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Speedway Opens As Perfect Conditions Greet Rookies

SPEEDWAY, IN: A beautiful spring day in Central Indiana greeted fans and competitors alike on Sunday as the Rookie Orientation Program began for the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500. A nice crowd was on hand to enjoy an incident-free day of speed and testing at the historic 99 year old oval.

Before Will Power, of Toowoomba, Australia became the first driver on the track, a special salute to the Unser family, hosted by legendary announcer Tom Carnegie took place. It featured an appearance by every known member of the family, with the exception of two time Speedway winner Bobby Unser, who reportedly had “travel issues”. Big Al and Little Al each turned several demonstration laps, driving the 1986 and 1992 winning cars respectively. The clan then made themselves available for a light-hearted question & answer session at the Pagoda Plaza, and a good time was had by all.

When the Speedway opened for practice at noon, the action was virtually non-stop. A group of twelve rookies, plus refresher-testing veteran Max Papis recorded over 600 total laps. Ten of the twelve newcomers completed all four phases of their tests, and are now free to practice at speed.

During the traditional “happy hour”, the top spot on the speed chart changed hands three times during the final 15 minutes! When the checkered flag brought an end to Day One, Will Power had nailed down the top spot with at lap of 220.694 MPH.

Rookie Orientation will continue through tomorrow; on Tuesday, the track will be available to veterans and rookies alike. At this point, the weather forecast for the next several days sounds good.

Today’s results:

Pos Driver Name Best Time Best Speed Best Lap Total Laps
1 Will Power (8) 40.7804 220.694 90 93
2 EJ Viso (33) 40.8265 220.445 61 64
3 Oriol Servia (5) 40.8902 220.102 90 94
4 Alex Lloyd (16) 40.9158 219.964 49 55
5 Hideki Mutoh (27) 40.9418 219.824 39 43
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay (17T) 40.9468 219.797 43 44
7 Jaime Camara (34) 41.0631 219.175 39 47
8 Graham Rahal (06) 41.1675 218.619 36 51
9 Justin Wilson (02) 41.2576 218.142 31 43
10 Enrique Bernoldi (36T) 41.4102 217.338 38 44
11 Jay Howard (24T) 41.4275 217.247 56 61
12 Max Papis (44) 42.0427 214.068 16 19
13 Mario Moraes (19) 48.2717 186.445 3 3

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