» BACK TO CRASH.NET

Rain stops play at Indy.

Advertisement

Wednesday's scheduled practice session for the Indianapolis 500 was called off after persistent rain showers plagued the Brickyard from late morning until mid-afternoon.

With the track remaining wet, no action took place, leaving the 31 drivers present to kick their heels in pit-lane until the decision was taken to end proceedings for the day. It was the first time since 13 May 2006 - that year's Pole Day - that a full day's activity had been lost to the weather at Indianapolis. Fast Friday activities on 12 May 2006 were also cancelled.

As usual with nrace drivers, opinions were divided as to whether a lost day was good or bad, with some actually glad not to be on track as they could use the time to rethink or recover.

"We obviously would have liked to have had some more track time today, but it wasn't meant to be," Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon admitted, "I guess the forecast isn't looking favourable for tomorrow either, so I just hope that the rain reaches my house in St Petersburg and gives my garden some much-needed attention."

While Wheldon, winner of the last IndyCar round at Kansas nearly two weeks ago, could afford to shrug off the disappointment, others were not so phlegmatic.

"Obviously, the rain today is very disappointing, as we needed the track time today to help the start of our team," new owner-driver Sarah Fisher admitted, "We haven't gotten any track time yet this month, and this really puts us behind for the month and for qualifying. We just hope that it clears out sooner rather than later."

"All I was really able to do today was put my racesuit on and off a few times," echoed Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter, "It's disappointing to have it rain after we weren't real thrilled with our runs yesterday, so I really wanted to get back out on track to see if we made any gains - which I'm confident we have. Then again, I wasn't really looking forward to running with the wind the way it was blowing out there. The rain pretty much made the decision for us...."

Even veteran - and two-time Indy 500 winner - Helio Castroneves was disappointed to not get back on track.

"It's unfortunate that we weren't able to run today, and, hopefully, we'll get a drastic change in the weather and things will clear up for tomorrow," the Brazilian said, "With only one day of track time under our belts, we're not quite where we want to be with the Team Penske car. Hopefully, we'll get some clear weather before Pole Day, so we can fine tune the qualifying trim. We had a productive day yesterday, but we certainly still have some work to do before qualifying."

Others were not quite so dismayed, including Conquest Racing team-mates Jaime Camara and Enrique Bernoldi, both of whom are making their first visit to the Brickyard.

"Actually, having the practice session cancelled was not too bad for me," Bernoldi confirmed, "I'll be able to jump in the new car tomorrow when practice resumes, and it gave the Conquest crew a chance to finish up the cars."

Not running gave Camara another day to get over the effects of the crash he suffered on Monday, even though he had been given the all-clear to get back behind the wheel.

"Usually, I'm not happy when it rains because it takes track time away from the teams and it slows down the development we have planned for the month, but it was good for me because I didn't lose another day on track, and tomorrow we are going to start again with everyone else. Because of my crash, we were a step behind, but now we will be caught up, so we're kind of happy that it rained today. We needed to do a seat fitting and finish the cars."

"It just wouldn't be the month of May at Indy without a couple rain days," fellow Brazilian Vitor Meira concluded, "We knew today and tomorrow could be an issue as far as the weather is concerned, so we'll just have to wait and see how things play out. We learned yesterday that our car is fast, but we'd really like to work a little more on our qualification set-up so we can be prepared for Saturday. This is the same problem for everybody though, so nobody is going to gain an advantage until we get back on the track."

Practice is scheduled to resume between noon and 6pm today [Thursday], with Fast Friday penned for a similar time 24 hours later. Pole Day is Saturday.