Bourdais Fastest On Qualifying Day 2 At Indy

Speedway, IN – His hometown is LeMans, France, and his background is in European sports car and Formula racing, but today Sebastien Bourdais returned to Indianapolis and became the fastest qualifier on day two of time trials for the 96th Indianapolis 500.

Bourdais, who along with Dragon Racing teammate Katherine Legge switched from Lotus to Chevrolet power earlier this week, put up a four- lap average of 223.760 mph to capture the 25th grid position for next Sunday’s race; his second 500 and first since 2005.

“The run was good. I just wish it had been yesterday and we’d be quite a bit higher up the grid,” said Bourdais who was too slow to make the field on Saturday. “The speed varied quite a bit from Saturday and we can’t figure out why. I’m glad to be with Chevy and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.”

Wade Cunningham sits next to Bourdais in row nine after pushing the second AJ Foyt ABC Supply Co. Honda to 223.258 mph.

“It’s nice to get out and into the field,” said a frustrated Cunningham. “It’s disappointing from my side, instead of doing the maximum (speed), we’re basically doing the minimum to get in, and that’s not how I enjoy racing. On race day we’ll find out what kind of car we’ve got.”

Rounding out the Sunday “Front Row” is Oriol Servia, who along with Ed Carpenter and Bryan Clauson, earned spots in the race after overnight work on cars that were rebuilt after wrecks on Saturday.

“We just wanted to make sure we had a solid effort to get it into the race. To win the race, you have to be in it first. The crash (Saturday) looked bad, but the car didn’t get too damaged. There was not much to gain and a lot to lose if something went wrong today,” Servia noted.

The struggling Lotus- powered cars from the HVM Racing Lotus and United Fan Force teams finally got up enough speed and now occupy the final two spots on the grid.

Simona De Silvestro and Jean Alesi patiently worked with their underpowered cars all week and were rewarded by making the race: De Silvestro at 214.393 mph, and Alesi at 210.094.

“It was alright, but not the speed that we want,” said De Silvestro. “We have to focus on our program with the Lotus engine. Hopefully, toward the end of the season, we’re going to be really competitive. I’ll try to be as much out of the way as possible on race day.”

And from Alesi: “We’ve had all week to work on it, and obviously we now have the car in the race,” said a relieved pilot, “but I was really expecting more speed from the car. We will have to work to get the best result in the race.” And how does he like Indy? “This is an amazing experience for me. I’m 47 years old and I’ve learned more in one week than I did in my entire Formula One career.”

Weekend Notes:
• Katherine Legge became the ninth female driver in history to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. Others include Danica Patrick, Ana Beatriz, Lynn St. James, Sarah Fisher, Janet Guthrie, Simona de Silvestro, Milka Duno and Pippa Mann.

• French Formula One veteran Jean Alesi had a distinction that no other driver accomplished this weekend. Although he qualified slowest in the field, Alesi’s speed in his underpowered Lotus increased on each lap of his four-lap run. His goal for the race: “I’d like to overtake someone.”

• Of the nine cars that did not qualify on Saturday, Oriol Sevia was the quickest in Sunday morning practice at 223.752 mph in the car he crashed on Saturday. It was a speed that would have been good enough to put him into the field on Day 1.

• Parnelli Jones, 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner, visited the track this weekend, on the 50th anniversary marking the first 150-mph lap run at the Speedway when he captured the pole in 1962. “I think the (new cars) are safer than last year’s. With these cars having so much ground effects that they’re pretty easy to drive. I think one of these days we’ll get the car to where you have to back off at the end of the straightaway a little bit and put more emphasis into the driver and not so much in the car. We went through a transition with the front-engine roadster to the rear-engine cars. I even drove the side car which was turbine powered. I’ve been here many years as a car owner, too, with Al Unser Sr. winning here a couple of times. I enjoy coming back and being with my friends.” Jones drove the 1963, Willard Battery/ J.C. Agajanian- owned roadster around the Speedway during a break in Saturday trials to a rousing ovation from the crowd.

• Oriol Servia was the only driver not to turn a lap on Fast Friday. “We had a little issue on the installation of the engine, but we found it, so everything’s good. The power is low; it doesn’t have top speed. It doesn’t seem to pull in the straights. We’ll have to find some magic.” Servia failed to qualify Saturday after crashing in turn four on his warm-up lap, and will try to be one of nine to try to get into the field on Sunday.

• Saturday marked the 39th birthday of two-time 500- winner Dario Franchitti.

• As reported, the turbocharger boost level was raised from 130 kilopascals (kPa) for daily practice here, to 140kPa for Fast Friday and the Qualifying Weekend. It will be at 130 for the Superspeedways on the schedule, and 140 for the short ovals at Milwaukee and Iowa.

• Team- owner Sarah Fisher was happy Saturday prior to time trials as driver Bryan Clauson brought his USAC owner and sponsor Curb/Agajanian to the SFH team as an associate sponsor. Her joy as an owner quickly turned to concern however when Clauson crashed on his fourth qualifying lap and was slow to get out of the car. “We always need to be humble here. Thankfully he (Clauson) looks to be OK. We’ll get the car fixed and get him going again.” As a reminder of the hard work that the SFH team put in overnight to rebuild Clauson’s car for competition, a Band-Aid decal was applied across a seam between body parts on the # 39.

• Toronto-native James Hinchcliffe made his qualifying attempt Saturday with the driving gloves used by the late Canadian open-wheel star Greg Moore stuffed into his drivers suit. The gloves were given to him by one of Moore’s former mechanic’s. Hinchcliffe won the Greg Moore Legacy Award in 2010 as the rising star of Firestone Indy Lights.

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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