A Speed Bump at Indianapolis

No one in racing likes a rainout, but Saturday’s drenching of Indianapolis Motor Speedway was particularly upsetting to the Newman-Haas team of Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira.

They are renegades from the Champ Car circuit and if more rain today delays Pole Day for the May 29 Indianapolis 500 yet again, they are out of luck because they have to leave for Mexico on Wednesday for the Tecate/Telemex Monterrey Grand Prix. The traditional blessing of the Fundidora Park road circuit is Thursday.

Heavy showers all morning Saturday caused Indy Racing League officials to postpone qualifying until today.

The postponement forced them to change the contrived qualifying procedure in which only the fastest 11 cars would qualify on Pole Day. Bourdais, a rookie for the 500 despite being the Champ Car World Series champion and the winner of last month’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, saw it as a plus for his team.

Instead of qualifying only 11 today, they will (or hope to) qualify 22.

“I woke up this morning and saw the rain and knew I was going to sit around all day,” said the bespectacled Frenchman. “Actually, though, this situation is probably better for us since we can concentrate on getting in the top 22 [today] instead of trying to get into the top 11 and possibly keep coming up short.”

When the sun came out a few minutes after the announcement at 12:15 p.m. by IRL President Brian Barnhart that the track was closed for the day, it appeared it might have been premature.

“We decided to do what was in the best interest of the fans as well as the competitors,” Barnhart explained. “Even with the rain stopping, it would take three hours to dry, an hour to practice and qualifying wouldn’t start until 5:30. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.

“We lost the drama aspect about positions 1-11, since now they are going to stay. You’ll still have the drama about the pole and there may be a battle for the 22nd spot.”

Saturday’s qualifying plans were to have bumping begin after the first 11 cars had been qualified, but that has been taken out of the equation.

“Our original goal was to come out of this weekend with 22 cars in the field, and the rain means we have to qualify 22 cars in one day,” Barnhart said.

Bourdais had not even sat in an Indy car until April 18, when he had a seat fitting, and his first time behind the wheel was last Sunday for rookie orientation.

Because he and Junqueira are unfamiliar with the Honda-powered Panoz IRL cars, after driving Ford-powered Champ Car Lolas, they have logged more laps than anyone this month. Bourdais has 286 and Junqueira 329.

Their lap times do not show the effort, however. Bourdais’ best lap of 225.653 mph is more than two miles slower that Tomas Scheckter’s best of 227.804, and he is only 15th on the speed chart. Junqueira, who finished fifth in last year’s rain-shortened race, is 21st with a top speed of 224.963.

“I haven’t run in an Indy car since the race here last year,” said Junqueira, who won the pole in 2002 while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing. “It’s more important for us to have a good race than get a good starting spot so we concentrated on getting a good race setup this week since we won’t be here next week.

“There is going to be a lot of action [today] and I hope the weather cooperates because for sure we can’t come back because the race in Monterrey is one of the biggest of the year for us.”

Although Bourdais is new to the 2.5-mile Indianapolis rectangular oval, he has victories on ovals in Germany in 2003 and Las Vegas last year.

“I am very happy to be here for the Indy 500,” he said. “It’s been two years in the making but we weren’t able to get the financial support and that is why I am so thankful for Centrix. They were going to support one car that Bruno would drive but expanded to two. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do this race.

“Growing up in LeMans, I always knew it as a legendary race and one that you want to do in your career.”

One member of the Newman-Haas team, co-owner Paul Newman, is still opposed to having his drivers in the IRL-sanctioned Indy 500. When Carl Haas entered Junqueira in last year’s race, the team’s first break from Champ Cars, Newman said he did not sanction it and would not be at the speedway to support the team.

Team members said they did not expect Newman, who rarely misses a Champ Car race, to be here for the race.