Rookie Orientation Program Opens the IMS Month of May
By Bram • May 4th, 2008 • Category: IRL, News, Notes
As Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard waved the the green at 12:02 PM, the Month of May that leads up to the 92nd running of the Indianpolis 500 officailly began the on track phase.
Today was the first of two days of Rookie Orientation Program at the fabled Brickyard. 13 driver were expected to participate. The rookie class for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 take their first laps around the 2.5-mile speedway as they must complete the ROP, a set of four phases of 10 laps each at increasing speeds. The first phase, drivers have to meet a minimum speed of 205.00 MPH increasing each session to a final phase of 215 + .MPH.
Veteran drivers are serving as another set of eyes with the IRL officials , watching corner entry and exits, straightaway handling and giving critque as needed.
The list of drivers for the ROP:
Will Power, Oriol Servia: KV Racing Technology
Justin Wilson, Graham Rahal: Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
Mario Moraes: Dale Coyne Racing
EJ Viso: HVM Racing
Enrique Bernoldi, Jaime Camara: Conquest Racing
Jay Howard: Roth Racing
Mario Dominguez: Pacific Coast Motorsports
Hideki Mutoh: Andretti Green Racing
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alex Lloyd: Rahal Letterman Racing
Will Power of KV Racing Technologies was the first on track. He was quickly followed by KVRT teammate Oriol Servia for the first shakedown laps before getting up to speed.
Servia was first to begin the ten lap ‘getting acquainted’ session registering a best lap of 205.633 on his sixth tour of the circuit. He was followed by Power who completed his inital pahse of ROP testing with a top lap of 205.078.
Andretti Green Racing’s Hideki Mutoh set top day speeds with 219.324, completing all four phases.
Graham Rahal, not wasting any time, completed his 4 ROP phases with a top speed of 218.619, as did Justin Wilson Oriol Servia and Ryan Hunter Reay allowing them to drive the track at will.
Moer coverage will come later today.
