Rain washed out practice once again on Wednesday for the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500.
Rain fell steadily on the Speedway throughout the day, and IZOD IndyCar Series officials canceled the day's track activities shortly after 4 p.m. ET. It was the first time since 2006 that two entire days of Indianapolis 500 practice were washed out in one week. Since veteran practice opened last Saturday, 17 hours and 58 minutes of the scheduled 30 hours of track time have been lost due to rain.
"Welcome to Groundhog Day!" quipped Conquest Racing's rookie Pippa Mann. "Actually, today wasn't quite Groundhog Day because we did get as far as pit lane, and I actually got as far as being strapped into my car before it started to rain again. One minute to green, I'm sitting there, and suddenly the rain started coming down all around me, so we headed back to the garage area.
"We only wanted to get out there and do a couple of runs today, to see if we finally had a handle on this small niggle we've got going on, but unfortunately the weather is just not playing ball. It's going to make the next few days pretty insane, not just for us but for everyone. the track is going to be extremely busy, and it's going to be fairly intense. But, to use an American phrase, it is what it is!"
Fellow rookie Scott Speed, driver of Dragon Racing's Fuzzy's Vodka car, shared Mann's frustration.
"As a rookie, having less track time is definitely not the best thing in the world," said Speed. "It definitely makes things a little more difficult. We'll do our best to take it in stride. I think we'll be OK with it. We have a lot of resources here. There's nothing extra you can really do to prepare for the race, but I feel good right now. I think we're making good moves and going about everything intelligently. I can't ask for anything more right now. At this point, it's all about track time. I mean, we're just waiting."
"Well, it's the same for everybody," mused car owner and 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal. "I think we've had time to get these cars prepared pretty well for this month. We've had some good practice so far, but it's like I said, it's the same for everybody, and we'll just have to find a way to deal with it. There are a lot of little things you can do. You get more time to look the car over, go through all of the data, find ways to make it better and really dig deeper."