Racing
John Oreovicz, Autos, Open-Wheel 8y

Indy 500 rookies looking to dominate track, establish open-wheel careers

IndyCar

INDIANAPOLIS -- Competing in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time is a daunting experience for any driver, no matter how much seat time accumulated around the world.

Even Formula 1, considered the pinnacle of open-wheel racing, cannot prepare a young driver for what it's like to turn in to Turn 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 230 mph, with nothing to stop an errant car but a lightly padded wall.

It's fair to say that all five of this year's Indianapolis 500 rookies started out with dreams of F1, and two actually made it. Alexander Rossi still has a foot in both camps, driving the full IndyCar campaign for Andretti Autosport while serving as Manor Motorsports' F1 test driver.

While Rossi still harbors hopes of making it back to F1 on a full-time basis, the other rookies have their sights set on a permanent IndyCar career. Here's a look at this year's Indianapolis Rookie of the Year contenders:

Alexander Rossi (No. 98 Andretti Autosport Honda)

You can count the number of American drivers who have raced in Formula 1 in the last thirty years on the fingers of one hand. The 24-year-old Rossi is part of that exclusive group.

But an offseason shakeup left him on the F1 sidelines for 2016. So he's doing something he hasn't done since he was 16: Racing in America. Back in 2008, Rossi dominated the Formula BMW Americas series before embarking on his seven-year European odyssey. Generally unknown to American racing fans, he already has shown flashes of promise in the IndyCar Series, thanks to the help of a pair of experienced former drivers in Bryan Herta and Michael Andretti as his team owners.

Learning or re-learning American tracks will be Rossi's biggest challenge, especially because he had never raced on an oval until he competed at Phoenix International Raceway in April. And IMS is the biggest, baddest IndyCar oval of them all

"It felt fast," Rossi said of his first laps of the Speedway. "It was definitely eye-opening in terms of not having any kind of prior comparison to a place like this. The biggest thing is the group running and getting comfortable in that. At the moment, it's all about testing and reducing the learning curve as much as possible. And just trying to learn as much as I can."

Max Chilton (No. 8 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet)

Max Chilton was one of the fortunate ones who actually made it to F1 and was teammates with Rossi in 2014. But when the team reorganized Chilton moved to Indy Lights for the 2015 season with the goal of transitioning into the Verizon IndyCar Series this year.

Mission accomplished. Chilton won an Indy Lights race on the Iowa oval and posted five other podium finishes. By landing with the dominant Chip Ganassi Racing team, Chilton should be a strong contender for Rookie of the Year honors at Indianapolis and over the course of the full IndyCar season.

Chilton has experienced teammates to learn from, including former IndyCar Series champions and Indianapolis 500 winners Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. His best IndyCar race to date came on the Phoenix oval.

"The Indy car is a bit different than the Lights car with the amount of movement the car has and the different levels of downforce," Chilton said. "I think taking that step back into Lights last year allowed me to make a good step forward in the Indy car.

"I'm learning something new every day here at the Speedway," he added. "I'm just easing my way into this and not rushing or putting myself in a bad position. We're working step-by-step toward our plan for qualifying this weekend."

Spencer Pigot (No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda)

The Mazda Road to Indy lays out a series of scholarships that can propel a driver from go-karts to Indy cars. Spencer Pigot is proof the system works.

The 22-year old advanced through U.S. F2000, then won the 2014 Pro Mazda championship. That scholarship put him in Indy Lights, where he won 2015 title in thrilling fashion by winning both races of the final weekend at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Part of the Indy Lights prize is a ride in the Indianapolis 500, and Pigot worked out a deal to run the Indy 500 and a few other races for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Bobby Rahal, who has a history of giving young American drivers a chance, including Ryan Hunter-Reay and Buddy Rice, rates Pigot highly.

Pigot, however, was the first driver to crash at Indianapolis this year, crunching the left side of his car Wednesday. Even though the team later determined Pigot's spin was likely caused by a cut tire, the crash was a blow.

"We had just done our quickest lap I think the run before, so everything was feeling good," Pigot said. "It's obviously a big setback for me, for the team, and obviously not what you want to happen on just the second day.

"After we looked at the data, we found that the right front tire went down followed immediately by the right rear, so I must have run over something that cut the tires and caused the spin," he added.

Matthew Brabham (No. 61 Team Murray Chevrolet)

Only two families have qualified three generations of drivers for the Indianapolis 500: Andretti and Vukovich. Matt Brabham intends to add the Brabham name to that small and prestigious group.

Matt's grandfather, Jack Brabham, drove a modified Formula 1 Cooper to a ninth-place finish in the 1961 Indianapolis 500, and he is often credited with sparking the rear-engine revolution that transformed Indy car racing. Jack's son Geoff was also a racer, scoring nine Indy car podium finishes in the 1980s, in addition to winning four consecutive IMSA GTP sports car championships.

Claiming dual Australian/American citizenship, 22-year old Matt showed immense promise on the Mazda Road to Indy, prompting Australian PR master Brett 'Crusher' Murray to put together a deal to run Matt in a KVSH Racing Chevrolet in the two races at Indianapolis.

"It took me awhile to build up to speed," Brabham said. "The first day I was slowly learning the lines and getting used to how to get around the Speedway. I'm feeling more comfortable in the car, which is the biggest thing. I'm enjoying it a lot more and getting further experience each time around here, which is going to be good for when it counts come qualifying day and the race."

Stefan Wilson (No. 25 KVSH Racing Chevrolet)

Competing in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time is an emotional experience for 26-year old Stefan Wilson, who's returning to racing nine months after the death of his older brother, Justin, in an Indy car accident at Pocono Raceway.

Stefan worked through European formula car racing before tackling Indy Lights in beginning in 2009. He has made one other Indy car start, running the 2013 Baltimore Grand Prix as Justin's teammate at Dale Coyne Racing.

Although Stefan's thoughts often drift to Justin, he knows he must maintain total focus on the job at hand at Indianapolis.

"After all the anticipation that was building up, it was great to get out there and just feel it out and know what I'm dealing with for the rest of the week," he said. "I think we achieved all our goals in rookie orientation, but Wednesday was a little bit frustrating because we made some changes that were on our test plan and we just didn't find the results that we wanted from those changes.

"At least we were able to evaluate them, which moves the whole team forward finding out which things don't quite work."

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