Since nobody has started a thread for this year's Runoffs and I'm not there racing, I guess I will.
Well, it certainly looks like it's intense out at Indy. 18 FBs along with 19 P1 cars makes for busy qualifying sessions. Tough to get clean laps in.
Since practice started on Thursday, Hickman has been the class of the field closely followed by Roggenbuck and Mayer.
Come Monday, the first day of qualifying, the pattern continued. By the end of Q1 the top five qualifiers were Hickman, Roggenbuck, Mayer, Gerardo and Cooper.
Things got interesting yesterday for Q2 as teams had a chance to make changes to their cars and find more speed. And find more speed they did, as Hickman dropped into the 1:34s on his 3rd lap while Mayer ducked into the pits for a tire change. Hickman subsequently put down an even better lap - a 1:34.732, the quickest lap of qualifying to that point. However, it didn't last. Mayer, out of the pits on fresh rubber, turned in a scorcher, eclipsing Hickman by .174 seconds to take provisional pole with a 1:34.558.
So after Q2 it's Mayer, Hickman, Roggenbuck, Hill and Cooper for the top five, with Haas, Beauchamp, Gerardo and Nixon all within a second of each other close behind.
It's apparent that tire choice is paramount and will be interesting to see how this pans out. Look for the lap times to drop even further today, assuming they get a clear track with no incidents.
Good luck to everyone - wish I was there with you!