Well what a year...!!!

[MTboatguy]

A year ago today, James almost died trying to quality for Indy! Today he sits on the Pole, it looks like it will be a great race next week, congrats James Hinchcliffe.

 

[bassman284]

Heckuva run. .06 sec isn't a whole lot. I'm heading out there on Wednesday for my 39th straight Indy 500. Woo hoo!

 

[MTboatguy]

Well it only matters in qualifying, but if Nascar has been any example this year, it definitely could be the difference between winning and loosing. After watching that crash last year, I had my doubts if he would get back in a car, but to do it in less than a year, that is amazing. It should be a good race this weekend. Have fun, 39 years, that is a long time.!

 

[boatman37]

wow. so many familiar names showing up. i hadn't looked at the entry list until just now. my son has raced in events with newgarden and karam. and i remember spencer pigot and conor daly but not sure if we were ever at the same events before. i don't think my son ever raced against any of those guys in the same class due to different age groups (the one that comes to mind was 2007 when he was 12 at dismores track. sage was in the 8-12 group, my son was in the 12-15 group and newgarden was in the 15 and over group. but i will be rooting for those guys. mainly newgarden and karam.

note about newgarden, mark dismore owns a kart track in new castle, indiana and they hold the robo-pong 200 every year (robo-pong is owned by newgardens family). dan wheldon was best friends with mark jr. and lived with them when he first came to the U.S. mark jr. and wheldon used to team up together for the robo-pong. it required 2-4 drivers but most teams had 2, mark jr was going to cut back on his driving so i mentioned to him about my son partnering with him and wheldon and mark was going to mention it to dan. well wheldon ended up mixing up his dates and was scheduled to run a race in australia the same weekend of the robo-pong so he couldn't run it. this was the week after he was killed. mark jr. ended up withdrawing from the robo-pong and mark sr. and josef newgarden ran the kart that jr. and wheldon were going to run and won the race. the trophy is now called the Wheldon Cup. we never met wheldon and don't know if jr ever did mention it to wheldon but from all i have heard he was a great guy.

if anyone has ever met the dismore's, they are class acts as well. i still talk to jr occasionally even though my son no longer races.

and alex tagliani partnered with a friend of ours that we raced with for about 10 years. they said he was a good guy too. seems to be a pattern. i have talked to karams dad a few times and he was a very nice and polite person.

BTW-my son raced against mark sr a few times and got beat by him. i gave my son a hard time for getting beat by a 55 year old man in a go kart...lol