MOTORSPORT: Aussie pair shape up for Indianapolis

Two Australians are in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500: Will Power, who came within a few metres of winning a year ago; and Matt Brabham, the 22-year-old rookie grandson of late world champion, Sir Jack.

The race is still more than a week away. Qualifying is this weekend, after six hours of practice tonight, Australian time. There’s already been three days of practice – it would have been four if not for a washout on Tuesday.

Power and Brabham are both assured of a place in the 33-car field for the 500-mile (800km) classic on May 30, Australian time, as there are only 33 entries – somewhat surprising in this historic year. Plans for a team with a woman driver and an all-women crew collapsed earlier this week.

The query on the Australians may be whether they have the right 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged V-6 engine for this year.

In the back of Power’s Dallara chassis run by Team Penske and that of Brabham from KV Racing Technology (courtesy of the entrepreneurship of Gold Coast media man. Brett ‘Crusher’ Murray) are Chevy engines – usually dominant in Indy racing.

However, Honda-powered cars have set the pace throughout practice all week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, equally well known within motorsport as The Brickyard.

The best speeds though have been set with the advantage of slipstreaming other cars, often teammates. There will be an abundance of that slipstreaming, or what the Americans call drafting, on race day.

But the starting line-up will be decided by solo four-lap runs of the famous 2.5-mile (4km) track, which traditionally is called an oval but in reality is rectangular with four slightly-banked turns.

And Power is looking good for qualifying, at least, having clocked the best “no-tow” average speed of the week – 225.381mph (362.716kmh). The best of the 223 laps the 2014 IndyCar Series champion from Toowoomba (Qld) has done for the week was 227.733mph, circulating in 39.52sec. This was fifth fastest overall and also quickest of the drivers with Chevrolet power.

Brabham is 31st on the combined timesheet so far, with his best lap 40.1167sec for an average speed of 224.345mph.

The ‘control’ turbocharger boost level will be turned up for tonight’s practice. That will equate to about an extra 20kW.

American driver Ryan Hunter-Reay, winner of the Indy 500 two years with Andretti Autosports and still with that Honda-powered team, said that “once the boost gets turned up everything changes”.

“I’m just waiting for Power to turn the wick up,” Hunter-Reay said.

The Aussie star has three Penske teammates – Brazilian Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, a two-time winner who pipped Power last year, and Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, winner of the past three road-course races in the IndyCar series.

Then there’s the likes of Chip Ganassi’s Chevy-powered team with New Zealand’s multiple 500 victor Scott Dixon and the smaller team of American oval-track specialist Ed Carpenter, related to the Hulman family that owns The Brickyard.

Honda man Hunter Reay says the game now gets really interesting.

“You have different torque curves in these engines, different – where some are better in other areas, and it'll be all over the place,” Hunter-Reay said.

“Come Friday expect Ganassi, Penske, Carpenter, these guys all to be up in the mix. Hopefully we’re still in the mix.”

While times and speeds have been a little down on last year so far, thought to be because of aerodynamic and safety changes in the meantime, Power has insisted (among the mind games that are played at Indianapolis every May, with inevitable claims and counter-claims of sandbagging) that “the Hondas look strong, very strong … You can see how good they are in traffic”.

Of his own form, Power said: “We have had some good runs. We’ve definitely made some gains and have a little bit more to go... I’m pretty confident we will be in good shape for qualifying.”

Colombian-American Gabby Chaves, rookie of the year at The Brickyard last year but without a seat this time until resurrected by Dale Coyne recently, headed the latest timesheet with three other Honda drivers next.

Townsend Bell, another of the Andretti squad’s American drivers, said Honda “has just done a phenomenal job to keep their heads down, keep working and they’ve come here very well-prepared”.

“It's almost weird because two months ago it was all about, Oh my gosh, Chevy is just dominating,” Bell said.

Chevrolet has won all five Indy series races this season – after manufacturer championships with its Illmor Engineering-built units the past four years.

Roger Penske’s team, celebrating its 50th year in motorsport, has collected 114 of its 181 IndyCar wins and nine of its record 16 Indianapolis 500 victories with engines produced by Ilmor – mostly carrying Chevrolet’s bowtie badge but some, famously, with the Mercedes-Benz tristar in the 1990s.

Automotive tycoon Penske co-founded Illmor in Britain in 1983 with engineers Mario Illien and the late Paul Morgan. The company has also been hugely successful in Formula 1.

The week at the notoriously-unforgiving Brickyard has seen only one crash. Last year there were three horror crashes involving cars with Chevrolet engines and aerodynamics flipping and flying. One of those kept Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe out of the sport for months.

But, in the wake of the crash (on Wednesday involving reigning Indy Lights champion, American Spencer Pigot), veteran Indy correspondent Marshall Pruett reported: “The combination of the [now] mandatory dome skids beneath all cars that helps the floors to produce extra downforce in a spin, and the rear beam flaps that spoiled lift-producing airflow over the back of the car (while adding a lot of rear downforce) validated everything IndyCar's competition team has been developing [in the past year].”

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing got Pigot back on track at the end of the latest six-hour practice session for an installation lap.

Aussie rookie Brabham, who was runner-up in an Indy Lights race at the Brickyard two years ago, went through a “rookie orientation program” for the 500 at the start of the week, doing the required 10 laps at 205-210mph, 15 laps at 210-215mph and then 15 laps over 215mph.

He ended the day with 126 laps under his belt and a best average speed of 223.306mph.

Brabham said he initially found The Brickyard daunting but said that he had got into a rhythm.

“I’m feeling more comfortable in the car. Running in the pack is a lot more hairy [than alone], but I’ve felt okay,” Brabham said.

Tonight, Australian time, there will be another six hours of practice, followed by the draw for qualifying runs. Saturday, US time, there will be two hours of early practice before qualifying begins.

The first day of qualifying is to set the provisional 33 positions and lock in the “Fast Nine” for Sunday’s shoot-out for pole position.

The other 24 starting positions will be decided in another two-hour qualifying session before that shootout.

All the Indianapolis action is stream on RaceControl.IndyCar.com.