The engines growled, the tires spun and there were no puddles of oil. Robby Gordon and Jim Guthrie were finally ready for the Indianapolis 500 - with only a few hours to spare.
Gordon, Guthrie and three other drivers took the track one last time Saturday for a rare practice before today's race. Gordon, Guthrie, and Guthrie's Team Blueprint Racing teammates, Sam Schmidt and Claude Bourbonnais, all ran a few laps to test their newly rebuilt engines.Paul Durant ran one lap to make sure the gearbox on his Aurora G Force didn't stick.
"I feel a lot more comfortable knowing we don't have an oil leak," Gordon said. "Now we cross our fingers tomorrow."
Drivers may have to cross their fingers for something else, too - that it doesn't rain.
The National Weather Service said there was an 80 percent chance of thunderstorms Sunday, and that could cause problems for drivers.
The race is not official unless 101 laps are completed. If the race is postponed, speedway officials likely would try again Monday. And if that day's rained out, too, the race would be run on the next available date, usually the following weekend.
That's what happened 11 years ago - the last time the race was postponed.
With a few exceptions, the final practice session at Indy is usually on Carburetion Day, the Thursday before the race. If drivers need more practice, they're supposed to take their cars to another track.
But Guthrie, Schmidt and Bourbonnais missed Carburetion Day because their engines were being rebuilt. Gordon ran six laps with a top speed of just 135 mph before his engine blew.
Durant made it through Carburetion Day but had trouble shifting.
None of the drivers pushed their cars Saturday. Guthrie had a fast lap of 194 mph. Gordon and Schmidt ran four laps, Guthrie and Bourbonnais three, and Durant one.
"Everybody did what they were supposed to do," chief steward Keith Ward said after practice. "So we ought to be all set."
During the drivers' final pre-race meeting earlier Saturday, Ward went through a long list of instructions that sounded like a lesson from Auto Racing 101.
"I want to see a nice clean formation down the backstretch . . . so we can come down in a nice clean start," Ward said. "Be courteous and let guys get in place when they need to get in place."
Of the 35 drivers in this year's race, 13 are rookies and 10 are making just their second start at the Brickyard. Last year, 17 rookies started; the record is 19 in 1919 and 1930.
During his 20-minute speech, Ward addressed even the most basic detail - no matter how routine it might have sounded:
- Line up in even rows at the start.
- No pitting at the start of the yellow flag.
- No standing on the gas in the warmup lane after coming out of the pits.
- And absolutely, positively, no trying to get ahead of someone until your car rumbles over the row of bricks at the start.
"I'm not asking for a good start, I'm expecting it, " Ward said.
The meeting wasn't all business. Ward drew laughs from the crowd and drivers with his thinly disguised dig at Championship Auto Racing Teams, which is boycotting Indy for the second straight year.