Fisher joins the boys by qualifying for first 500
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- Sarah Fisher, a 19-year-old rookie, just
wants to be one of the guys.
"All the drivers are being very supportive of what I'm doing," said Fisher, who on Saturday became the third, and youngest, woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.
Fisher averaged 220.237 mph for the four laps.
Lyn St. James hits the Turn 2 wall after losing control of her car and going airborne briefly during her second qualifying attempt.
"I'm just like any other race driver," she said. "I hold my own, I pass clean, and that's what they want in their competitors. So they're going to treat me with the same respect as long as I do that, and I certainly feel I can."
Fisher admitted she had a big case of the jitters before she
started her qualification attempt.
"But after you get going in the car, all the nervousness, all the chills go away and you're really focused on what you're doing," Fisher said.
"The most important thing for me next Sunday is to be focused," she said of race day. "There's a ton of people here, there's a ton of media here, and there's a lot of pressure here. I already know how to race, now it's just a matter of focusing on the task at hand."
Fisher was born three years after Janet Guthrie, at age 39, became the first woman to drive in the 500 in 1977. The only other woman in the Indy lineup has been Lyn St. James, who was 45 when she was rookie of the year in 1992.
St. James, trying for her seventh start at Indy, crashed during a warmup lap late in Saturday's qualifying but was not injured.
More trouble for Memo
Rookie Memo Gidley's long-shot hopes of landing a spot in the Indianapolis 500 took another jolt on Saturday.
The 29-year-old driver, a veteran of 13 races in the CART series, came to Indianapolis with a year-old IRL car, one engine, a borrowed crew and a $30,000 budget.
He struggled for speed all week and was clocked at just over 202
mph on his warmup lap before qualifying. Just after he took the
green flag to start his qualification attempt, he went low and
touched the infield grass coming out of the first turn. The car
spun up to the outside wall, causing moderate damage to the left
rear.
Gidley was not injured.
Others who crashed on Saturday -- also unhurt -- were rookie Andy
Hillenburg and veterans Lyn St. James, Jimmy Kite, Scott Harrington
and Hideshi Matsuda.
More pressure
Condensing four days of time trials into two made qualifications "10 times more stressful," driver Buzz Calkins said.
"You have pressure on you every day. If you lose a day, you're that much father behind the field," Calkins said Saturday after qualifying for his fifth start at Indy.
Until last year, teams had more time to tinker with qualifying setups.
"There was always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Now you have to be right on it," Calkins said. "It's the same for everybody ... but it's not much fun when you're going through it."
Calkins called off his first attempt after one lap at just over 214 mph Saturday morning. Later in the afternoon, he came back and put his car in the lineup at an average of 219.862, making him the second-slowest of Saturday's 23 qualifiers.
The final 10 spots will be filled on Sunday.
