Indy Qualification Notes-Sunday

Sam Schmidt takes the specially-equipped Arrow Corvette for a spin at Indy. [Russ Lake Photo]

• Four previous 500 winners: Tony Kanaan, Buddy Lazier, Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Dixon failed to make the Fast Nine group Saturday and had to settle for competing for positions 10-33 on pole day. Dixon’s Ganassi crew had to change his Chevrolet engine after he was towed in during practice.
• Alex Tagliani spun coming off Turn 4 in AJ Foyt’s Honda. He made contact with the end of the pit wall, spun 5.5 times before making contact with the inside wall. He was uninjured and his crew will be able to repair the #35 for the 500.
• Rookie Max Chilton qualified his #8T back-up car (226.686) after crashing Saturday in the Gallagher Chip Ganassi Chevrolet.
• Former driver and current team owner Sam Schmidt, drove a specially-equipped Arrow Corvette to a record speed Sunday prior to qualifying. Schmidt is a quadriplegic due to a crash in 2000 at Walt Disney World Speedway, but is able to drive the Corvette by using his breath to control the gas and brake. His turning is controlled by 3D camera glasses. Driving around the 2.5-mile track, Schmidt averaged 108.642mph for four laps with three-time Indy 500 starter Robby Unser as his passenger. “I’ll be smiling all day and tonight,” Schmidt said after receiving a long and loud reception from the crowd. “This took more mental focus than I had to use as a driver. The biggest challenge is to remain focused for a long time.”
• Alexander Rossi was quickest in practice prior to final qualifying today with a fast lap at 230.064mph. Wind and sun conditions were quite a bit different today than on Saturday.
• It was speculated that after qualifying runs today, the fastest qualifier could have been in the tenth starting spot (or the fourth-row pole). Think about it; Rossi, Marco or Montoya among others could have been the fastest in Group 1 at 232.000mph but that group was locked into running for positions 10-33. Hinchcliffe could have been quickest in the Fast Nine Shootout at 231.000mph, one mile-per-hour slower and have been the actual pole winner. Kind of shoots a hole in this qualifying system.
• Three of the Fast Nine group chose not to practice prior to qualifying. Hinchcliffe, Aleshin and Pagenaud sat out for what some thought to be changing weather conditions between early afternoon practice (12:30-1:00) and late afternoon qualifying (5:00-5:45).
• A large and enthusiastic crowd made its way to the Speedway on a warm, sunny day Sunday. The track is sold out of reserved seats for the 500 and more suite areas are being built for race-week corporate gatherings. General admission tickets are available for entrance to the infield berms viewing areas.

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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