A1 TEAM USA owner Rick Weidinger will write a diary during the Indianapolis 500 following every day that the A1 TEAM USA entry driven by Buddy Rice runs on the famous 2 1/2-mile Brickyard this May.
Wednesday, May 9 [Second Practice Day]
It rained hard in the morning and practice was delayed. We weren't sure the A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car would get to run, but there was a possibility for late in the day. As long as the Speedway officials hadn't closed the track, we were staying. Hanging out in our garage, surrounded by our beautiful cars and with the team members all in one place makes you realize how much effort it takes to run in the Indianapolis 500. It's a small business with high tech equipment and a big goal that everyone is pushing toward.
The highlight of the delay for me was getting to know Buddy Rice better. We spent an hour talking about all kinds of things and I enjoyed it. Buddy is really into the bits and parts and mechanics of the car. He's very knowledgeable and I'm sure his deep understanding of the technology and mechanics of a race car helps him give good feedback on how to improve the car and make it go faster. Also, I learned that Buddy had watched our A1 TEAM USA races on Speed Channel and enjoyed the series. He has racing experience in Europe and I believe road racing in his blood. It was good to hear that we had a fan in an Indy 500 winner. It would be awesome to have Buddy test the A1 TEAM USA car next season to see if he would enjoy the series. I am sure he would. He was open to the suggestion. We are having dinner later this week and I am sure the subject will come up.
After lunch, the rain stopped and the track dried and was opened for practice four hours late. Two hours remained. We decided to wait to let some rubber get down on the track and went out about 40 minutes later. Buddy was on the gas and up to speed right away. He was comfortable with how the car was handling and was vocal about it in the pits when he stopped. It was great to listen to such a positive professional driver! Not many drivers do that and I thought Buddy sharing his feelings outwardly boosted the team's camaraderie. It is, after all, a team effort.
Buddy was running fast laps on old tires, ones we'd used yesterday. We were running a race-type setup and our speed on worn rubber showed how solid our car was. Buddy ran his fastest lap of 222.696 mph with tires on about their 35th lap. It was faster than we ran yesterday. After the fast lap, Buddy came in and said, "Let's start taking things off the car." The team began adjusting the front and rear wings to take downforce off. Buddy went out, ran a few laps and came back in. We thought we needed to make some gear changes and, with time running short, that was the end of the day for us. We ran 29 laps and everybody was very happy with how it had gone.
We have two more days before qualifying begins. I think we'll go faster tomorrow and keep our momentum going. It's important at Indianapolis. I'm very pleased with how we've performed so far and am confident our best days are ahead. The team has been positioned nicely by Dennis Reinbold and seems very patient and methodical in its approach. It is a great feeling heading into qualifying where we are not "chasing our tails." Although I always say in motorsports "expect the unexpected," I am cautiously optimistic our fans can expect good things from Buddy Rice and the No. 15 car. Also, props to Sarah Fisherfor a good day of practice also.