she spun exiting Turn 2 on her first qualifying lap. She was attempting to make her fifth 500 in the Susan G. Komen Dale Coyne Honda. Right rear and left front damage occurred as she contacted both the outer and inner barriers. She was also uninjured and has a #63T backup car.
• Conor Daly’s Shirts For America Dale Coyne Honda was pulled out of the qualifying line for a “precautionary” inspection after his teammate, Pippa Mann, crashed earlier due to a rear-wing failure.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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