MVN - Most Valuable Network

Month of May underway at Indianapolis

Preparations for the most important Indianapolis 500 in nearly two decades have begun today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Rookie Orientation Program.

So far, 11 of 13 rookie drivers have taken laps in the ROP, which consists of four different speed phases that they must practice at in order to earn the right to practice with the veterans beginning on Tuesday.

The program began at Noon today and so far, Andretti Green Racing’s Hideki Mutoh holds the fastest lap of the day at 219.824 m.p.h. in the No. 27 machine. Along with the Japanese driver, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Oriol Servia have passed all four phases so far. Alex Lloyd, who currently sits sixth on the charts at 215.675 m.p.h., appears to be the next man to join that bunch.

Today’s ROP session will go until 5 p.m. ET. You can follow along with live video and timing at IndyCar.com.

UPDATE (3:20 p.m. ET): Lloyd has rocketed to the top of the charts with a fast lap of 219.964 m.p.h., passing the final phase of his rookie orientation with a flourish.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.