There was a time when the entire month of May was dedicated to the running of the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For example in 1969, the year Mario Andretti won his first (and only) Indy 500, almost every day of the month the cars were out on track.
Some days were rained out, but this was to be expected.
Pole day was the 17 May, race day was 12 days later on Friday 30 May.
In 2008, the year that Scott Dixon won his first Indy 500, practice started 6th May with Pole day on the 10th, 15 days before the race.
Tonight, NZ time, qualifying for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 gets underway. Thirty-six cars will be competing for 33 grid positions and Saturday sees the first 30 places will be decided.
Each entry is guaranteed one attempt with multiple four-lap timed runs made as time (and weather) permits.
The fastest nine cars will go through to the Fast Nine Shootout on Sunday while positions 10-30 will be locked in for starting positions for the race.
Sunday sees the final three positions (the back row of the grid) determined. Traditionally known as ‘Bump Day’, it’s when drivers who are removed from the starting grid of 33 by being out-qualified by faster cars are said to have been ‘bumped’.
The driver with the slowest speed in the field of 33, the first in line to be bumped, is said to be ‘on the bubble’.
Unqualified drivers attempt to bump their way into the field and ‘burst the slower driver’s bubble.’
‘Bump Day’ disappeared for a number of years in the early 2000s with smaller number of entries. But this year it is back with 36 cars entered.
Sunday also sees the the first three rows of the grid determined with the Fast Nine Shootout.
It doesn’t stop with qualifying as post-qualifying practice continues on Monday. Then there is the Millar Lite Carb Day on Friday 24 May. Carb, or Carburetion Day is always the last Friday before the race. Traditionally it was always the final session in which teams could tune their carburetors in conditions that would be similar to those on race day. This tradition has remained despite the fact that no qualified car has used a carburetor since 1963!
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