Wednesday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is damp, cold, windy but dry … so far. The humidity is 86 percent, and cloud cover is complete, which holds in some warmth, so it’s low fifties instead of lower temperatures. We’ll see. After all, this is the MidWest, where one can get several seasons in one day. The Verizon IndyCar Series drivers are in hopes that there will be at least some dry track time Wednesday to put miles on their engines and laps on their data sheets. Practice starts at noon and rain is forecast for 11am local time/ET.
This week so far, perhaps because of the weather forecast, teams seem to be concentrating more on their setups than speed. Many are in race mode already, trying this and that. Here’s where the multi-car teams have an advantage as each car/driver can try different things and then debrief. The only truly single car team, and a one-off for Indy 500 at that, is Lazier Partners Racing with driver BUDDY LAZIER, and he hasn’t yet been on track. All other drivers have at least one teammate or affiliation with whom to share information. Lazier is one of two drivers on the ‘short’ program; but the other – JAMES DAVISON – is part of a multi-car team, so there will be sharing.
Not much is going on in the garage area Wednesday morning. Little bustle is seen. Most garage doors are shut. Several cars are doing Tech Inspections, but there’s no sense of urgency … that can be seen. All the ‘Yellow Shirts’ are talking among themselves – no whistles to be blown, no traffic to direct.
Oops – even as I spreak, it’s starting to be damp and I’ve seen my first umbrella.
And so it goes.