On The Road, Again With The T-Team Ten

Infineon - Sear's Point Raceway, Sonoma, California - Image Credit: IndyCar.com


On The Road, Again With The T-Team Ten

At the twists and turns … the ups and downs … the straights and switchbacks of the vaunted Sear’s Point raceway, the final runs of the season take shape and soon, the transition season will be completed.

In the qualifying session of the 15th race in an 18 race season and the sixth of eight street/road courses, the class of the teams new to the old Dallaras and the preponderance of “Left-Turn” racing seems to be KV Racing Technology.

One of the biggest improvements in the T-Team growth and positioning can be found at Pacific Coast Motorsports and driver, Mario Dominguez. After transitioning to the IRL late in the game (soon after Mario drove to a third place podium finish at the final official CCWS race at the Long Beach Grand Prix) and failed to make the grid after getting bumped from the 33 car field at the INDY 500, PCM and Mario have been making steady improvements all along the trail to Infineon Raceway.

Mario Dominguez’s Dallara with the new one race sponsor, Moorefield Construction, Inc., on the sidepod. Image Credit: Ron McQueeney

This excerpted from a Pacific Coast Motorsports press notice –

Dominguez Breaks Into the Second Round of Qualifying with Top IndyCar Start
Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Grand Prix of Sonoma
Saturday, August 23, 2008

MARIO DOMINGUEZ, #96 Moorefield Construction/PCM/Honda/Dallara/Firestone

Session - Position Time Speed
Practice 3 - 16th 1:18.4632 105.665

Qualifying - 11th 1:18.3235 105.853

Mario on Qualifying: “I am very happy to have made the top 11 today. It is our best result in IndyCar and to make the second group was great. This result just shows what a hard-working team we all are. We didn’t have the budget to test here with the rest of the field last week, so this result is even sweeter because of that. We always put our best effort forward, and this time it paid off. I think tomorrow should be a good race and we will be shooting for a top-ten result in the Moorefield Construction car at the team’s home race here in California
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Tyler Tadevic, Team Owner: “Hoorah! One of our goals this weekend, definitely, was to be part of the fast six from our group and we achieved that! We kicked the season off with a podium in Long Beach which was terrific, but it has been a really tough season. Today was sort of a moral victory for the team making the Firestone Fast 12. I think our performance all year has been a great example of the heart and soul this team has. Mario and the boys are showing it is possible to do a lot with a little.”

Further, PCM picked up a new sponsor for this race – This also excerpted from a Pacific Coast Motorsports press notice –

* Noteworthy: Pacific Coast Motorsports is proud to welcome Moorefield Construction to the team for the Grand Prix of Sonoma. Based in San Jose and Los Angeles , the Moorefield Construction logo will be featured on Mario Dominguez’s #96 IndyCar throughout the Grand Prix of Sonoma.

This excerpted from autosport.com/news –

Castroneves leads Penske front row
By Jeff Olson Sunday, August 24th 2008, 00:00 GMT

With the help of a backup car and the immense effort of teammates, Helio Castroneves won pole position for Sunday's IndyCar race at Sear's Point.

A Penske transporter caught fire on Wednesday on the way to the circuit, destroying Castroneves' primary road-course car, along with teammate Ryan Briscoe's.

Briscoe will start alongside Castroneves as both Penske drivers put their back-up cars on the front row.
----
Saturday's qualifying session also was impressive for KV Racing, who put both drivers in the fast six final qualifying session. Will Power will start third with Oriol Servia sixth.

"As a team, we're just trying to mingle with the big guys," Servia said. "We're showing we have the speed and we're catching up. Every race we're getting closer. To lead the transitional teams, we just want to take another step forward."

Pos Driver Team Time Speed
3. Will Power KV Racing 1:17.0875 107.551
6. Oriol Servia KV Racing 1:17.8377 106.514
7. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:17.0056 107.665
11. Mario Dominguez Pacific Coast 1:17.4614 107.031
12. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:17.5882 106.856
13. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:17.8306 106.524
14. EJ Viso HVM Racing 1:17.4189 107.090
15. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:17.9012 106.427
26. Jaime Camara Conquest Racing 1:19.4711 104.325
27. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest Racing no time no speed
Reference Here>>

Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe of Team Penske lead the field off of the last turn before the Green Flag to start the PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County! Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (EDJE) 2008 - digital photo from television broadcast

The PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County!
Fair and 79 F (26 C) - Winds Southwest at 10 mph - Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:54:00 -0700 PDT - Forecast: Sunny, with a high near 85

LAP 1
Great start of the race, Servia gets pinched and looses a spot back to seventh. Junqueira gets passed into the dirt on the Esses by Weldon.

LAP 4
Paddle shifters increase shifts per lap at Sonoma from 37 shifts to 42 due to the ease of shift transition. Will Power is sponsored by the same sponsor as he had in Long Beach earlier this year – Smart & Final wholesale market stores.

LAP 7
Best race on the track at this time is between Oriol Servia and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

LAP 9
Pits open up on LAP 10 and some teams may come in early to get off sequence.

LAP 10
Vitor Meira comes in.

LAP 11
Dominguez, Weldon and Mutoh come in early.

LAP 13
Team Penske has opened up a 1.5 second lead on the rest of the field in their back-up cars.

LAP 15
Marty Roth off course in turn seven and this brings out a full-course caution

LAP 16
Most teams use caution to come into the pits. Split strategy by Team Penske with leader Castroneves coming in. Briscoe, Tony Kanaan, and Danica Patrick stay out.

LAP 19
Green, Green, Green! Race restarts. Rahal, Moraes, Carpenter, Camara, and Viso round out the list of those who have not yet pitted. Dominguez works his way up to the top 10.

LAP 21
Mario Dominguez passes Jamie Camara for ninth.

LAP 27
Danica Patrick takes to the pits for the first time along with Graham Rahal, and Ed Carpenter to get upon their sequence.

LAP 28
Ryan Briscoe pits and comes back into the field ahead of Scott Dixon in ninth. This move will help Castroneves in his points race against Dixon.

LAP 30
Still staying out and running up front are EJ Viso, Dan Weldon and Mario Dominguez running at the head of the field in 1-2-3!

LAP 34
Meira pits from fourth position, he is on the same strategy as the leaders.

LAP 35
Dominguez and Weldon pit … Weldon passes Dominguez at the pit stop by having a quicker stop.

LAP 37
Castroneves assumes the lead followed by teammate Briscoe, Dixon Wilson, Power, and Servia round out the top six.

LAP 39
Will Power takes to the pits to change up his fuel strategy.

LAP 42
Helio Castroneves is running about 15 seconds ahead of the field at this slightly over halfway point of the 80 lap race.

LAP 44
Penske’s Castroneves comes into the pits at 16.5 seconds ahead of his teammate. He comes out in 4th. Dixon, Wilson and Andretti come into the pits and comes out in 16th

LAP 47
Briscoe, Kanaan, Castroneves, Patrick, and Weldon round out the top five. Servia pits from third allowing to Helio to move up.

LAP 50
A great dice happens between 2nd position Tony Kanaan of Andretti Green Racing (who has just signed a five year extension on his AGR contract at age 38), and Helio Castroneves in 3rd.

LAP 53
The dice continues between Tony and Helio as Briscoe comes into the pits – Tony leads the race while Helio begins to back off knowing that Tony needs to pit.

LAP 55
Teammates Kanaan and Patrick pit.

LAP 56
Top ten are Castroneves, Weldon, Viso, Meira, Briscoe, Dominguez, Kanaan, Power, Dixon, and Wilson. Of these cars, only Briscoe is in the best position to make to the end on fuel if the race remains in a Green Flag condition.

LAP 58
Castroneves pits and comes back out in 2nd ahead of Briscoe. Dixon pits and comes back out in 14th.

LAP 60
Viso pits from first position for his final pitstop and re-enters 6th handing positions 1 & 2 to Penske teammates Castroneves and Briscoe setting up a possible “Hollywood Ending”!

Last Wednesday, Penske racing losses a transporter to a fire and it burns up both of the primary cars for this race and the back-up cars are leading the race.

LAP 63
If this race ends with the cars holding station … Dixon who leads the points race over Castroneves by 78 points would be cut to 41 points. The IndyCar Series Championship for the 2008 season does not appear to be over just yet!

LAP 66
Helio Castroneves will collect 3 points for leading the most laps at this point in the race.

LAP 69
Eleven laps to go and Buddy Rice, who started 22nd, is now running 10th. If this holds, it will be the biggest move by any driver in the race.

It is not expected that Junqueira will have to come in for fuel. This will allow Dixon to move up to 13th.

LAP 70
Dominguez spins and looses positions from 12th to 17th. Junqueira pits and comes back out 18th.

LAP 75
Dixon passes Mutoh for 12th and fixes his sights on Buddy Rice.

LAP 78
Three laps to go and the 11th place of Buddy Rice is being tightly contested by Scott Dixon and every point matters.

LAP 79
Will Power slides into a braking area and pulls to a stop after hitting the tires.

LAP 80
White Flag and Team Penske is leading the race. Dixon finishes in 12th. This means that he looses 35 points to maintain a 43 point margin in the Championship points race.

19:48:44 GMT-0400 Helio Castroneves wins the PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County! This is his first win of the season. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (EDJE) 2008 - digital photo from television broadcast

T-Team Ten Finishes As Follows:

Viso – 6
Rahal – 8
Wilson – 9
Moraes – 10
Servia – 16
Dominguez – 17
Junqueira – 18
Bernoldi - 22
Power – 24
Camara – 25

The highest driver the T-Team Ten has placed 15 races in this Merge season is Oriol Servia at ninth in the points 263 points behind the leader. Do not look for any T-Team driver to overtake Hideki Mutoh of Andretti Green Racing for Rookie-Of-The-Year.

Next race is a venue known by the CCWS teams and that id the Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle, Michigan.

… notes from The EDJE

Former ChampCar Driver Wins First IRL Race At Watkins Glen

“AN AMERICAN KID WINS, IN AN ETHANOL CAR RUNNING ON ETHANOL, DRIVING FOR AN AMERICAN RACING LEGEND: BOBBY RAHAL, WITH AN AMERICAN CLOTHING BRAND: IZOD, ON FORTH OF JULY WEEKEND IN NEW YORK ... DOESN'T GET ANY MORE "AMERICAN!" … than that. Caption Credit: Modified from quote given by Ryan Hunter-Reay after his well driven win. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

Former ChampCar Driver Wins First IRL Race At Watkins Glen

No, it is not what one would think given a headline posted here at The EDJE. We have had a focus in our posts on the teams and drivers that have merged and transitioned into the Indy Racing League and the IndyCar Series from the ChampCar World Series season for 2008.

What with Justin Wilson of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing qualifying so high on the grid at position #2 (just being bumped from the pole in the last minute by Penske’s Ryan Briscoe) for the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen, and good a showing from KV Racing Technology’s Oriol Servia at position #5, one would think the headline would relate to them but, no … after competing for IRL established team Rahal Letterman Racing for the last part of 2007, and all of 2008, Ryan Hunter-Reay notches his first win.

As for the T-Team Ten (the transition teams and drivers from the CCWS) they managed to capture four of the top ten finishing positions. The big surprise came from teammates for the Dale Coyne Racing organization, with Bruno Junqueira and Mario Moraes notching in at positions #6 and #7 respectively (Graham Rahal of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing #8 and EJ Viso of HVM Racing #10 round out the places).

Bruno Junqueira - Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

This excerpted and edited from IndyCar.com –

Newly-minted Coyne
By Dave Lewandowski - indycar.com

Junqueira, driving the No. 18 Z-Line Designs entry advanced five positions to finish an IndyCar Series career-high sixth in the 60-lap race on the 3.37-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International circuit.

The veteran open-wheel racing team owner and former driver [Dale Coyne] also put a headlock on series rookie Mario Moraes, who jumped six positions to finish a career-high seventh in the No. 19 Sonny's Bar-B-Q car.

Both cars in the top 10 - two weeks after Junqueira's car couldn't answer the bell to start the race at Iowa Speedway because of a practice crash and eight days after both cars were eliminated from the race at Richmond International Raceway because of contact?

"Being in the top six is better than being in the wall," Coyne laughed. "It's a compliment to all the guys on the team because we had four crashes in six days (at Iowa and Richmond) and to get all the cars ready and be here and be competitive."
----
Junqueira ran as high as third on Lap 38.
----
"The No. 18 Z-Line Designs car was great all weekend long. The team did a fantastic job. I love this track as it is a great course to drive on. I can't wait to go to Mid-Ohio in two weeks." [said Junqueira]

Mario Moraes - Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

Moraes started a season-high 13th and overtook the No. 27 car of Hideki Mutoh on Lap 55 to score the seventh place.

"On the first lap of the race I was able to overtake six cars and jump to seventh," he said. "We ran up in the top five at times, but we lost a couple spots during a pit stop, which I think kept us from a higher finish. The car was fast all weekend and the team deserves credit for that. Hopefully we can get more top-10 finishes." [said Moraes].
Reference Here>>

Winners Podium: 1-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2-Darren Manning, 3-Tony Kanaan. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

This excerpted and edited from Speed Channel -

Hunter-Reay Triumphs at The Glen
Written by: Jeff Olson - Senior writer, RACER Magazine 07/06/2008 - 06:03 PM

Ryan Hunter-Reay took advantage of a rare mistake by Scott Dixon to score his first IndyCar Series victory.

Dixon was in second place and poised to win at Watkins Glen International for a fourth consecutive time when he spun under caution, collecting third-place Ryan Briscoe and putting Hunter-Reay and the No. 17 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Dallara in position to win.

Hunter-Reay, who narrowly missed the wreckage from Dixon’s spin, passed leader Darren Manning on the restart with nine laps remaining and went on to score Rahal Letterman Racing’s first win since Buddy Rice won at Michigan in 2004.

“For something to finally go our way is great,” Hunter-Reay said. “It didn’t land in our lap; we had to go out there and earn it. Then we just checked out at the end, which was the best. We put an exclamation on the end of that one. It was a beautiful deal.”
----
Hunter-Reay said he couldn’t see anything, just chose a spot and made it work.

“It was like a scene out of Days of Thunder,” Hunter-Reay said. “I couldn’t see where they were or where the opening was. I couldn’t see any cars, just a dirt cloud. I picked left, and luckily it was open. I got through there, and then I immediately thought, ‘This is the point where I get paid back for all the bad luck.’”
----
“This is vindication,” team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. “Some guys who have driven for us in the past said this team doesn’t have the will to win. It’s all about having the right driver.”

Manning held off Tony Kanaan for second place, scoring the best finish since he joined A.J. Foyt’s team two years ago.

“We’re a small team,” Manning said. “My only teammate is A.J., and he’s a tough taskmaster. He sets a high standard. It’s extremely difficult by ourselves, but with the resources we have, we’re doing pretty well. We validated ourselves with this drive.”
----
The results benefited Kanaan most, moving him to within 66 points of Dixon in the standings after 10 of 17 races. The other two drivers in the championship battle, Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon, also encountered trouble, with Castroneves falling behind early because of an electrical problem and finishing 16th, and Wheldon getting clipped by Manning on the first lap and breaking his rear suspension for a 24th-place finish.

The race began cleanly but ended otherwise. Aside from Wheldon’s opening-lap problem and Castroneves’ issues with his paddle shift on the sixth lap, the first 40 laps were uneventful, with Briscoe and Vitor Meira exchanging the lead. On the 40th lap, though, Meira was run off course by E.J. Viso, sending the No. 4 Panther Racing Honda/Dallara into the tires and leaving Meira fuming.

“The IRL should do something about it,” Meira said. “He just took us out. He’s a guy who’s had a problem with every driver out there. It’s a shame.”
----
During [a] round of stops, Manning chose to stay on track and assume the lead, having pitted just four laps before. The decision, coupled with a rash of caution flags over the final 18 laps, proved to be a wise one.

“I was quick enough to hold my own,” Manning said. “It’s just a testament to the team.”
----
On the next restart on the 51st lap, Hunter-Reay passed Manning heading into Turn 1. Moments later, Jaime Camara crashed, bringing out the sixth caution flag of the race.

On the restart, Hunter-Reay pulled away to a large lead and held it to the checkered flag for his first IndyCar Series and a triumphant reprieve to a promising career that, at this time last year, appeared to have stalled in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
----
Rice also scored a solid finish, bringing the No. 15 Dreyer & Reinbold Honda/Dallara home fourth for his best finish of the year.

“The last two races we've had stuff falling off the car and I've screwed up,” Rice said. “We‘re just trying to wipe that stuff out, get back in the points and have a solid finish to the season.”

Marco Andretti finished fifth, Bruno Junqueira sixth and Mario Moraes seventh. Graham Rahal, Hideki Mutoh and E.J. Viso rounded out the top 10.

The IndyCar Series season resumes Saturday night at Nashville Superspeedway.
Reference Here>>

Mario Dominguez moves from an IRL best ninteenth starting position to finish at an IRL best position #13 in his third IRL start. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

The final T-Team Ten Tally:

POS DRIVER NO DIFF BEST TIME BEST SPEED LAPS C/E/T STATUS

6 Bruno Junqueira 18 5.8084 01:32.1 131.661 60 D/H/F Finished

7 Mario Moraes 19 8.6248 01:32.9 130.586 60 D/H/F Finished

8 Graham Rahal 6 9.4563 01:32.6 130.962 60 D/H/F Finished

10 EJ Viso 33 10.8602 01:32.4 131.235 60 D/H/F Finished

13 Mario Dominguez 96 12.7773 01:33.1 130.258 60 D/H/F Finished

15 Will Power 8 1 lap 01:31.8 132.145 59 D/H/F Finished

18 Jaime Camara 34 9 laps 01:34.7 128.151 51 D/H/F Contact

21 Enrique Bernoldi 36 16 laps 01:34.0 129.044 44 D/H/F Contact

23 Oriol Servia 5 24.7973 01:32.0 131.824 38 D/H/F Mechanical

25 Justin Wilson 2 44 laps 01:32.1 131.758 16 D/H/F Mechanical

... notes from The EDJE

The Trials Of The Indy T-Team Ten

Mario Dominguez and the Pacific Coast Motorsports crew during qualifications at Indy. Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

The Trials Of The Indy T-Team Ten

To say the least, watching the developments of the drivers and teams that were able to transition (T-Team) to the Indy Racing League (IRL) and compete for the championship of the IndyCar Sreies (ICS) has been an exercise in hope spiced with a healthy dose of frustration.

To the fan who favored the former ChampCar Series and its history legacy to CART and the spirit of competition this form of racing and equipment provided through the years, the process has had its moments.

When the announcement for the merger was first announced back on February 21, 2008, the obvious hope for fans and teams alike was that all of the teams and drivers would just port over and plug-in to the IndyCar Series and all racing life would go on for the duration of the 2008 season. As the reality set in after about thirty days, ChampCar was lucky to end up with as many drivers and teams that have now ended up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to compete in the world’s largest staged racing spectacle.

Before the merge announcement of unification of ChampCar and IndyCar, the ChampCar Series was about to field 12 teams supporting the talents of 20 drivers in an 18 race event season. What remains going into the fourth race of the season, the Indianapolis 500 set to be held on May 25, 2008, are 6 teams supporting the talents of 10 drivers with one team and driver making this race its first of the 2008 ICS season (Pacific Coast Motorsports and Mario Dominguez).


The Indy T-Team Ten


Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing (NHL)
Graham Rahal – No Sponsor (Charity, Hole-In-The-Wall-Camps)





Justin Wilson – McDonald’s







KV Racing Technology (KVRT)
Will Power – Aussie Vineyards





Oriol Servia – Plantronics







Dale Coyne Racing (DCR)
Bruno Junqueira – Z-Line





Mario Moraes – Sonny’s BBQ







Conquest Racing (CR)
Enrique Bernoldi – No Sponsor





Jaime Camara – No Sponsor







HVM - former Minardi USA (HVM)
EJ Viso – PDVSA (Citgo Distribution)







Pacific Coast Motorsports (PCM)
Mario Dominguez – Visit Mexico City





(spotter's guide images credit: indycar.com)

Leading up to the month of May has been a series of set backs and break throughs. Set backs included a slow transition of teams announcing their participation, a parts shortage on the aerodynamics packages for the Dallara chassis delivered to the T-Teams as reported by Graham Rahal and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team during the run-up to the first race of the season at Homestead. Writer Robin Miller later confirmed that this parts shortage would effect the T-Teams only.

Many experts predicted that the T-Teams and drivers will be at such a disadvantage this 2008 season that no team or driver could expect to win (let alone place, or show) a race until about the sixth to tenth race of the season at the earliest. On the second race of the season, the very same Graham Rahal who could not field a car due to the availability of parts at Homestead, came back and won the race through the streets of Saint Petersburg. The race was hampered by rain, but this did not dampen the spirits of the ChampCar loyal having a breakthrough this soon into the season.

The third round featured the last time the ChampCar teams would be racing exclusively together at Long Beach. Due to scheduling and the quickness of the merger agreement, the IndyCar established teams would race at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (Honda’s, the IndyCar Series engine supplier, home track) while the ChampCar teams raced in their equipment, the Panoz DP01, for IndyCar points. Highlights include being able to see Paul Tracy, Jimmy Vasser, Alex Figge, Frank Montagny, Roberto Moreno, Nelson Philippe, and Alex Tagliani (to mention a few drivers) turn laps in an American Open Wheel racing environment for the last time in the 2008 season.

Winners included, the LBGP fans, Will Power (1st Place), Frank Montagny (one and only ChampCar race and placed 2nd), Mario Dominguez (3rd Place) … and probably the biggest winner of all, Pacific Coast Motorsports. The only professional open wheel racing team located on the West coast was able to take a third place win by Mario Dominguez and put together a two year sponsorship deal with the “Visit Mexico City” tourism bureau and show up at Indianapolis for the month of May. Further, Mario was able to keep the points he earned with his third place finish at Long Beach and apply them to the rest of the ICS season.

The two weeks leading up to qualifications at Indy also has its moments for the T-Team Ten.

The fastest lap times from this group were fairly competitive, however, these are only one-lap lap times and qualifying requires four consecutive laps. Justin Wilson (224.123), Graham Rahal (224.033), Will Power (223.550), Oriol Servia (223.440), EJ Viso (222.643), Bruno Junqueira (222.390), Mario Moraes (221.475), Enrique Bernoldi (220.645). Graham Rahal brushed the wall a couple of times while drifting up out of the corners, Viso and Power had crashes but all three were able to repair and field their cars in the show.

Mario Dominguez and the Pacific Coast Motorsports team were assigned the garage spaces between 14-time Indy 500 race winner Penske Racing and Ganassi Racing, which owns the top two spots on the grid after the opening qualifying session last weekend. Team owner, Tyler Tadevic’s reaction to this fortunate garage draw, "We're the meat in an ‘oh-(expletive)’ sandwich."

Mario has suffered from a lack of speed and two crashes into a wall. The first crash came earlier in the week as he was exiting the pits … cold tires spun his car out and he hit the inside wall at low speed.

Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

The second crash happened just before the qualifying session today in warm-up practice. Since Pacific Coast Motorsports does not have a back-up car, a position most of the T-Teams are in being first time players in this series, they are hoping to be able to put the chassis back together and get it into the show. With only one spot open at the writing of this sentence and the team reporting that they have all of the parts they need, hope springs eternal.

Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

At ten minutes after Two in the afternoon L.A. time, the following T-Team drivers are in the show with 32 of the 33 positions filled:

POS. Driver (Speed), Team, Sponsor
13 Graham Rahal (222.531), NHL, No Sponsor
15 Bruno Junqueira (222.330), DCR, Z-Line
16 Justin Wilson (222.267), NHL, Mc Donald’s
23 Will Power (221.136), KVRT, Aussie Vineyards
25 Oriol Servia (220.767), KVRT, Plantronics
26 EJ Viso (220.356), HVM, PDVSA
28 Mario Moraes (219.716), DCR, Sonny’s BBQ
29 Enrique Bernoldi (219.422), CR, No Sponsor
30 Jaime Camara (219.345), CR, No Sponsor

Marty Roth, who's best finish at Indy was 26th and best start, 29th, lines up with his Black, un-sponsored car, at just a couple of minutes left in the session, and goes out and puts together four laps at 215.506 as the slowest car in the closed 33 car field. The weather is forecast to be spotty with rain and drizzle. If the weather bypasses the track, "Bump Day" will be just that for tomorrow, Sunday.

The drivers left wanting to make it into the field include Mario Dominguez and PCM ... still insisting that the car will be put back together and if the weather holds off, they can make it into the show. The fastest speed Mario Dominguez was able to achieve in practice - 220.597. Mario said in an interview in the PCM garage that the Angel that is part of the logo of his "Visit Mexico City" sponsored car is the Angel of Independence, and that this Angel will get them back out on the track and qualify for the 92nd Indy 500.

Columna de la Independencia" in Reforma financial district. Image Credit: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mario will have to duke it out with AJ Foyt IV (220.972), Tony George's Vision Racing, Eli Lily, and "Mad" Max Papis (221.358), Rubicon Racing, LifeLock. Max Papis crashed earlier today and was able to make a deal with Dreyer Reinbold Racing for Milka Duno’s 2007 car but the car needed to have modifications to the tub in order to have the car make it through technical inspection tomorrow … Team owner and Indy legend, Sam Schmidt has dubbed the car “Frankenstein”.

Dominguez is so popular in his homeland that Mexico City is installing more than 90 Jumbotron television screens at sporting venues and parks around the city just for the race.

Image Credit: Andy Sallee (2008)

"This is not just a project of this team any more," Dominguez said. "This is the project of a country."

A final report has a potential of Jaques Lazier making a deal to field another teams back-up car ... it is said that anything can happen at Indy, and it usually does. No pressure.

Until tomorrow ...

... notes from The EDJE