Indianapolis 500 – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
IZOD IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Tuesday, May 14, 2013
RAHAL AND JAKES SWITCH TO PRIMARY CARS FOR TOMORROW’S INDY 500 PRACTICE; JOURDAIN JR. CONTINUES TO LOG MILES
1) James Hinchcliffe 224.210 mph / 40.1410 26 laps
29) James Jakes 219.191 mph / 41.0601 35 laps
32) Michel Jourdain Jr. 217.118 mph / 41.4522 57 laps
33) Graham Rahal 216.633 mph / 41.5450 46 laps
GRAHAM RAHAL, No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “Everything went to plan today. Our focus today was just to mileage this engine out and move on. I’m proud of the guys at Honda that we made it there without issue. We’re focused on tomorrow now to see what we get. We’re going to shake down the new car tomorrow with a new engine in it. It might be a whole different beast. The Midas / Big O Tires car will be all new and I’m excited about it.”
JAMES JAKES, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We did another race simulation early in the day and I think we made some progress compared to Monday on the Acorn Stairlifts car. Everyone seems pretty excited. And the rest of the afternoon the guys were busy putting a new engine and switching everything to the other chassis. It was nice that we were able to get the work done well over the last two days so the guys have got quite a bit of time to work on the car today and it means they won’t get to bed too late tonight and will be able to spend some time with their wives and children. Everyone’s pretty excited to roll out tomorrow. Both the No. 15 and 16 cars will be fresh chassis and motors so I think everyone is optimistic and excited as to where we will end up.”
MICHEL JOURDAIN JR, No. 17 Office Depot Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “We continued to work on the car; I haven’t been comfortable at all. I am kind of feeling the same as Graham in that we’re not feeling confident in the car. We made some changes in the afternoon and it was better but still on the last run I had to catch it two times. Its better, I have a little bit better feel and a little bit more confidence in it but we have to make some changes and improvements. Of course the strong winds are not helping a lot but there are some things that happen in all four corners and normally the wind only makes an impact on one or two corners. We are going to continue to work on it to improve the car.”
RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING AT INDY … The team’s highest start and finish in the event came in 2004 when Buddy Rice won from pole. In addition, the team has earned a total of four podiums (2nd – Meira 2005; 3rd – Rahal 1994, 1995). The team was in contention to win the race as recent as 2011 when Bertrand Baguette led laps 139-140 and laps 189-197 of the 200 lap race. Had a caution come our before Baguette was forced to pit for a splash of fuel, he might have been the victor. The race ultimately ended under caution when JR Hildebrand crashed on the front straight while in the lead on the final lap… The 2013 race will mark the 16th year for the team in the event. Prior to 2013, the team prepared a total of 28 entries for drivers such as Bobby Rahal (1992-1995), Mike Groff (1994), Raul Boesel (1995), Jimmy Vasser (2002-2003), Kenny Brack (2003, 2005), Buddy Rice (2004, 2006; DNC 2005 due to practice crash), Vitor Meira (2004, 2005), Roger Yasukawa (2004), Danica Patrick (2005, 2006), Jeff Simmons (2006, 2007), Scott Sharp (2007), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2008), Oriol Servia (2009), Graham Rahal (2010), Bertrand Baguette (2011), Jay Howard (2011), Takuma Sato (2012) and Michel Jourdain (2012). The No. 15 Midas / Big O Tires entry for Graham Rahal, No. 16 Acorn Stairlifts entry for James Jakes and No. 17 Office Depot entry for Michel Jourdain will bring that total to 31 in 2013.
NEXT UP: Practice will resume tomorrow from 12-6 PM ET. The 97th Indianapolis 500 race will be May 26 and will be televised by ABC at 12 a.m. (ET) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network on Sirius XM (XM 94 and Sirius 212). Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com.
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