Indy’s traditional rain creates problems

INDIANAPOLIS — Ladies and gentlemen, start your scrambling.

The rain that washed out 3½ days of practice and one day of qualifications for this year’s Indianapolis 500 is now forcing teams to adjust schedules, spend more time deciphering computer analyses and, of course, look for more speed.

Those cramming sessions could continue all week.

With a forecast calling for more rain Wednesday and a chance of rain later in the week, teams will have to figure out the best way to prepare for the second weekend of qualifications as well as race day.

“It’s a little tough,” said Oriol Servia, the Spanish rookie at this race. “We had rain all week, so we couldn’t test as many things as we wanted. We’re going to have to go qualifying next weekend, which means that this next week instead of focusing 100 percent on race setup, we’re going to have to think of qualifying setup.”

Drivers and teams weren’t the only ones disappointed with the latest cancellation Sunday.

It may also complicate the efforts of drivers like Roberto Moreno and Jimmy Kite, who are currently unemployed, to find a ride for the May 25 race. Many teams that might be tempted to fill extra cars are unlikely to do that until the regular drivers are assured of starting spots.

The weather only permitted 11 drivers to qualify for the 33-car field Saturday. Track officials hope to fill the remaining 22 spots next Saturday, leaving Sunday as the traditional Bump Day when non-qualified drivers can attempt to make the race by knocking the slowest qualifiers out of the field.

Joie Chitwood, the Speedway president, and Brian Barnhart, the Indy Racing League’s president of competition, wanted cars to get at least three hours to practice and qualify Sunday when starting spots 11 through 22 were scheduled to be filled.

Now they’ve been pushed back to next weekend.

“I think when you deal with something like that, you go with your last resort,” Chitwood said.

Chitwood said that with no practices scheduled for Monday or Tuesday, many team members already had plans to return home, and that track officials didn’t want to create any more complications.

Now the teams still trying to qualify must figure out how to balance race preparations with qualifying preparations.

There is only one day of practice scheduled for race week and that is a brief session on May 23, making this week’s three full practice sessions — Wednesday, Thursday and Friday — likely to be extremely busy. Presuming, of course, it is dry.

One thing drivers won’t have to worry about is wearing out tires.

“They have a lot of tires, they get 35 sets for the month of May,” Barnhart said. “That is going to make for a lot of track activity. You are going to so many laps around here Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with focus on race day and preparations for that, it’s going to be a very busy second weekend.”

Still, they’ll have to figure out what went right and wrong in Week 1, what it will take to make the race and how best to get ready.

It will be challenging for everyone, but especially for the former Champ Car drivers, who are at Indy for the first time, and Indy veterans such as former pole-winner Bruno Junqueira, who spun out during his only qualifying attempt Saturday. None of the former Champ Car drivers claimed one of the top 11 starting spots.

Some teams will use the down time to regroup.

Both of Bobby Rahal’s drivers, rookies Alex Lloyd and Ryan Hunter-Reay, crashed this weekend, and Conquest Racing was still trying to catch up after rookie Jaime Camara crashed in rookie practice last Monday.

“We are continuing to rebuild Camara’s car,” team owner Eric Bachelart said Sunday. “We are just taking time to recover from the accident and improve our cars.”

But the only way to know for certain whether they’re making progress is by running laps, which were in short supply during the first week and could be again this week.

“We don’t have a whole lot of track time to be out there squandering around working on qualifying trim,” IRL veteran and new team owner Sarah Fisher said. “There’s not just enough time to do that. We have to make the best use of our time we can.”