Defending champion Scott Dixon and former winners Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti are among the 28 drivers on the initial entry list for the Indianapolis 500.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced 40 entries for the May 24 race on Monday, with a total of 77 cars eligible to compete for the 33 starting spots. Twenty-two cars among 12 entries have no drivers listed yet.
The early entries also include Danica Patrick, one of the four Andretti Green Racing drivers, and Sarah Fisher, who runs her own team. Venezuelan Milka Duno, who drove the past two years, is not on the list.
There are four rookies, headed by last year’s Firestone Indy Lights champion Raphael Matos, along with Stanton Barrett, Mike Conway and Robert Doornbos.
With Castroneves’ acquittal on tax charges, he’ll be one of three drivers for Team Penske, along with Ryan Briscoe and Will Power.
Also entered is …Â Details
The reigning world champion progressed up the field early in the race with some daring manoeuvres, but a number of spins and off-track excursions hampered his race.
The British driver was disappointed he did not taken advantage of the treacherous conditions but was satisfied with a points finish.
“I love racing in the wet and I would say that was one of my worst wet performances,†Hamilton said. … Details & Pictures
The first two races of the Formula One season had ended in anticlimax, in a parade behind the safety car or motionless on the starting grid under pouring rain. The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai on Sunday, the third race, began under rain and behind the safety car, but the rest was palpitating racing to the end.
After a festival of passing and pit stops and cars sliding off the track, the Red Bull team scored its first victory in its fifth season in the sport, and threw in a second place for good measure…Â Details
A year ago, Danica Patrick was in Japan, recording the first victory by a woman in an Indy Racing League event. This weekend, she will be in a seaside suburb of Los Angeles, driving in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. But the question so often on the lips of American motor racing’s chattering classes is, where will she be a year from now?
Patrick is the hard-charging driver/cover girl/swimsuit model who turned the venerable Indianapolis 500 on its ear in 2005, at age 23, by leading the race for 19 laps and finishing fourth, unprecedented achievements by a woman. Since then, she has become the face of the I.R.L., its most marketable asset and a driver for perhaps the best team, Andretti Green…Â Details