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Indy hopes rest with Aussie Briscoe |
Indy hopes rest with Aussie Briscoe | 22.05.2008 | |
AUSTRALIA`S hopes of winning the world`s most famous race, the Indianapolis 500, rest with arguably the country`s most talented driver, Ryan Briscoe.Briscoe is perfectly placed to give Australia it`s first win in the gruelling 91-year-old speedfest where top speeds at the iconic ‘Brickyard` approach 400km/h.
He will start Sunday`s race before an estimated crowd of 350,000 from the front row of the grid, having qualified third fastest.
The 26-year-old will be one of only five Australians to compete at Indianapolis, following Sir Jack Brabham, his son Geoff, Vern Schuppan and current IndyCar driver Will Power who is making his debut this year.
Schuppan is the only driver to have claimed a podium place, finishing third in 1981 in a McLaren-Ford. Geoff Brabham was fourth in a Penske-Cosworth.
Briscoe will be making his third start at Indianapolis - he was 10th on debut in 2005 and fifth last year in a one-off team built by legendary US motor racing figure Roger Penske, for whom he will be racing this weekend.
The Sydney racer has a legitimate chance of victory on Sunday - he has proved startlingly quick in a variety of different machinery.
A victim of political in-fighting at Toyota despite being a very fast factory Formula One test driver, Briscoe moved to Champ Cars and American Le Mans cars while also driving in IndyCar and the A1 Grand Prix series.
One of his most impressive performances was as a guest driver for the V8 Supercar Holden Racing Team at the Sandown 500 two years ago.
Briscoe had never driven a car with an engine in the front before but left the cream of Australia`s elite domestic competition red-faced as he put his Commodore on provisional pole position.
He is respected enough in the US to have been signed by Penske - whose cars have won 14 Indy 500 classics - for the IndyCar series after it merged with Champ Cars, but is best remembered for a fiery accident at Chicagoland during a 2005 race which left him recuperating for five weeks.
Briscoe admits he has learned a lot since his initial open wheel racing days in the US, when he ran for the Chip Ganassi team.
"I`m grateful for this second chance I`ve been given - 2005 was extremely tough and I was extremely inexperienced," Briscoe said.
"I think definitely through the hard times you`ve got to keep your chin up and keep pushing and, you know, definitely make the most of the good times when they come around.
"I think I came over here and for sure had too many accidents and I had to look back at myself and see what I needed to do to become a better driver.
"I`m still working on it, I think as you gain more experience you learn more about yourself and you learn more about your competitors and your equipment and the circuits and everything.
"From three years ago in the oval racing, I had to learn what it took to finish races and be competitive and work on a race car during a race and be there at the end," he said.
Briscoe said he now had a totally different focus working up to this weekend`s race compared to his two previous starts.
"Last year I came in and wasn`t a full-time driver and it was more about just getting the experience and trying to have a good, solid run and not trying to be the quickest guy all the time and looking at consistency more," he said.
"Last year after I made the first qualifying attempt and we were sitting pretty good ... we knew we had the speed to contend for the front row but just decided to sit back and be conservative.
"This year we took that other run and did go for the front row.
"We`re going to be going out for the win this year and not just hanging back."
Queenslander Power will be lining up in his maiden Indy 500, for Team Australia.
A talented former Champ Car frontrunner, Power has qualified in 23rd spot but is not without a chance of winning in a race which can take several hours to complete depending on accidents and safety car appearances.
Columbian ex Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya and Briscoe`s Brazilian teammate Helio Castroneves both won the Indy 500 in their rookie year, in 2000 and 2001 respectively. AAP |
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 Under threat ... the lower lakes of the Murray-Darling are usually 30cm to 75cm above sea level, but at the moment they`re 30 to 40cm below / Image supplied |
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| Low dams doom Murray-Darling lakes 08/07/2008 |
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