Bored rigid drivers go "planking" at Indy

Drivers are starting to go a little stir crazy with the inactivity - leading to several of them taking up "planking" as they waited out another rain-hit day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Andrew Lewin_1

19 May 2011

A second complete washout - and a third day with no running during practice week for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - has started to send drivers and teams more than a little stir crazy.

The extended period of enforced inactivity has resulted in an outbreak of "planking" along pit lane that proliferated through social media networks and swept up Scott Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, James Hinchcliffe and Tony Kanaan, among others.

The drivers and teams were getting up to some very strange antics, with Dale Coyne's British driver Alex Lloyd and Ganassi's New Zealand driver Scott Dixon teaming up on Twitter to spark on outbreak of the current Internet craze of "planking" - having a picture taken of yourself lying face down, arms by your side, in unlikely (and safe, please!) public settings.

Alex Lloyd's contribution missed the "public" setting and featured his effort in the front room of his home in Indianapolis, while Tony Kanaan's contribution featured a painful looking pose across the handlebars and saddle of his mountain bike as well as a later group shot with the rest of the KV Racing Technology line up of EJ Viso, Takuma Sato, Tomas Scheckter and Kanaan.

Will Power and Ryan Briscoe showed that Team Penske were in on the fun as well, while James Hinchcliffe managed to balance himself on one of the front wheels of his Sprott Newman/Haas Racing car in the garage (well, the car wasn't doing anything else today after all), while Raphael Matos went for both rear wheels and Scott Dixon's saw him balanced across the front of his car on both front wheels, which was arguably the most spectacular of all.

But in terms of most appropriate symbolism, it was hard to beat Tomas Scheckter's contribution of a simple "planking" photo opportunity lying along the yard of bricks that mark the start/finish line of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Depending on your point of view, Paul Tracy either really hasn't got it - or has totally nailed the 'anti-plank'.

[All the above links open the driver's planking picture in a new window, from their various respective social media photo sharing services.]

Dixon and Kanaan even reached out to the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson. Kanaan sent a cheeky tweet saying, "We want to see you pull out a plank", to which Jimmie responded "I will work on something...it might take a day or 2 before I'm around a car," adding "I'm wondering how I can pull that off on a cup car??" while studying Dixon's own impressive balancing act.

All in all, "Planking Day" was about the only highlight of a deeply dull and frustrating day for everyone at IMS. Weather forecasts are much improved for Thursday and Friday, but thunderstorms threaten the weekend when the two qualifying days - Pole Day and Bump Day - are scheduled.