A1 TEAM USA owner Rick Weidinger will write a diary during the Indianapolis 500 following every day that the A1 TEAM USA/A1GP entry driven by Buddy Rice runs on the famous 2 1/2-mile Brickyard this May. This is his final installment.
Sunday, May 27--RACE DAY
We departed our hotel in downtown Indianapolis at 8:30 in the morning for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is 15 minutes away on a normal day. With over 300,000 fans pouring into the track, even with a police escort--a privilege provided to owners and drivers--it took us an hour to arrive to our A1 TEAM USA/A1GP garage.
Once inside, we spent time with Buddy and Dennis Reinbold, the co-owner of the team we partnered with for the second straight year at Indy, and they seemed ready and excited for the race. The morning was full of meetings by the team and discussions of strategy based upon different scenarios. Everything happens fast out there, on the track and on the pit lane. You want to have some idea of how you want to respond to situations and you want to have the driver, engineer and race strategist on the same page. Buddy and I spent much time talking about guy things and A1GP.
Finally, our cool red-white-and-blue "We The People" car was pushed out to the grid and we went with it. Buddy decided to get into the car approximately eight minutes before the “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines,” command and discovered it had the wrong seat. I was told that Buddy does not usually get into his seat that early before a race. Today the early entry was lucky. The seats are contoured to fit each driver and it’s important for safety and for the driver’s comfort. The next several minutes were a little frantic. We tried to comfort Buddy by telling him that, look, Dan Wheldon isn’t in his car yet either. A couple of team members ran back to the garage, brought out Buddy’s seat and put it in with two minutes to spare. The crew got Buddy buckled up and ready to race. Everything was OK.
Indianapolis is very unique before, during and after the race. The absolute scope of the pre-race pageantry makes you realize the size and scope of the race. Standing on the front straight, you look at those tremendously long grandstands and they’re full of people. You know you’re part of something special. There’s nothing like it in the world.
The cars fired, the grid was cleared. I joined Dennis, JD (our race engineer) and my A1GP partner Rusty Lewis in the pit box. You can only see a slice of the cars on the track from there, but with computers you can see all the data and with radios, you have communication with the driver. It’s the command post and we’d know what was going on immediately with our A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car. I continuously thought of my two boys up in Dennis ' suite wondering if they were getting a good view of the race and if they were able to hear it.
Buddy started from 16th and drove patiently, maintaining his position through two pit stops under caution, coming in with the rest of the field. When the third yellow came out, Dennis and Buddy decided to take a chance and stay out. Our A1 TEAM USA car jumped up to third and even though we knew how we’d gotten there, it was still fun and exciting.
Rain stopped the race after 113 laps were complete. Buddy was 16th and we definitely wanted the race to resume. The sky cleared and after a three-hour delay, the track was dry and the race restarted.
Buddy’s car was working very well at that point and he moved up to 10th, the third segment of the race he was in the top-10. The lead-lap cars were split into two strategies and we were in the group that had to pit first. Buddy came in on lap 133 and went back out 18th. He cycled back to 13th and made his final stop on lap 155, to take advantage of a caution.
Buddy was still 13th coming out of the pits and we were hoping that the race would go the 200-lap distance. With the strength of our A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car and the way pit stops were cycling through, we were in position to finish comfortably in the top 10.
On the next restart, there was a crash immediately that lit up the yellow lights. Finally, on lap 162, the race went green for a full lap. I thought this was the opportunity Buddy had been looking for.
Going down the back straight. Marco Andretti’s right rear wheel touched Dan Wheldon’s left front. Marco flipped in midair and Wheldon spun. Buddy was behind them and he slowed down. Ed Carpenter was behind Buddy and he hit our A1 TEAM USA/A1GP car in the back and sent us spinning. We had too much damage to continue.
There were a couple of laps of caution, then the rain returned and the race was over after 166 laps. Dario Franchitti had won the Indy 500.
Without getting punted, Buddy would have finished at least 11th and maybe better. The record book will show we finished 25th. We were robbed of those 14 positions, but I always say you have to expect the unexpected in racing. It was a very disappointing end to a promising race for us.
We went back to Buddy’s motor coach and Ed Carpenter knocked on the door. Ed was the driver that knocked Buddy out of the race. He apologized to Buddy and I thought that was really big of Ed. Buddy accepted it like the gentleman he is.
We spent about 90 minutes in Buddy’s coach and it was really a treat to meet Robin Yount, the famous baseball player. Robin is a friend of Buddy’s and an avid go-kart racer. They met at a go-kart track in Phoenix, where they both live. Robin is a big fan of Buddy’s and Buddy is a big fan of Robin's.
We said good-bye to Buddy and Robin and went to Dennis’ coach for a farewell drink and then headed back to Conrad’s, our hotel. We ate dinner with friends at a downtown steakhouse (they were so kind to keep the kitchen open late for us). We enjoyed talking about the race, China and the Middle East. What a combination of topics to discuss, but all very large scale. The next morning, we got up early and headed to our home in Washington, D.C.
The Indy 500 is an amazing event to be a participant and we enjoyed bringing A1 TEAM USA and A1GP into it. We made some new friends, like Buddy, and renewed some, like with Dennis. We enjoyed writing these diaries to give our up-close-and-personal view. We hope you enjoyed the ride with us.