Saturday May 21st Qualifying Day 1 - The day people stared to play their hands.
After constant rain over night the day dawned with more rain in the air and a cool wind. The early summer days still fighting to come though and the hint of winter still in the air almost. The impressive sight to see was the large crowd at the track today and a sign of the numbers expected to attend in the coming days. In my 14 years of attending this event this was the largest numbers of people I have seen at the track for a Saturday qualifying day in all of that time.
The set up for qualifying in 2016 is slightly different over past years with the simple way of working it out today we create the fast nine and they become safe tomorrow within the nine but will shoot out the order at the end of the day. The balance of the field then is locked in even if there had been more that the 33 cars it would have bumped cars out today. Tomorrow they qualify again from slowest to fastest and then lock in there starting positions as well. In effect it has become a pre qualifying day and then for want of a better phase the real qualifying day happens tomorrow.
Practice was set for a 10am start that in the end was pushed back to just after 1230 local time as the track workers drying the track with air dryers and then with qualifying set for a 2:30pm start with each driver guaranteed a run today baring weather and then and only then a second run after that. Track time was even extended past the normal 6pm finish to 7pm. The dramas firstly came out of the morning practice session as 500 rookie and ex F1 driver and now Ganassi driver Max Chliton made heavycontact with the wall on the exit of turn 2 and a big rebuild for the team was ahead but he was okay and considering how well he had been going it was a rare error that caught him out in fact in the end it was to become a complet tub change that was required.
Under dark skies then and a building wind with a temperature of just 15c the field began to form for the four lap qualifying runs. Drama came pretty thick and fast as drivers set times and some big names were out side of the top nine including all of the Ganassi cars in fact it was the Honda powered cars that looked like the ones to watch. By 4pm everyone had completed a run and then at 5pm the teams lined up for second attempts close to the sort of feeling of Bump Days in the past however in this instance it was to bump in to the Fast Nine for the shoot out tomorrow. The final last quarter of an hour was crazy as times tumbled and names changed as the early evening sun set and the conditions ideal for fast times. I'm the end there were surprises but the race can be won from anywhere that's for sure. A car not to take part was Pippa Mann who spun on her qualifying run and did not set a time and of course Chilton as repair work carried on.
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