Indianapolis (27 NOV '10) - An exciting first round of qualifications at the fascinating 2.5 mile oval of Indianapolis just found its end. During the four hour session 37 of 45 signed up drivers made at least one attempt to qualify. John Paquin posted a new record with a four lap average speed of 228.660 mph or 39.360 seconds. Beside that the speedway already saw its first dramas when Tim Doyle struggled to improve his time and spun out on track which bumped him out of the top 33. 
 

Worse than expected the drama on the legendary bump-day took its way. After a usual session start the tension increased from run to run while the time was running up and the average speed of the important 33rd starting position went faster and faster. Several drivers, like Monica Clara Brand, first thought they were safely in with a high 39.8 but then had to note that they got bumped out and had to make another, faster run.
 
The only female driver did so and made his way back into the field. Other drivers were not that lucky and had to take their things together to get home already. Nico Brandt was one of the very unfortunate people today: the winner of the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama tried to improve his time (39.749) but ended up with a slower average of 39.908 after a wall contact in his fourth flying lap. The second and last attempt ended way early after a crash before completing only one timed lap - Brandt bumped himself out!
 
After that and several up and downs of the other drivers the real drama took its way in the last 20 minutes. While Matt Fisch was on the fourth lap of his second run of the day the race director made a timing mistake and called him back to the pits – too early. With an incomplete run Fisch suddenly was out of the race because of a mistake for that he wasn’t responsible for. The official reaction followed soon: Fisch was allowed to repeat his attempt but he had to at the end of the line for the already waiting cars. The effect of this situation was that Cary Bettenhausen who already was out of the race suddenly was back in but sat on the bubble in P33. The question was if Fisch will have the time to go on track before the two hours are over? With only three minutes to go Will Bell tried to make his second run of the day after the he crashed into the wall in his first run. Somehow it happened again, his car snapped around and crashed into the wall with only 30 seconds left on the clock. This was the moment of Matt Fisch. He was the last driver who was allowed to go on track before the time ran up – and he used it. With a new personal best Matt Fisch qualified himself back into grid and bumped Cary Bettenhausen out of the race.
 
Tomorrow there will be a mandatory 2 hours practice session with a following 100 laps race for all 33 drivers who are qualified for the race.
 

>>> Official iRacing session results <<<

Provisional Qualification Results (click for larger version)