This was published 7 years ago
Australia has two shots at Indianapolis 500 glory in 100th running of America's open-wheel classic
By Mark Fogarty in Indianapolis
Australians Will Power and Matthew Brabham are at opposite ends of the experience scale in IndyCar racing, but each can achieve a career milestone in the sell-out 100th Indianapolis 500.
Power is an established IndyCar star, with a championship and 25 race wins as he contests his 11th season in America's premier open-wheel series.
Australia's Matt Brabham is making his Indy 500 debut in only his second IndyCar race.Credit: Chris Graythen
Brabham is just starting out, making his Indy 500 debut in only his second IndyCar race.
To be run early Monday morning Australian time, the most hyped Indianapolis 500 in history could enshrine Power as an IndyCar great and establish Brabham as a star of the future.
Toowoomba-born Power, 35, is a leading contender to claim his first Indy 500 after narrowly losing last year's race to one of his Team Penske teammates, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, in a thrilling last-lap battle.
The 500 is the only major prize that has eluded Power and is the only barrier to him attaining exulted status in the annals of IndyCar racing.
He is starting sixth in the 33-car field for the most important – and likely best attended – Indy 500, which is due to start at 2am AEST on Monday.
For American-born Brabham, 22, his first start in America's most famous open-wheeler race – and the largest one-day sporting event in the world by attendance – is a chance to secure a full-time drive in the IndyCar series.
The grandson of Formula 1 legend, the late Sir Jack Brabham, is aiming to be the best of the five first-timers and be named Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year, which would help his ambitions.
Brabham, who has dual citizenship, already has made a splash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by becoming just the third third-generation driver in the illustrious history of 'The 500', following in the tyre tracks of Sir Jack and his father Geoff.
He will start 27th in a first-time entry for Australian-backed Pirtek Team Murray, assembled by colourful Gold Coast motor racing identity Brett 'Crusher' Murray.
If Power and Brabham achieve their goals, they will have more impact than normal because heightened importance has been attached to the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500, which has attracted unprecedented interest.
All tickets for the 500-mile (805-kilometre) race are sold out, with attendance expected to exceed 350,000 – the biggest crowd in at least two decades.
The sellout has resulted in the Indy 500 being shown live on local TV for the first time since 1950.
It will be run in front of the largest crowd since 1995 – the last Indy 500 before the 12-year Indycar 'civil war' that split interest between CART/Champ Car and the Indy Racing League until reunification under IndyCar in 2008 – and may even beat the record attendances of the 1980s.
The scale and historical importance of the event has drawn a large contingent of Australian fans and motor sport identities, including six leading Supercars drivers, to cheer on Power and Brabham.
DJR Team Penske duo Fabian Coulthard and Scott Pye are attending as guests of their American boss Roger Penske, whose IndyCar squad has won a record 16 Indy 500s.
Team Penske, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, is a strong chance to win again, with four front-running entries for Power, Brazilian three-time 500 champion Helio Castroneves, Montoya – who has won twice in just three starts – and French flyer Simon Pagenaud, this year's IndyCar Series pacesetter with three straight victories and a pair of seconds in the first five races.
Reigning Supercars champion Mark Winterbottom and his Prodrive Racing teammate Cam Waters are driving in for the race after a visit to Chicago.
Volvo's Scott McLaughlin and privateer Holden racer Lee Holdsworth will join the many visitors who have come to support Brabham and also Murray, whose $2 million fulfilment of his dream to enter a car in the Indy 500 is widely admired.
The prospect of performing in front of one of the biggest – if not the largest – crowds to pack the towering grandstands of the 4-kilometre Indianapolis Motor Speedway – a rectangular superspeedway 'oval' track with four banked left-turn corners – has the drivers and teams even more excited than normal.
Preceded by several hours of pageantry, the Indy 500 will be run over 200 laps at speeds of up to 390 km/h, with the high-downforce Chevrolet and Honda-powered Dallaras – festooned with wings and vanes - racing wheel-to-wheel and nose-to-tail in packs.
Overtaking among the frontrunners is expected to be frantic, especially in the closing stages, when the leaders likely will swap places in a mad, slipstreaming dash to the chequered flag.
Power, who is just getting over an inner ear infection that has hampered his season, is confident that he has learned his lesson from last year, when Montoya craftily held him off on the final lap.
"It was a great race and that sort of thing builds your confidence," he said. "I definitely learned from it. Every time you come here you learn something new. I feel as if I'm as strong as I've ever been on ovals.
"I feel like we have as good an opportunity as anyone."
The laconic Queenslander is unfazed by – but not unaware of – the heavily-hyped atmosphere and the weight of expectation on the Team Penske drivers.
"I haven't thought about the fact that it's the 100th," Power shrugged. "You can't put unnecessary pressure on yourself.
"When you sit back and think about it, yes, absolutely, it is a big occasion. It's going to be amazing on race day, with the amount of people and obviously Roger's 50th year in motor sport.
"It would be just unbelievable to win it."
Brabham is proud to be continuing the family tradition in the Indy 500, which includes Sir Jack starting the change to rear-engined racers in 1961 and his father Geoff's best finish of fourth in 10 attempts in the 1980s and early '90s.
"I'm very honoured to be part of it all," he said. "Everyone's excited that a Brabham is racing here again.
"The support from Australia's been insane. So many people have come over to support us. It's been wonderful and I'm very grateful for that.
"I'm having great fun and living in the moment, enjoying it while I can."
Brabham believes that he will race further up the field than his cautious qualifying performance suggests, aiming to finish high enough to secure rookie honours.
"If I can just finish the race without any incidents and stay on the lead lap, I'm going to finish up the order. I think top 15 is definitely realistic. Rookie of the year is a good goal for us.
"I can't wait for the race, to get out on to the track and see what I've got."