Tuesday, 1st June 2004

Robbie McGehee and PDM Racing both made it to the finish of the 88th Indy 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway despite only taking to the track on the final day of qualifying and although the smallest team on the grid had their struggles and moments of drama on and off the track, they were well rewarded with a solid 22nd place finish.

“We just needed more track time,” McGehee said when walking back to the garage area in the rain after the chequered flag fell.

“The first couple of stints the car was loose in traffic, but the PDM crew worked hard to dial it in, and towards the end the car was awesome. We weren‘t as fast as the leaders, but we were running well with the cars we were mixing with.

“When the car was loose at the beginning I thought ‘This is going to be a long race,' but it came around. when it's that loose, it's a close call all the way around the track.

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“I think we were a little heavy on downforce,” McGehee continued. “And I hear things were pretty hairy in the pits; I had to ask the crew if they were OK when those cars wrecked in our pit area We had good pit stops all day though.

“We weren't fast enough on the straightaways, but we were fast in the comers,” he continued “If we had more time to work on a good race set-up, we'd have done better. If the car was as good at the beginning of the race as it was at the end, we would have placed higher.

“For the success of both the team and myself, running once a year is not the way to go,” he admitted. “But I enjoyed working with PDM this month, and I appreciate the support of sponsors like Burger King and Natoli Engineering. We have a couple things in the works for more races, but nothing definite.”

Was running this race worth it?

“Absolutely!“ he said enthusiastically.

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