MAY 18, 2006

What happened to the Danica factor?

Although practice for the Indianapolis 500 has been disrupted severely by heavy rainfall in Indiana, the coverage of the event is also suffering because America's darling racer Danica Patrick is not making a huge impression on this year's race.

Although practice for the Indianapolis 500 has been disrupted severely by heavy rainfall in Indiana, the coverage of the event is also suffering because America's darling racer Danica Patrick is not making a huge impression on this year's race. In practice to date it is fairly clear that the Rahal Letterman Racing Panoz-Hondas are not up to the speed of the fastest cars. At the moment Penske Racing's Sam Hornish Jr has set the fastest laps at 226.789mph while Patrick and her team mate Buddy Rice have had trouble getting up into the 223mph bracket.

It is perhaps worth noting that AJ Foyt Racing has decided to switch Larry Foyt from a Panoz to a Dallara.

"The Panoz is a great car and I felt very comfortable in it but it appears the Dallaras are faster this year," said Larry.

It remains to be seen if we will see other teams switching but it is certainly in the interest of the Indy Racing League to get Patrick back in the spotlight.