Knapp hopes to improve on 3rd-place finish at Indy
[Here’s an all-time great pull-out quote:
“I was flying upside down and backwards at 185 miles per hour, 15 feet off the ground. I was in the air so long that I had a lot of time to think: I realized the car was going to land upside down, so I moved my hands down to hang on to the bottom of the steering wheel; then I pulled my feet in, and prayed a lot as I waited for the impact.” ]
Steve Knapp is ready for this weekend’s qualifying for his second Indianapolis 500, but despite a number of incredible experiences, his biggest challenge is just to return to the high standards he set as a rookie last May.
“I think it’s going to take an average speed of 218 to make the field this year,” said Knapp. “But I think after we get everything figured out we’ll have a car that’s at least as good as last year.”
Knapp has no illusions of trying for the pole position as fastest qualifier in Saturday’s opening time trials, but, with typical pragmatism, he is only concerned with getting into the 33-car field for the May 30 race. Then he can focus on trying to match the remarkable third-place finish of a year ago that made Knapp an Up North motorsports hero.
A native of Cokato, Minn., Knapp, 34, lives in Salem, Wis., with his wife, Bobbi, and son Logan, 8. He moved there to start Elite Engines, when trying to finance his own racing proved futile and led to building race motors for other drivers. His business required him to abandon his own race-driving for several years, until he ran a test in 1995 that so impressed client John Miller of Minneapolis that he helped Knapp return to competitive driving in 1996.
Knapp’s skill, showing equal parts courage, finesse and poise, earned an opportunity to drive in last year’s Indy 500 as Jeff Ward’s teammate on the ISM race team. The team restricted Knapp’s car, compromising top speed for the control of more downforce. Nevertheless, he won rookie of the year honors when he finished third behind Eddie Cheever and Buddy Lazier.
While maneuvering through various crashes and problems in the Indy Racing League’s crown jewel event, Knapp showed remarkable poise. The head broke off a fastening screw on a pit stop, and the front cowling of his car’s bodywork started fluttering up from the wind pressure, so he came right back to the pits so the crew could secure the body panel with duct-tape.
Five laps later, as the car hurtled down the straights at 220 miles per hour, the tape started peeling up. Knapp knew the importance of making it to the next fuel stop, so he decided to hold the panel in place by hand.
“The first time I reached out, the force of the airflow snapped my arm back so hard that my right hand hit my helmet,” Knapp said. “It hit so hard that my hand went numb. I thought I broke my hand.”
When he got some feeling back in his hand, he reached out, low and snake-like, sliding his hand along the bodywork until he reached the taped-down body panel. He drove 15 laps that way, one hand on the wheel and holding the car together — literally — with the other hand. Not bad for a rookie, whose cool under pressure was pivotal in his ultimate third-place finish.
He had less luck, but more indelibly frightening experiences, on the rest of last year’s IRL circuit.
At Dover, a strut on his rear stabilizer wing apparently broke, throwing his car out of control in a turn. “I spun so hard that I blacked out, because it was ‘way more load than I’ve ever experienced,” said Knapp. “It was like I woke up in a dream with tire smoke coming off the front end. Suddenly I realized, ‘Oh-oh, this is Dover, and I’m going to hit the wall.’ ”
He suffered a concussion in that incident, which knocked him out of the next race. But that was nothing compared to Atlanta, where Billy Boat and Marco Greco collided, and Knapp saw it all and started to slow down. Unaware of what was happening ahead, Robby Unser sped past Knapp on the outside, then saw the crash ahead and slammed on his brakes, swerving down to the left — right into Knapp’s path.
“My right front tire hit his left front, and I flipped,” Knapp said, recalling the whole incident in chilling detail. “I was flying upside down and backwards at 185 miles per hour, 15 feet off the ground. I was in the air so long that I had a lot of time to think: I realized the car was going to land upside down, so I moved my hands down to hang on to the bottom of the steering wheel; then I pulled my feet in, and prayed a lot as I waited for the impact.”
The car hit upside down and flipped four times, hitting the wall on the first flip with such force that the rollbar punctured the body of his car. But again, his ability to think clearly in times of incredible stress allowed Knapp to escape uninjured, except for a couple of bruises on the top of his feet.
His skill on the track and his patience off it has paid off with a better situation with ISM. “I had two offers to drive for other teams after the Speedway last year,” Knapp said. “But ISM advised me to turn them down and said they’d try to get me a second car. It didn’t work out, though.”
This year, however, ISM and Ward went separate ways, and ISM came immediately to Knapp and made him the team’s only driver. He has spent some serious testing time for Indy, and got up over the 220 mark on Wednesday. The ISM team now has some new motors and completed a second car. Knapp will drive to set-up both of them, then take his pick for qualifying. The team may put Marco Greco into the second car.
“The hard lesson I’ve learned this year,” said Knapp, “is you’ve got to be good, but you’ve also got to be ready when the opportunity comes along.”
Hockey world mourns death of Don Clark
An array of hard-core amateur hockey notables made their way to the tiny town of Cumberland, Wis., last Saturday for the sad and reluctant task of bidding farewell to one of the most beloved hockey personalities in Upper Midwest history.
Don Clark, a tireless promoter for the sport and its leading historian, died a week ago Monday at his home in Cumberland at the age of 83.
Outside St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Cumberland, official Bob O’Connor, a leading hockey clinic instructor for USA Hockey, paused and looked at the bright sunshine and blue sky.
“It’s been a week of constant rain, and now look at this,” said O’Connor. “It’s a perfect day, and it’s just like God made this day, just for Don.”
Inside the church, Robert Fleming and Roger Godin gave eulogies for Clark’s long and wide-ranging lifetime in hockey. Fleming, a longtime official in both state and national amateur hockey operations, told of driving northward from his home in Rochester and stopping in Cumberland to pick up Clark and drive to countless hockey games in Northern Minnesota. He said he finally bought a cabin in Cumberland.
Godin, who operated the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame during its first decade of operation, recalled how Clark had helped found the hall and provided numerous fact and artifacts to the hall, even though he kept countless other bits of historicaly hockey memorabilia at his humble home in Cumberland.
Cal Marvin, from Warroad, and Buck Riley, from International Falls, made the six-hour trip to Cumberland, and numerous other veteran hockey types were present. Mostly, though, they were the type of hockey people who worked behind the scenes, more than prominent big shots in the game, and maybe that was appropriate, because that was Clark’s legacy. He always tried to get things done for the sport, but he worked just as hard to avoid credit for his accomplishments.
Clark, whose intense interest in hockey covers more than 50 years, founded the Minnesota Amateur Hockey Association in 1947 with Riley and Robert Ridder. Clark later managed various amateur and U.S. National teams, and became an official in the Amateur Hockey Association of the U.S. (later USA Hockey).
Ever-humble, Clark was best known as a historian — virtually a walking encyclopedia who could relay countless elements tracing the development of hockey in Minnesota and the country. He was such a devoted and influential part of the sport that he was inducted to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth in 1978.
Clark’s health had been faltering since he suffered a heart attack last Nov. 1, and he was treated for congestive heart failure during the winter, which confined him to his home in Cumberland.
“But he got out of bed to attend the opening ceremonies of a new arena that was built in Siren (Wis.) about six weeks ago,” said John Clark, one of his three sons. “He was on oxygen, but nothing stopped him. He was hoping to go out in a little while for another new arena in the Baldwin area.”
Clark is survived by his wife, Harriet, and sons Mark of Cumberland, Tom of St. Paul, and John of Inver Grove Heights.
His wife and sons were with him through his final days. “He knew he was dying, but he still had a lot of curiosity, and we had some touching conversations with him last Sunday,” said John Clark. “He was so weak the last few weeks that you could hardly hear his voice, but he was still able to comfort my mother.”
Clark was born May 25, 1915, in Kensal, N.D., and grew up in Faribault, Minn., where he played amateur baseball and hockey. He was a good enough baseball player to be named to a Southern Minny League all-star team that played against the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, when Ted Williams was on the Millers team.
He was in the Civilian Conservation Corps before graduating in dairy science from the University of Minnesota. He worked for 20 years as a chemist for the Twin Cities Milk Producer’s Association, and was one of the founders of the Minnesota Dairy Technology Society. He held various administrative officers in MAHA from that date until 1988, during which time the number of registered hockey teams grew from 45 to nearly 4,000, and the number of indoor ice facilities grew from 13 to more than 220.
In 1952, Clark organized the first statewide tournament for Bantam hockey teams — the first state tournament of its kind in the U.S. He was the manager of the 1958 U.S. National hockey team, which was the first U.S. sports team to ever compete in the Soviet Union, and in 1959-60, Clark was manager of the Green Bay Bobcats, which won the U.S. Hockey League championship.
In 1961, he was hired as lab supervisor at the Stella Cheese company in Cumberland, and from there he continued to stay deeply involved in hockey well beyond his retirement in 1980. He served in administrative positions and as a director of organizations such as AHAUS and MAHA, and his interest in hockey history and collecting of memorabilia made it logical to help organize the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Along with his induction to the Hall, Clark was presented with the National Hockey League’s Lester Patrick Award, the Hall of Fame’s Heritage Award, the Minnesota North Stars “Maroosh” Award, and the annual award for dedicated service presented by the Minnesota high school coaches association.
As a historian, Clark was constantly consulted by authors and writers and provided endless supplies of information. He was responsible for compiling the AHAUS and Olympic hockey guide books from the 1950s until the 1980s.
Memorials may be sent to Regional Hospice of Ashland, Wis., or to the Donald M. Clark Hockey Scholarship Award at the University of Minnesota.
Indy 500 seeks to regain past glory
For the fourth year in a row, the Indianapolis 500 will be conducted only by drivers and teams from the Indy Racing League, and the bigger names with their more-exotic race cars will be off racing somewhere else.
You can take sides as you choose, but you have to agree with one distinct fact: The Indianapolis 500 used to be THE race in the world, where the best drivers from all over the world came to compete in the world’s largest single sports event, and now it’s something less than that.
The split came when Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss, Tony George, decided to regain control of the kind of racing that would run at Indy by outlawing the extremely expensive cars from the Championship Auto Racing Teams.
It has been a rocky rivalry, and both sides have lost a lot.
In its first year without CART, the bigger names at CART ran a 500-mile race in direct conflict with Indy at Michigan International Speedway. The CART superstars were understandably a bit haughty in their superiority — right up until they had a massive crash at the start of their race, the kind of crash they assumed the novice-filled racers at Indy might suffer.
Buddy Lazier won that Indy 500. There was no question the CART cars were faster, because that first Indy-without-CART-stars required all entries to use year-old or older race cars, in order to curtail costs.
However, the Indy folks overlooked the fact that the main reason for the outrageous expense of CART cars was because of constantly escalating safety alterations. That was proven tragically when Indy pole-sitter Scott Brayton was killed in a pre-race crash when his head whiplashed to the side and he broke his neck. Experts agreed that had he been in a CART car with its new-that-year body cowling around the back and sides of the driver’s helmet, Brayton undoubtedly would have escaped uninjured.
Jimmy Vasser won the CART series, and Alex Zanardi, his Target-Ganassi teammate, had a sensational rookie season. Fans who went to Indy never saw them.
The next year, CART decided to abandon its head-on competition and inaugurated the Motorola 300 at Madison, Ill., which is in suburban St. Louis. The IRL went to its own specific race cars, with body designs by Dallara or G-Force, and non-turbocharged stockblock engines produced by only Oldsmobile(Aurora) or Nissan. The cars proved tail-heavy and had a dangerous tendency to swap ends and smack walls rear-first, and the new engine formula was met with a whole bunch of blown engines. Arie Luyendyk won that Indy 500, while, over in CART, Zanardi won the season points title and teammate Vasser was runner-up, but Indy fans still hadn’t ever seen them.
Last year, that format continued, and the gap between the two seemed to widen. Zanardi dominated CART’s season, while a dazzling array of new young stars, including Greg Moore, Dario Franchitti, Gil deFerran, Bryan Herta, Helio Castro-Neves, Patrick Carpentier, Tony Kanaan and more seriously invaded the stronghold of veterans such as Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr., Paul Tracy, Christian Fittipaldi, and Vasser.
Eddie Cheever won an exciting Indy 500, but the race had changed a lot. It was better, by far, in 1998 than it had been in 1997 or 1996, but it still wasn’t the ultimate race for the best drivers. Tony Stewart, the IRL’s top developed driver, left the IRL for NASCAR after last season, although he is coming back to race at the Indy 500, then dashing off to a private jet to race in the World 600 NASCAR event the same day, Sunday.
There are other impressive young drivers in IRL racing. Greg Ray, Kenny Brack, Billy Boat, plus former CART chargers Cheever, Roberto Guerrero, Raul Boesel and Luyendyk will lead the way at Indy.
Both the IRL and CART are consumed with safety nowadays. Last year, three CART fans were killed when a wheel popped off the crashing car of Adrian Fernandez at Michigan International Speedway and flew over the guardrail and into the stands. So CART raised the guardrail along the stands from 15 feet to 17 feet, curving out over the track as well to better contain such debris.
Track officials at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte looked over Michigan’s situation and checked its own fence, which is 15 feet high. Tragically, when Stan Wattles and John Paul Jr. crashed in Turn 4 in the IRL race on May 1, the tire and suspension flew off Wattles’ car, and witnesses said it glanced off the top of the guardrail and then into the stands, killing three fans and injuring eight more. Sad that Charlotte didn’t raise its fence from 15 to 17 feet because that might have been enough to catch the broken parts, but we’ll never know.
The result is that cars at the Indy 500 will have their wheels attached to the race cars by tethers, just like Formula 1 cars are, to prevent such flyaway parts.
It’s ironic that Tony George stated his reasons for splitting off into the IRL as desiring to put the Indy 500 back within reach of middle-American oval-track sprint-car types, keeping costs down, and trying to eliminate the domination by the exotic and costly cars and foreign road-racers. Yet, last year’s series champ was Kenny Brack, a road-racer from Sweden. And Tony George’s next move is renovating the Speedway to also include a road course, so Indy will be host to a U.S. Grand Prix Formula 1 race next year — the most expensive and exotic cars, ALL driven by foreign drivers.
But that’s in the future. This weekend, the two factions will go at it again. CART will run at Madison on Saturday, with Zanardi gone to Formula 1, and in his place a Colombian rookie named Juan Montoya, who has won three straight CART races in Chip Ganassi’s car that Zanardi would have been driving.
And the IRL will have a go at the Indy 500 again, with the promise of a faster, more competitive race than ever. Luyendyk, in his final race, is on the pole, with Greg Ray in John Menard’s team car in the middle and Billy Boat, A.J. Foyt’s driver, on the outside of the front row. Brack, Goodyear, Steve Knapp, Cheever, Lazier, Stewart and the rest are scattered throughout the rest of the 33-car field.
Maybe CART and the IRL will eventually get back together. Maybe not. For now, CART still has the better names and the swifter, more advanced race cars. But the IRL is improving, both in the level of driving and in equipment. Maybe there’s room for both.
DOUBLEHEADER SET
FOR PROCTOR RACES
All Proctor Speedway needs is a break from the weatherman, and the schedule for Memorial Day weekend should do the rest. Along with the usual Sunday night races, Proctor will run a special Monday night program as well, with a $24,000 expanded purse for the two dates.
On Sunday, starting at 6 p.m., Proctor will run Late Models, Super Stocks and Pure Stocks, and on Monday, also at 6 p.m., those same three classes will be augmented by Modified and Street Stocks in a race that will also be the first in a five-race joint venture with Superior Speedway.
That Monday race is the first of the Amsoil $11,000 series for all Wissota licensed Late Models, which will pay $5,000 to the winner of the five-race series. Other designated races in the series are Tuesday, June 15 at Superior; Wednesday, July 7 at Proctor; Thursday, Sept. 2 at Proctor; and Saturday, Sept. 11 at Superior.
Kallio comeback key to UMD softball success
One of the astounding things about girls or women’s fast-pitch softball is that those windmilling pitchers seem to be able to pitch all day, all through doubleheaders, and then come back and do it again the next day, with no appreciable harm to their arms.
Kari Kallio, UMD’s senior star pitcher, used to be evidence that the above theory was true. Then, a year ago, she became evidence that it isn’t true.
Thankfully, Kallio is supplying her own happy ending. More accurately, the senior from Menomenie, Wis., is hoping to put a happy ending on her college career and UMD’s season with a busy final week.
The Bulldogs faced a key Northern Sun conference doubleheader at Moorhead State Friday, then is scheduled to face North Central Conference powers Nebraska-Omaha, North Dakota State and North Dakota, all on Saturday in Fargo, at the North Dakota State Invitational tournament. On Sunday, UMD faces Minnesota State-Mankato and Moorhead State again. On the way home, UMD plays at Minnesota-Crookston on Monday, then returns home for a season-ending doubleheader against Minnesota-Morris at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
The Northern Sun conference tournament is next weekend at Aberdeen, and with success at Moorhead Friday and against Morris, the Bulldogs could go to the conference tournament as regular-season champion.
Kallio prepared for the final week by being named Northern Sun pitcher of the week, while teammate Jill Trachsel was named player of the week for getting 14 hits and batting .415 last week. Kallio was 6-0 with one save in seven games last week, striking out 24 hitters while yielding 1.3 runs per game. She has won eight straight games for a 14-4 season mark, with 83 strikeouts in 107 innings and a 1.96 earned-run average.
She did not pitch on Wednesday, when the Bulldogs suffered 6-1 and 5-0 losses to St. Cloud State on the UMD campus. Kallio watched the games, which was difficult. “It was actually boring for me to watch, because we didn’t score enough to win,” she said.
In her heart, Kallio would like to pitch ’em all. But in her head, she knows that’s not a good idea.
“From the time I was in sixth grade, I pretty much pitched all the time,” said Kallio. “In high school, we were pretty good at Menomenie. We had a senior pitcher when I was a freshman, so I only pitched part of the season and played shortstop or second base the other games. I pitched every game as a sophomore, junior and senior, and we won the conference every year. In high school, I had a fastball and a good rise.
“At UMD, I’ve worked with assistant coach Don Olson, who is from Superior and is a pitcher himself. I’ve learned to throw a curve and a drop and a changeup while I’ve been here.”
Not that she struggled to pitch as soon as she showed up on the campus atop the hill. As a freshman, she had a 13-4 record and broke the school strikeout record with 107, making first team all-region while leading the Bulldogs to a regional tournament berth.
The Bulldogs repeated as conference champs in her sophomore year, and she continued as the team’s dominant pitcher last year, although her record slipped to 12-9 with some nonconference struggles against North Central Conference powers.
But then it happened. Her arm started to give out.
“I suppose it was from overuse because I had pitched so much for 10 straight years,” Kallio said. “I had to have rotator-cuff surgery. As much as I have pitched over the years, I guess it was torn and frayed and causing an impingment.”
Surgeons arthroscopically cut out the frayed tendons and cartilage, and shaved some of the one away where the shoulder bone meets the humerus bone of the upper arm, allowing the two bones to slide again. That surgery was done at the start of June last summer, and Kallio was unable to use her right arm until September. When she could, she threw gently overhand and only tossed underhand. She admits that her own apprehension was her biggest obstacle to returning.
“I didn’t actually throw again until November, and then only after I got over the fear,” she said. “When I threw hard, I was surprised at how effortless it felt.”
In January, Kallio began pitching in the gym during UMD’s usual 2 1/2 month indoor training. Coach Bill Haller was reluctant to expect too much from Kallio or the team, but when he took the team to Florida March 20-27, they went 6-4 and Kallio was 5-1. Freshmen Korrin Ketchum and Jen Reinitz have shared the pitching duties, and gained valuable experience, but there is no question that Kallio is the ace of the staff, and she was relieved when her return went so smoothly in Florida.
“Everything was back in place,” she said. Everything except her all-out speed. But that’s made her a better pitcher. “I throw a rise, drop, curve and changeup now, and I’ve totally learned them since I’ve been here. In high school, I threw mostly just fastballs, but in college you NEVER throw just a straight fastball. The hitters are too good.”
As a senior majoring in physical education with a minor in coaching, Kallio would like to stay in Duluth, she said, and teach, preferably at the elementary level.
“I’m not much interested in going on to play more,” she said, noting that the opportunities for women’s fast-pitch players are scarce. “I’m figuring I’m pretty much done after this season. I’ve got one more year of college to go to complete my degree, and I love the Duluth area. I’d like to stay here and teach and coach. I’d even like to coach a 12-and-under team this summer, if it works out.”
Luyendyk leads the field into 83rd Indy 500
Indianapolis, Ind.—
The 83rd running of the Indianapolis 500 will be run Sunday and it may still lay claim to being the largest single-day sports event in the world, when 300,000 fans tumble through the entrances and take up stations around the 2.5-mile oval.
But instead of standing alone as the auto race of Memorial Day weekend, the Indy 500 finds itself intertwined with Saturday’s CART Motorola 300 in St. Louis, and Sunday night’s NASCAR’s Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte.
There are more than enough good story angles to the Indy 500. For one, Arie Luyendyk, who won the 500 both when it was for all-comers in 1990, as well as in 1997, the second of three Indy 500s since the Indy Racing League has effectively boycotted the rivals from CART, is racing only in this event this season, and then he’d retiring. For good measure, Luyendyk qualified No. 1 at 225.179 miles per hour and will start from the pole at 11 a.m. Sunday.
“We’re really happy with the car right now,” said Luyendyk, after running through Thursday’s final on-track runs on “carburetion day.”
This is the closest race in the 83 years of Indy, with only 3.253 mph separating Luyendyk from 33rd qualifier Raul Boesel’s 220.101 mph four-lap average. Steve Knapp, the transplanted Minnesotan now living in Wisconsin, had predicted that it would take 218 to make the field; instead, a 220.066 by Mike Groff was too slow to make it, and he was bumped from a slot last Sunday.
Knapp, who finished third last year, is a definite threat to win the race although his name is rarely mentioned. He has studiously avoided the spotlight, even though he was one of only two drivers whose qualifying lap speeds improved on all four of his laps (rookie John Hollansworth was the other). He paid tribute to Luyendyk as a mentor.
“I’ve watched and admired Arie since 1981, when he and my dad both raced in the Super Vee series,” said Knapp.”Arie was the only driver I could feel comfortable calling up and asking for advice. If he wasn’t there, he’d call me back. Whatever the question, he was always there with an answer for me. The sport won’t be the same without him, and it will lose a great friend and driver when he gets out for the final time.”
Eddie Cheever, last year’s winner, ran a 221.315, but it was only good for 16th — inside the sixth row to start. Buddy Lazier, who won the inaugural IRL-backed Indy race in 1996, is on the inside of the eighth row, meaning all three Indy winners under IRL sanction — Lazier, Luyendyk and Cheever — are in the inside row. Cheever also paid respects to Luyendyk’s last run.
“Arie has a nagtural talent for speed,” Cheever said. “With Arie, you look at him and he’s just smiling away…almost laughing at us all. He is very special. I will personally miss racing with and against him, greatly.”
Another facet to Cheever’s story is that he, like almost all the top runners, had been using the Oldsmobile Aurora race engine for the last two years, but after winning the opener of the IRL series this season, Cheever, who owns his own team, abruptly switched to the Nissan Infiniti engine. The Olds engines have won every IRL race since the 4.0-liter naturally-aspirated formula was instituted, but one of the reasons is that Olds opened its engine program up to various after-market specialists, while Nissan stubbornly insisted on keeping all its engine development in-house.
That means it took longer for Nissan to get its engines up to competitive speed, but if they have, they might prove to have an edge in staying power, which could leave Cheever in excellent position for those final laps. Rookie Jeret Schroeder (starting 21st) and Roberto Guerrero (25th on the grid) are the only other drivers using Infiniti engines in the 33-car field.
The two most successful race teams in IRL are Team Menard and A.J.Foyt’s gang, and both have two drivers up close and in challenging roles. Menard’s ace Greg Ray is the No. 2 qualifier and Robby Gordon is No. 4, putting Ray in the middle of the first row and Gordon on the inside of Row 2. Foyt’s unpredictable Billy Boat captured the outside of Row 1 after crashing three cars leading up to his 223.469 run, and Kenny Brack is in the middle of Row 3 in the other Foyt car.
In Thursday’s final on-track practice, Ray ran his own car 10 laps, running the day’s second-fastest lap of 40.573-seconds around the 2.5-mile oval, a speed of 221.822. Then he got in Gordon’s matching Team Menard’s racer and did 13 laps, clocking the third-quickest lap of the day at 40.579 seconds (221.790 mph). He did that because Gordon, his teammate, had to be in St. Louis for qualifying in the CART Motorola 300, where he and John Menard have an entry that will allow Gordon to take a shot at winning both races on successive days.
The only driver who practiced at a faster lap than Ray was Sam Schmidt, who starts on the inside of Row 3 in the matching team car to Luyendyk. Schmidt had a 40.457-second lap (222.458 mph), while Luyendyk was fourth with a 40.654-second trip around the track (221.380 mph). The reason those last-day practice times are significant is that all cars run full fuel loads, the way they’ll open in the race, so their lap speeds are closer to race-accurate than their slim and trim, all-out qualifying speeds.
While Schmidt had the best last-practice speed, and Brack, who starts next to him, is last year’s IRL season points champion, the best chance for a winner to come from Row 3 might be on the outside, where Scott Goodyear is stationed. Goodyear has been the victim of misfortune at Indy three times — going from a 33rd start to make a passing attempt on Al Unser Jr. at the finish line that was an Indy record 0.043-seconds from winning the checkered flag in 1992; being black-flagged for passing the slowing pace car while accelerating as the leader for a restart with 10 laps to go in 1995; and finishing second to teammate Luyendyk in the IRL’s 1997 event.
In case luck doesn’t seem to be a valid contributor, consider that Goodyear went out in Thursday’s last tests and ran hard — for a while. How does he feel about the start? “We broke a motor,” he said, “so we don’t know.”
Speaking of the unknown, the ongoing dispute with CART that prevents the two series from reuniting adds another dimension with Robby Gordon racing in both the CART race Saturday and Indy on Sunday. And Tony Stewart will race at Indy Sunday, then fly off to Charlotte to drive in the NASCAR race that night. Beyond that, the battle for fans persists.
As for talking about reconciliation with CART, a source close to Indy boss Tony George said there had been no talks last week with CART’s Andrew Craig, even while Craig was acknowledging such talks did occur. George then came back and said they did talk, but his tone was hardly conciliatory. “I think we’ve proven we don’t need CART to have a successful event,” George told the Indianapolis Star. “They’re obviously trying to shift some attention to themselves.”
Problem is, some fan-appeal also seems to have shifted. In the three years of IRL-sanctioned Indy 500s, the comparative unknown drivers and more restricted cars have shattered the mystique of Indy, and television ratings have dropped 35 percent, to a 5.5 rating last May. Meanwhile, since shifting to nightfall’s prime time, the Coca Cola 600’s rating was 5.0 last year.
That shows what NASCAR’s clever marketing has done, because it represents an improvement of 91 percent over six years, and means that this weekend, the NASCAR event could wind up with more viewers than Indy.
Pair of Minnesotans
among honored vets
A pair of Minnesota’s World War II heroes, Mike Colalillo of Duluth and Don Rudolph of Bovey, were among 100 past Congressional Medal of Honor winners who were brought in to Indianapolis for a special Memorial Day celebration, which includes the dedication of a new memorial and two days of special tributes, culminating with a ride around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in convertibles before Sunday’s 83rd Indy 500.
“We’re going to have a good time all weekend,” said Colalillo, who lives in Rice Lake Township, just north of Duluth. He praised the Indianapolis Power and Light Co., which organized the special weekend, but when asked what he did to earn the Medal of Honor, Colalillo smiled, then shrugged, and said: “I shot a few Germans, that’s all.”
Colalillo earned his medal in Germany, while Rudolph earned his in the Philippines. The two were honored Friday morning at ceremonies at the American Legion Mall that included a vintage aircraft flyover, the laying of wreaths at the memorial, stirring music by the U.S.Navy Band, and a final flyover by the Indiana Air National Guard’s F-16, executing the “Missing man” formation as the band concluded the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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