Indy 37.5 and Counting

INDIANAPOLIS — Only nine laps were run at racing speed Monday and six cars were already out of the Indianapolis 500.

At that rate, the Indy Racing League’s inaugural show of newly designed chassis and engines may not reach the halfway mark of the 200-lap race.

Officially, 15 laps were completed--six behind the pace car under the caution flag--before a steady rain sent drivers and an estimated 250,000 fans home early for the second day in a row. Chief steward Keith Ward announced that another attempt to complete the 81st 500 will be made today at 9 a.m., PDT, with ABC-TV resuming its coverage.

The weather forecast is not encouraging, calling for showers.

Tony Stewart will be starting in front after having breezed past pole-sitter Arie Luyendyk on the first lap on his way to leading all 15 trips around the 2 1/2-mile rectangular oval. Robbie Buhl is third and Robby Gordon fourth after starting 12th.

Gordon is hoping to redeem himself after crashing and finishing 41st in the CocaCola 600 Winston Cup race Sunday night in Charlotte, N.C.

Today’s restart will be single file, behind the pace car for at least two laps. Crews may work on their cars before the restart, as long as they do not change major components, such as an engine or transmission, or add oil.

“I’m a little frustrated, like everyone else,” Ward said. “When things don’t go right, it deflates everything a little bit.”

In reality, it didn’t take nine laps to eliminate six of the 35 starters. Three, Stephan Gregoire of France and rookies Affonso Giaffone of Brazil and Kenny Brack of Sweden--the entire fifth row--crashed on the parade lap, before the race had even started.

On a cold, windy day, all three were zig-zagging, trying to heat up their tires before coming down for the green flag. Brack, on the outside, appeared to drop low and pinch Giaffone, who in turn hit Gregoire. All three ended up in the fourth-turn wall, their cars too damaged to repair quickly.

“I think Kenny [Brack] got off his line,” said Giaffone. “I just ran out of space.”

Gregoire said, “I was on the bottom, running my line, when Giaffone touched me and I went right into the wall. All of us do not know what happened.”

Brack, a European Formula 3000 driver who was car owner Rick Galles’ choice to replace the injured Davy Jones in his Aurora-G Force, said he was bumped from behind but “really don’t know what happened.”

None of the three were injured, but the rest of the field took five more parade laps while debris was cleared away before starter Bryan Howard waved the green flag to start the race.

Sam Schmidt, in one of the Blueprint team cars, never made it to the start. His engine expired on the fourth extra parade lap.

Four laps into the race, Alessandro Zampedri, making his first start since severely injuring his legs in a dramatic final-turn accident in last year’s Indy 500, pulled into the pits and climbed out of his car. A broken timing chain was the culprit.

Claude Bourbonnais brought out the race’s first yellow flag when his engine blew as he powered out of the fourth turn on Lap 10.

Before the race could resume, rain began to fall and a red flag called the cars off the track. When it became apparent that it wasn’t going to stop, Ward called it a day.

“We’ll try again tomorrow, and if need be, the next day and then the next day until we get this thing completed,” Ward said.

In 1986, the last time the 500 was postponed after a rainy Monday, it was rescheduled the following Saturday.

One reason for the desire to finish this year’s race quickly is because the IRL has a night race scheduled for Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on June 7, and practice is scheduled for next Tuesday night.

The last time a race was halted after it had started was 1976, when a red flag was displayed after 103 laps. Johnny Rutherford, this year’s pace car driver, was declared the winner when the rains continued.

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Manic Monday

A look at some of the trials and tribulations on another rainy day in Indianapolis:

* A crash on the parade lap takes out Row 5 of the starting grid: the cars of Kenny Brack, Stephan Gregoire and Affonso Giaffone.

* During extra parade laps needed to sort out the field after the wreck, Sam Schmidt’s car quits.

* The car of Alessandro Zampedri breaks a timing chain on the fourth lap.

* Claude Bourbonnais blows engine on Lap 10.

* On Lap 15, rain causes yet another postponement until 9 a.m., PDT, today.