Scheckter Fastest as Practice Ends
Tomas Scheckter recorded the fastest speed of the Indianapolis 500 practice so far, on a rain-shortend final practice day
Scheckter, driving the Panther Dallara Chevrolet, lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 39.5076 seconds with an average speed of 227.804 mph, underlining his credentials to be a contender for Saturday's MBNA Pole Day.
"I managed a couple of more laps at that speed as well," Scheckter said after practice. "It's a lot of hard work from everybody but knew we had something. I don't think we knew we had that much though, but it's always good to have a little bit more than you expect."
Tony Kanaan was second fastest with a lap of 227.191 mph. Danica Patrick, who led the field yesterday in her Rahal Letterman Panoz Honda, was third fastest with 226.769 mph.
Only 23 cars completed laps before the rain started to fall, 75 minutes into the session.
Indianapolis 500, Practice Day Four - Fastest Speeds
Pos Car Driver Make-Engine Speed(mph) 1. 4 Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Chevrolet 227.804 2. 11 Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 227.191 3. 16 Danica Patrick Panoz-Honda 226.769 4. 6T Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Toyota 226.741 5. 27 Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 226.454 6. 3T Helio Castroneves Dallara-Toyota 224.950 7. 5 Adrian Fernandez Panoz-Honda 224.795 8. 37 Sebastien Bourdais Panoz-Honda 224.764 9. 8 Scott Sharp Panoz-Honda 224.640 10. 2 Tomas Enge Dallara-Chevrolet 224.509 11. 33T Ryan Briscoe Panoz-Toyota 224.371 12. 9T Scott Dixon Panoz-Toyota 224.296 13. 7 Bryan Herta Dallara-Honda 223.870 14. 55 Kosuke Matsuura Panoz-Honda 223.841 15. 26 Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 223.624 16. 36 Bruno Junqueira Panoz-Honda 221.947 17. 51 Alex Barron Dallara-Toyota 219.224 18. 83 Patrick Carpentier Dallara-Toyota 218.884 19. 48 Larry Foyt Panoz-Toyota 216.200 20. 20T Jeff Ward Dallara-Toyota 215.686 21. 25 Marty Roth Dallara-Chevrolet 215.202 22. 91T Paul Dana Dallara-Toyota 214.908 23. 21 Jaques Lazier Panoz-Toyota 134.394
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