Indianapolis (05 DEC '10) - In a dramatic finish Shaun Stroud takes the win after 500 miles in front of an extremely fast John Paquin! Despite a last lap attack Paquin wasn’t able with his light damaged front wing to get by the Englishman Stroud. In the end both drivers where only separated by 0.085 sec. after 500 miles respectively 2 hours and 42 minutes. Also the other 31 drivers offered a very entertaining race with some very nice side-by-side attacks and even car contacts in the pits.
 

Once the drivers qualified themselves into the top 33 one week before in the two qualification sessions on Friday (“Fast-Friday”) at Saturday (“Bump-Day”) they had qualify again on race day shorty before the big 500. This qualification was just about single lap speed in order to get the prestigious pole position at Indy. Almost as expected John Paquin, who also lives in Indianapolis, drove the fastest qualification lap with a time of 39.386 sec. or speed of 228.490 mph. But behind many cars were separated from each other by only few thousands of a second: Danish man Yang Ou got the second position with +0.034 sec. and Marty Sponsler was just six thousands behind with +0.040 seconds. Further back six drivers were within 0.016 seconds: Niles Anders (P8), Tim Doyle (P9), Dan Lee Ensch (P10), Fabrizio Volpe (P11), Tim Claessens (P12) and Sean Graham (P13). And to top even that Aleksi Elomaa (P17) and Vincent Sciuto (P18) were separated by only one thousand of a second. Or you could say 4 inches (10 cm)! However, in the end it’s still just the position where you start the race and the 500 is a very long race. And many things can happen during that time. For example two drivers had problems with their rearview mirrors in the past years and to come in to get it fixed. Of course their race was done in that moment…

After the drivers climbed into their cockpit they took position in the special Indianapolis starting grid. Since 1934 the race always started with a maximum of 33 cars lined up to 11 rows and 3 abreast. The very special feeling get the drivers who have to start in the middle of their row. At the end of the second parade lap the field raises the speed to 125 mph in order to open the doors for a 500 mile adrenalin rush when the field takes the green flag on the next lap. With that many cars so close together one would expect that there has to be a crash in the first two turns. However, they all managed it without contact and drew beautiful picture when they rushed by the Pagoda Tower. Henrik Müller, who started in P20 which was the middle of row 7, described his experience like that: “I was really excited when I was in the middle of my row on the start. That feeling was awesome. I thought I will crash the next second and with me the whole field behind. That was.... wow!”

In the following laps it was a steady up and down in the field. Aleksi Elomaa (P17) dropped back several spots while drivers like Cary Bettenhausen (P23) or Indy 500 champion Sean Graham (P13) worked their way up to the front. John Paquin defended his lead very well in the early laps and was also able to overtake Yang Ou back who scored one lead lap until that time. The first yellow in lap 25 was very welcome by all not involved drivers in order to take fresh tires and 22 gallons ethanol. Brian Stevens who started in P28 got a big push coming into turn one and had a hard crash into the wall in the south short-chute. Luckily nobody else was involved. Just some laps earlier Ken McCoy not only white-walled his tires also in the same spot and had to retire but he was able to bring the car back without a caution. Both drivers had not to remain the only ones who had their moments in the south short-chute – some drivers should follow later in the race.
 
While the whole field was pitting Fabrizio Volpe and Todd Bettenhausen came together and ensured for an entertaining incident. Volpe who was behind Bettenhausen tapped him from behind when Bettenhausen just was about to miss his pit stall, slowed down and pulled into his pit stall. Although the pit speed limit is just 55 mph it was enough to spin Bettenhausens car for 180 degrees and to damage both cars seriously enough so that both had to be pulled behind the wall for the rest of the race. Up in front the pit crew of Marty Sponsler did a great job and pushed him into the lead with a fast service while Paquin dropped to second.
 
In lap 50 it was Vincent Sciuto who made contact with the wall – also in the south short-chute (you see, this is the place to be to attend a race). Again the same game: everybody came in and made a pit stop but this time without the action of spinning cars in the pits or a change in the lead. Shortly after the race was restarted Rhawn Black drove the fastest lap of the race with the help of a big slipstream from Marty Sponsler and John Paquin who drove ahead and the as well as a push from Shaun Stroud and Yang Ou from behind. 39.208 sec. was the time of the day and also a new iamINDY.de record. Interesting to note is the fact that the fuel load must have been still very much since the last stop was just five laps before. Meanwhile Jacob Kneuven was fighting his way through the field after he dropped from P11 to P30 in the first round of pit stops because of speeding on the pit exit with 76 mph (!) – 21 mph too fast. The result was the penalty to go the end of the field. After the previous cautions and his overtaking of Andrew Aitken and Henrik Müller he was back into P13 when he went below Monica Clara Brand heading into Turn 1. In the middle of the corner Kneuvens rear became light and the car stepped out. With fast reactions and a good portion of luck all following drivers avoided the spinning car ahead of them. Partly be just some inches or maybe even less. The result was of course a caution in order to clear the track again. Brand used this opportunity to score a lead lap when the lead group went closed for a service. Victim of his speed limiter became Rhawn Black when he got a penalty for speeding and also dropped to the end of the field just like Kneuven did in the beginning of the race.

The race now became a bit difficult because of the accumulation of those yellows which interrupt the drivers rhythm and make is tough for the strategists to make the right decisions for the rest of the race. So it happened that only eight laps later the next yellow came out. Rhawn Black who was on the way through the field because of his earlier penalty was in the fight for position with Monica Clara Brand when both went side by side into Turn 1. You probably feel a Déjà vu? Not exactly then this time not the car who wants to get by Brand gets into trouble but the Lady itself does: as Black went by on the inside his car became understeering and he pushed up the track but unfortunately Brand was still on the high side and Black touched Brand on the right front. In the end Brand had no chance to avoid the contact with the wall… However, Rhawn Black was able to continue. Only one lap before on the same place another driver had to retire: the three time Indy 500 winner Henrik Müller had a great point of view from his cockpit when Tim Doyle and Ralph Krause were battling for P8. As Müller said after the race caused by a driving error he white-walled his tires on the exit of Turn 1 and damaged both right side suspensions seriously. Müller was followed shortly afterwards by Tim Claessens also on the place. The track workers certainly needed a big can of white paint after the race after so many cars touched or crashed into the wall in the south short-chute. But at that point there were still 24 cars in the race!

The last caution for a long time “finally” took his place on the 95th lap when Ralph Krause went loose, lost his rear and collected also Aleksi Elomaa who followed close behind. Luckily the race went green for a while from this point. John Paquin who grabbed the lead back some cautions earlier now pulled away from the field together with Shaun Stroud, Marty Sponsler and Yang Ou. The lead changed some times between all drivers of the group which helped to save fuel and extended the distance for all. In lap 132 Paquin opened the first round of green flap pit stops while the rest of the field followed soon. Pitting under green is always very exciting because it puts all the pressure on the pit crew and the driver. When the drivers pull off the track the car always gets very light and is about to spin in the next second. But all drivers of the remaining field solved this challenged without an incident. The lap 151 again saw a car blacken the white paint in the south short-chute. This time it was the reigning iamINDY.de champion Tim Doyle who not only painted it but also damaged his suspension. In result the team had to pull the car back to the Gasoline Alley and Doyle to retire.

With the last yellow of the race the big drama began in lap 168. While some of the cars already made their final pit stop under green and dropped at least one lap down, like John Paquin or Marty Sponsler did, some of the cars still had to pit. One of them was Cary Bettenhausen. As he peeled of the track in Turn 4 in order to solve his last stop he lost his car and spun. Luckily he didn’t crash anybody else but the trouble around him made Chis Darkes and Yang Ou to victims. In the same time Bettenhausen spun, Yang Ou shortly behind also wanted to pit as well as Chris Darkes. Ou certainly surprised by the spinning Bettenhausen tried to avoid contact and broke too late which probably surprised Darkes who tried to avoid a crash with Ou and in the result touched the wall on his own. Ou and Darkes got a black flag for entering closed pits because the yellow came out just a second before they crossed the pit entry line. After Ou claimed his penalty the race director David Phillips decided to clear it. As further investigations later showed Ou also was too fast when he crossed the line and should have deserved the penalty. As the field was catching up to the pace car Dan Lee Ensch was very unlucky as his team didn’t inform him over radio about the end of the line and as he was catching up very fast and got surprised in the north short-chute he lost his car under hard braking to avoid further contact. Sadly this ended his race. Of course now everybody solved his pit stop and with one lap to go the lapped cars got their wave around. This wave around made Ou again to a victim as well as Daniel Olszewski became one. Olszewski served his last stop while Ou made a drive through the pits but as it was clarified later by officials the timing system rated this as an overtaking maneuver under yellow. As we know this is forbidden and immediately gets penalized with a black flag. So it happened that after the restart the timing system automatically gave both drivers the penalty. In the case of Olszewski it was soon clear that this was not correct but in the case of Ou the officials were not sure if it would be right or not – particularly after that questionable clearing of the previous penalty. Meanwhile the race control tried to find out what happened with the timing system Ou waited for a call and stayed on track. Because he didn’t serve his penalty within three laps the timing system automatically disqualified him. However, Ou realized that it was useless and pulled his car off the track which certainly was one of the fastest of the day and had great chances to win – until lap 168.
 
After the wave around was given and the field now again was in a correct order Shaun Stroud was the leader of the race and with five cars between him and John Paquin in second Stroud was able to open up a comfortable gap. The race had still 26 laps to go. Ten laps later the chasing group of John Paquin and Marty Sponsler still was two seconds behind. In that moment Stroud probably made the winning decision: instead of lapping Scotsman Andrew Aitken and losing ground to his chasers while driving alone around the track he talked to him on the radio and asked him to draft together. Aitken gave his best with Stroud behind nose to tail. It was not enough to gain time but it slowed down the speed how fast Paquin and Sponsler were catching the leader. This lasted until 3 to go when Stroud was only one second ahead. Aitken now did the only correct and pulled to the side to let the leader and his chaser going by. The last two laps were probably nerve wrecking for all top 3 drivers and it certainly was nail biting for those who were spectating this drama!
 
Paquin was closing up very fast and was only 0.169 sec. behind on the last lap! But he had damage on his front wing. In lap 99 he had contact with Dan Lee Ensch which damaged the left front part of his front wing. As he said after the race he didn’t notice it in the balance but in the speed of the car which was slightly lower. Despite enormous attack and driver effort Paquin wasn’t able to catch Stroud before the line of bricks, the start-finish-line, nor was Sponsler able to get Paquin. In the end the first two made a great photo finish and were separated by only 0.085 sec. – what a great finish!
 
Also worth to note is one of the last fighting hero’s: Daniel Olszewski who had a damaged front suspension after a wall contact very early in the race climbed out of his cockpit with injured hands. All in all he managed the keep it on track and brought it to the finish. Seeing the checkered paid him with a P16, 14 points and the great feeling to finish the Indy 500! Also all the other finishers did a great job finishing the historic and prestigious race.
 
The extremely happy winner Shaun Stroud said after the race: “Was easily my best moment in Sim Racing especially considering I'd never driven an oval until February this year!
 
My plan heading out was to stay with the front draft and save fuel (…) seemed to work, not saving as much as Yang but in the end that is what saved me from being caught out by the final yellow so really feel for Yang.
 
After the restart and taking the wave around just tried to get through the traffic as quickly as I could putting as much distance between me and John know he had to get through more, Once I realized John would catch me quickly, I asked Andrew for help which he gladly obliged with me just sitting behind him knowing he would get the wave around if we didn't make it all the way green.
 
With 3 to go Andrew made the very classy move to let the top 3 fight it out and fight it out we did I was expecting John to easily draft past me but not knowing he had damage, with 2 to go out of turn 2 John pushed badly and I got a small gap hoping that would be enough I continued to put the car in the middle of the track on the corresponding straightaways before defending hard on the backstraight and carrying good speed around turns 3-4 to bring the "Borg Muller" trophy Over the pond to England.”

Mark Schutte who finished in P11 elven said: “I reached my goal of going full distance. Too bad I got trapped a lap down, but that’s racing. Still a great time.”
 
Danno Brookins from Hawaii who finished in P9 described it similar: “It was great running wheel to wheel with a great bunch of drivers for this special event, and as others stated, the past week of tweaking, qualifying and anticipation added much to the whole experience.”

In the point standings the top four remains unchanged. Henrik Müller stays in the lead but second placed Yang Ou is now only 13 points behind. Already 72 points behind lays current champion Tim Doyle in P3. Dan Lee Ensch stays in fourth position while Daniel Olszewski takes P5 away from Bill Krause who drops to P6. The next championship race for this year will take place at the bumpy track of Sebring International Raceway on 19th December 2010. Can all-rounder Yang Ou win the race and get the lead back? Or will it be the day of Tim Doyle and he can celebrate his comeback in the fight for the championship?

Contest
The winner of the contest who was able to win a free 3-month Autoracing1.com subscription is Mark Schmieding from the USA. He answered the question (“Who leads the race at the half way mark?”) right with the name of John Paquin and was lucky to get pulled by the lady luck.

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