Indy Qualifying and more
By A.J. Foyt
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Larry calls his mother after qualifying
for his third 500 as his father looks on. |
Indianapolis...I love this place but it can be one of the most
challenging tracks in the world. When things are going right it's easy.
Easy on the drivers, easy on the teams. But when things are going wrong,
it can really test your patience. And patience is not my strong
suit...just ask my drivers, Felipe Giaffone and my son Larry Foyt.
They qualified their ABC Supply Dallaras Saturday by posting their best
speeds of the month--over 221 mph-to land in 21st and 23rd respectively.
Felipe will start in row seven on the outside and Larry will start in
the middle of row eight.
The last couple of years at Indy have been frustrating but with Honda
coming on board as the sole engine supplier, horsepower hasn't been an
issue this year. So that problem's been solved but now we have another
one-getting the horsepower to the track.
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Post-qualifying analysis with (left to right) A.J. Foyt, team
manager Craig Baranouski, Felipe Giaffone and Bruce Ashmore. |
The handling of the car is a fine balance and a lot of it depends on
getting the car's suspension (shocks and springs) to work with the tires
to gain mechanical grip. Then you work with the car's aerodynamics
(wings and bodywork) to maximize downforce with the least amount of
drag. There are a thousand combinations of these variables but for the
most part, I've been able to find a competitive set-up.
As I said, we made some gains on the set-up by qualifying but we're
still short on speed.
There's been a lot of talk around the garage area about the new tires
that were brought to Indy this year. They're different in construction
and compound and some teams have found the key to making them work.
Qualifying speeds over 228 mph would seem to prove that. But then in
practice the next day, the pole sitter spun his car in race trim (that's
when the car has more downforce and more stability).
So I'm not so sure. What's going on here?
I don't know but I do know I'm not alone. More than a few teams are
scratching their heads. Having all the rain this month (the most since
'78) didn't help because we lost track time. Our situation was
compounded because we didn't do the Open Test at Indy-there just wasn't
enough time after Japan because unlike most of the teams, we're based in
Houston, not Indy. At the time, I didn't think it was that big a deal
because you have so much time to prepare for Indy once the track opens.
Hopefully next year the IRL officials will make some changes to the
schedule so we don't have that situation again.
This month, I have one of the top engineers working with me--Bruce
Ashmore. He was the chief design engineer of the Lola chassis in its
heyday in the 90's. He then went on to work his magic on the Reynard
chassis which replaced the Lola as the dominant chassis in CART. His
Indy car experience has been more in the research and development end
and he's new to the Dallara but he understands all the variables
involved.
Bruce has been a good addition to our ABC Supply team this month...he
concentrates on Felipe while I work with Larry. Bruce probably wishes he
came back to Indy in a different year because so far this experience has
him puzzled too.
Going over the notes from the few days of practice we've had, we'll be
making more changes to the ABC Supply Dallaras as we prepare for
Carburetion Day on Friday. We don't have a lot of practice laps for the
Honda race motors which doesn't bother me because I don't like to run
too much on Carb Day-it's an opportunity for disaster. But it puts the
pressure on to make the right decisions on the set-up.
We'll know more after Carb Day...until then we'll be working very hard to
figure out all the variables. I'd like race day to be one of the easy
days unlike the challenging ones we've had so far this month.
Be sure to tune in to the race next Sunday, May 28th. It will be
broadcast live on ABC-TV starting at noon with the pre-race show,
followed by the race at 1 p.m. |
