Indy Too Cold for Indycars to Practice

It was a record setting day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today but not in a good way. Most likely a record low number of laps turned in frigid, blustery  and drizzly conditions as only the car of Mike Conway got on the track today as far as I know. Marco Andretti went out in Conway's ride around 1 pm for four or five laps then Mike took it out for a few laps just before 3 pm. We were hearing the air temperature needed to hit 50 degrees before it would be safe to run as the track simply had no grip and the teams would be unable to generate enough heat in their Firestone Tires to generate proper operating temperatures.

The only "action" on pit lane all afternoon was the crews of Oriol Servia and Tomas Scheckter practicing pit stops. At least Tomas was in his driving suit and in the car. Oriol was nowhere to be found.

I set a personal record today too - record low number of photos taken since going digital. Only 64 frames all day, but there was nothing much to shoot. I did see former driver Derek Daly, as well as Bryan Clausson, last year's USAC National Driver's Champion who earned a ride in this year's Freedom 100 Firestone Indy Lights race a week from this Friday and Helio came out briefly to sign some autographs but that was about it.

The garages were buttoned up tighter than an old maid's blouse on a windy day and signs of life were few and far between. Such is life at Indy in the month of May folks. We'll try again tomorrow.