Team manager Mitch Davis says the wash out of Practice 2 has not hindered Pirtek Team Murray driver Matt Brabham’s preparations for the Indianapolis 500.
The complete loss of the second day of practice has enabled the squad to fine-tune its preparation ahead of two days of qualifying this weekend that will ultimately set the 33-car grid for the May 29 classic.
Brabham had previously passed his Rookie Orientation program with flying colours before ending the opening day of practice in 25th in a sound beginning to his Indy 500 bid.
Davis, who has worked on teams at 26 Indy 500s, said Brabham is up there with the best rookies had has worked with including former winner Scott Dixon and Ryan Briscoe.
“I’ve been here with Jeff Ward, Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and many others so I’ve been really fortunate to work with some of the greatest drivers who have run around the Indy 500,” Davis told Speedcafe.com.
“Matt ranks right up there. You look at how naturally talented he is. He just takes to it and a lot of drivers just don’t do that.
“This is a hard place to get around fast but Matt is ready to go faster.
“We are the ones holding him back.”
Davis says the fact that Brabham completed a whole day of running on Monday was a bonus.
“Luckily we got a whole day in on Monday and got to run quite a bit (Brabham turned 49 laps) and Matt is already comfortable in the car,” Davis said.
“It (the wash out) gives us an opportunity to go back and look at things at a finer level than it would have had we of run all day today.
“Every day we run we try and do more preparation towards qualifying and this gives us a bigger step forward.”
The forecast for the next couple of days is for fine conditions with Brabham set to do maximum running on the third day of practice.
Practice sessions run from 12 noon to 6pm local time ahead of two separate days of qualifying this weekend.
There will be a further three practice runs with separate 30-minute sessions split into two groups followed by a 60 minute session for the entire field on Saturday that will precede the first block of qualifying.
The Saturday qualifying will run from 11am to 5.50am (local time) for the full field with the top nine drivers advancing to the Fast 9 run off.
On Sunday qualifying for positions 10-33 will be held from 2.45pm-4.45pm (local time) with the Fast 9 then setting positions 1-9 from 5pm-5.45pm.
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