INDIANAPOLIS 500 - Qualifying, Day One, Some Thoughts

INDIANAPOLIS - RIS - May 20, 2017 - It the silliest day of the year in motorsports. It is first day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.

Remember when Pole Day meant something? Remember when 150,000 people would show up to watch the first day of qualifications? Remember the teeth chattering drama of a driver getting into a car and having just one chance and only one chance, at making the World’s Greatest Race?

Well today, ain’t that day! If the weather holds of and that does not look likely, today’s first day is like dating your first cousin, it is an exercise in futility. It is the day the 33 entries must qualify to qualify tomorrow for 33 open spots. Everyone will make the cut to try it again tomorrow.

Yesterday Sebastien Bourdais set the pace at 233.116 MPH, with the added boost for this weekend. On Thursday, with a car running normal race boost, a car that would be race legal, Bourdais ran only a 224.725 MPH

The cars for this weekend get a 15 to 20 horsepower “bonus.” Think of it as a marketing tool to make fans think that the cars will go faster. It is a phony premise. It is meaning less, in that the car the teams practice with, and the car they race with, are reality different cars then they qualify with. Yes, the cars they all qualify today and tomorrow could not pass tech for the race. They would be disqualified as illegal.

It simply does not make sense.