Marty Roth qualified for his fourth Indianapolis 500 yesterday, holding off several assaults to unseat him in the last 30 minutes of a riveting Bump Day.
Roth will start 33rd in Sunday's 92nd Indy 500.
The owner of tiny Roth Racing, Roth was in the field at the start of the day yesterday but was bumped early on. He averaged 218.965 mph to drive back in and clung on, despite last-ditch qualifying efforts from Roger Yasukawa (Beck Motorsports) and Mario Dominguez (Pacific Coast Motorsports), who crashed on his second qualifying attempt of the day just seconds before the gun fired to end track activities.
Dominguez, who had the speed on his opening lap to bump Roth, spun and slapped the wall in Turn 1 on the second lap, his car almost flipping. He was not injured.
Roth was back in his car during Dominguez's second run in case he had to re-qualify.
Buddy Lazier, the 1996 500 champion, made two qualifying attempts in the last half-hour yesterday to make his 16th 500, his second successful at 219.015, which earned him the 32nd starting position.
With just a few days to get his No. 91 Hemelgarn Johnson Racing entry into the race, Lazier bumped Dominguez at 5:47 p.m.
For A.J. Foyt IV, grandson of the legendary A.J. Foyt, the four-time race champion, May has been tough at Indy.
Foyt, 23, hit the wall hard in practice yesterday afternoon in his primary car after earlier qualifying for the race in 31st spot at 219.184 in the No. 2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda. He suffered minor burns to the back of his head.
The final field includes former Indy winners Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Buddy Rice and Lazier, as well as 11 rookies, led by 19-year-old Graham Rahal, one of the drivers making the transition from the defunct Champ Car World Series to the recently unified IRL IndyCar Series.
NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Melanie Troxel became the first female driver and 14th overall to win in both nitro classes, beating Mike Neff in the Funny Car final in the rain-delayed O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.
Troxel, a four-time winner in Top Fuel, won with a backpedaling 5.06-second run after Neff's Mustang fireballed at 400 feet at Bristol Dragway.
Earlier, Tony Schumacher won the Top Fuel division, beating Larry Dixon with a 4.555-second pass at 306.81 mph. Schumacher, the defending POWERade Series champion, has three wins this season in the U.S. Army dragster.
In Pro Stock, Dave Connolly beat Greg Stanfield on a final-round holeshot.
AMA Superbike
Defending AMA Superbike champion Ben Spies completed a weekend sweep at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, beating Rockstar Makita Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin by 8.042 seconds for his fourth straight victory.
Spies moved within 11 points of Mladin in the season standings with the victory on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn road course. Kawasaki's Jamie Hacking was third.
Schumacher fails to finish
Michael Schumacher's first day of motorcycle racing ended when he skidded onto a gravel pit and failed to finish at the superbike German International Championship in Oschersleben, Germany.
The 39-year-old Schumacher, who retired from Formula One in 2005, started in the last row and was 37th out of 39 riders following electronic problems in Saturday's qualifying.
FIA president presents his case
FIA President Max Mosley suggested auto racing's governing body could lose control of Formula One if he steps down as a result of his involvement in a sex scandal.
Mosley, who could be forced to resign at a special general assembly in Paris on June 3, wrote in a letter made public yesterday that the ongoing negotiations for the controlling rights to F1 would be undermined – and perhaps lost– if he is forced to resign.
Monterey Festival of Speed
Canadian James Hinchcliffe raced to his second career Atlantic victory, beating Carl Skerlong by 2.391 seconds in the Monterey Festival of Speed at Laguna Seca Raceway.
