MAY 24, 2005
Rookies
Lead Pack in Points, Speed
Sam
Schmidt Motorsports Rookie Drivers
Head
into IMS Race Week Poised for Success
With the series
point leader heading the way, Sam Schmidt Motorsports heads to
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week and Friday's Futaba
Freedom 100 Menards Infiniti Pro Series race - the first race
of a busy Indy weekend leading up to Sunday's Indianapolis
500.
Sam Schmidt
Motorsports last year fielded the car for the Menards Infiniti
Pro Series champion, Thiago Medeiros. Madeiros won the Futaba
Freedom 100 last May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, making
Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM) defending series and race
champions. Without question, the bar of measure is set high
for Schmidt's 2005 rookie lineup heading into the season's
biggest race.
Travis Gregg, who
drives Schmidt's #7 Lucas Oil Special, like his teammates,
seems very comfortable with the high performance standards of
SSM. Currently Gregg leads the championship battle with 110
points. Gregg, 26, is a native of Camden, Ohio, and has two
pole positions (Miami and Phoenix), one victory (Miami) and
has led 88 laps this season.
Chris Festa, 19,
is fifth in the standings with 84 points. He has one
runner-up finish at Phoenix. Festa is from Atlanta, Ga., and
is a freshman at Florida State University. He drives Schmidt's
SpacePak, CareCentric entry. Festa has been in the garage
much of the month of May, helping Sam Schmidt Motorsports
IndyCar entry by spotting for driver Richie Hearn.
Jaime Camara, 24,
is a Brazilian native living in Miami, Fla., and sits sixth in
the standings with 76 points. Driving Schmidt's CELG, Goias
entry, Camara has captured two outside pole positions this
year, was the team's highest qualifier at St. Petersburg
(fifth) and lead the Menards Infiniti Pro Series practice
session at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 7th,
being one of only two drivers to log lap speeds in excess of
190 MPH. He has one runner-up finish this season, coming to
the checkered flag behind teammate Travis Gregg at Homestead.
Sam Schmidt
Motorsports is also a means of promoting and publicizing the
Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. The Foundation was created
by Schmidt to help individuals overcome spinal cord injuries
and other neurological disorders. Schmidt is currently
recovering from serious upper spinal cord injuries suffered in
a testing accident on January 6, 2000 while practicing for the
season-opening Indy Racing League event at Walt Disney World
Speedway in Orlando, Fla. Further information is available at
www.samschmidt.org or (317) 236-9999.
Schmidt's rookie
lineup is all business when talking about race preparations
for Indy. Here is what the drivers and owner Schmidt had to
say going into Indianapolis:
SAM SCHMIDT,
Owner, Sam Schmidt Motorsports:
"The Freedom 100
is clearly the most important event on the Menards Infiniti
Pro Series schedule. With the race being held on Carburetion
Day, it is even more important that we qualify well and win
for what will be our largest crowd of the year.
"I know our team
has spent considerable time and effort preparing all the cars
for a unified assault on this race. It would be simply a dream
come true if we could repeat last year's victory at the
greatest race track in the world."
TRAVIS GREGG, #7 Lucas Oil Special,
Sam Schmidt Motorsports Entry:
"I feel this is the biggest race of
the year. So much history has been drawn from so many race
car drivers going to Indy - it would simply be awesome to win
there. I'm sure every driver that's raced there has dreamed
about winning there.
"Really there's not much pressure
going into this race as the points leader. Our lead is only
three points and it's still so early in the season - we have a
lot of racing to do still. Heading into the season finale [at
California] might be a different story.
"We're really going the same speed
[at Indy] as we do on our other courses, but it's just a
little less banking. So it's not really faster, but it's more
of a challenge. The wind can affect the car in the corners
and make it really different from one end of the track to the
other.
"Indy is so big, sometimes going
down the straightaway, it seems like it takes forever to get
to the corners. When you turn in, it keeps you busy. Most
[oval] tracks feel like they have two turns, but at Indy,
there are four distinct turns.
"You really have to be perfect in
every corner because you don't want to scrub off speed. These
cars don't have the horsepower that IndyCars do, so we have to
keep the momentum and RPMs up or we lose a lot of speed. A
little mistake in the corner can scrub off enough speed to
ruin an entire lap."
CHRIS FESTA,
#19 SpacePak, CareCentric, Sam Schmidt Motorsports Entry:
"My first time
driving on Indianapolis Motor Speedway was about a month and a
half ago, to drive the road course in the test session and
then I drove the oval earlier in the month for the Pro Series
test.
"This oval is much
trickier than other ovals because it has four distinct
corners. The line is more critical than any other track we've
been to, so we have to hit our marks every time. You need to
exit the corners right in order to lengthen the straightaway
to gain the most speed on the track. Basically, you do that
by straightening your hands sooner in the exit of the corner.
"The history and
prestige of the track aren't on my mind when I'm out there
[racing]. It's a very historical track, but at the end of the
day, it's another track to me and I need to race it like
that. I have to be focused on racing to win, to accumulate
points and to win the championship.
"In the test
session, we had a great team strategy to get the most data we
could out of the test. We had one car, Jamie [Camara], work
on qualifying setups, while Travis and I worked on race
setups. We got a lot of information we'll be able to use to
set up the cars.
"Indy is probably
my favorite oval because it's the most technical, it's the
most road course-like that I've done. If you make a mistake
like missing an entrance to a turn, it takes basically a full
lap to be back up to speed. It's very technical."
JAIME CAMARA,
#1 CELG, Goias, Sam Schmidt Motorsports Entry:
"I like the
track. It's very fast and it's very different. I've never
raced on a track similar to it. I'm very excited about racing
there and I really want to win.
"I know it's kind
of a big thing, but I'm trying not to think about it so I
don't put more pressure on myself. Really, it's huge. The
track is big and the history around it is huge-there's so much
tradition, but I am trying not to think about it too much. I
have to think about driving the car and not be distracted.
"To be fast all
day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway you have to have a good car
setup. Each turn takes a different line. It's very
challenging. I really like driving the track. I would love
to win at Indy.
"We had the
fastest car in the test session this month, and we learned a
lot. It was a lot of fun. The track is great to drive. I
can't wait for the race."
FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION:
Lori Smith OR
Richard N. (Chip) Williams, Williams Company of America, Inc.
502 E. Center
Ave., Mooresville, NC 28115 (704) 660-0796 FAX: (704)
660-0886
email:
lori.smith@earthlink.net chip.williams@mindspring.com
www.williamscompany.com (digitized high-res photos
available for media downloading)
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