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.
Thursday, May 10 [third day of practice]
We spent the opening three hours of practice working on the race setup on our
A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car and were about to shift to a qualifying setup. BOOM, our
engine blew up and we lost two and a half hours of running. We needed that track
time to start trimming out the aerodynamics and put some big numbers on the
board. The fast cars are running 226-plus miles per hour and Buddy Rice's top lap
was 222.383, 18th on the timing sheet. Suddenly, we're running out of time.
We weren't able to carry out our game plan, running only 41 laps. It's
absolutely not fatal, but we need to get going tomorrow. It's the last day of practice
prior to Pole Day qualifying and typically the fastest day overall of the
month.
Honda only allocates one engine per entry, so even though we have a backup
car, we couldn't get back out. We received a new engine and the crew installed
it. We'll be ready Friday, but that engine failure was a setback for us. It was
just really disappointing but I feel in talking with Dennis Reinbold late this afternoon that he has everything under control and we will be ready to roll Friday afternoon.
We were really hoping to get into the top 10 for several reasons. For
starters, it makes you feel good and energizes the team. It puts you in a good
position to be a first day qualifier, which is very important. We're also talking to
several sponsors and it tells them you're a quality operation with realistic
expectations of running at the front.
We definitely want to be in the top 10 Friday. It will take a jump in speed.
We have it in the A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car, but we have to show it. We need to put all
our cards on the table to prepare for qualifying.
Eleven cars will get into the field on Pole Day, the top third of the grid.
We want to be in that group.