By Jan Shaffer
indy500.com
Friday, May 23, 2003
Editor's Note: Veteran racing journalist and publicist Jan Shaffer is writing a series of stories showing the similarities and differences in the Race Week buildup for the 87th Indianapolis 500 by a large IRL IndyCar Series team, Andretti Green Racing, and a small team, PDM Racing. This is the third installment of the series.
Even the biggest of the big can have problems like the smallest of the small in auto racing.
Thursday was the traditional Carburetion Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the two-hour final practice before the "500" unfolds on Sunday. It's a time when teams find out what they can about their equipment, systems and cars, what might break, what is wrong.
And both the four-car Andretti Green Racing team, with an eye on victory, and the one-car PDM Racing team found little things that they were happy to find on Thursday rather than when the green flag dropped on Race Day.
Keith Badger is the chief mechanic for Dan Wheldon's effort with Andretti Green and Wheldon got only a few warm-up laps on Thursday.
"We're actually going through something that we didn't anticipate," Badger said. "We had a little electrical hiccup. We'll take our chances and put this engine in. The hierarchs are trying to find out if we can take it off the premises to test it. I don't have a problem going Sunday without any laps because we've been problem-free all month. Unfortunately, we saved our own problem for today."
So, while the crews of Michael Andretti and Tony Kanaan were in the annual Checkers/Rally's Pit Stop Challenge, Badger and his troops were installing an engine.
While the 80-strong group at Andretti Green is working with four cars with an eye on victory, Badger recognized the effort of others.
"It's a bigger race, but when you start changing the way you do things, you let it get the best of you," Badger said. "A smaller team is limited budget-wise, and that says how far you can go to 'mileage' parts. With a smaller team, you run them longer. That's the biggest difference between a small team and a big team.
"But a three-car effort is a big effort, and a four-car effort is huge. You have to cut corners somewhere. Even with the big teams with good budgets, sometimes you don't have enough parts to do things with all four cars.
"Throughout the garage, everyone's trying to do the best job they can with what they have."
Paul Murphy, Badger's counterpart on the PDM effort that fields Jimmy Kite from 32nd starting position Sunday, also had a problem Thursday.
"We had a malfunction in a sensor on the engine," Murphy said. "We just replaced the sensor and went back out. The way the wind was today, we'll probably change a gear for the race. We're pretty happy with the balance.
"We just focused on making sure everything was good on the car, making sure the telemetry is where it should be, running full tanks to make sure the car holds its balance through a full fuel load, scrubbing in a few tires. Everything seems fine."
Murphy thought his preparation ritual and goals were virtually the same as a bigger effort.
"It's just the preparation of the mechanics who work on it," Murphy said. "A large-budget team can spend money on hospitality, well-painted golf carts. The money we get is spent on the race car. I can't see a difference between a big team and a small team in that way. It's very good a small team can still compete in the Indianapolis 500.
"On Friday, we'll go back over the car with a fine-tooth comb, check our setup one more time, go through 'tech' one more time and make sure nothing has been overlooked."
Murphy said Kite can finish in the top 10.
"If everything goes right and keeps on working, there's no reason we couldn't be in the top 10," he said. "If you start thinking you're not going to get there, what's the sense of being out there?"
The annual last-row party took place Thursday night, and Kite was scheduled to be handed a check for 32 cents for his starting position, as well as a good-natured roasting.
Thirty-two more cents to put into the race car.
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