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(06/08/14 11:04pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Just in case the NCAA needed yet another problem on its plate, Rashad McCants happily obliged.The former North Carolina basketball star made headlines Friday when he claimed he took a number of bogus classes and rarely attended class during his time as a Tar Heel.Supposedly Coach Roy Williams was completely aware of what was happening.When McCants arrived at UNC his freshman year, he claims he took a more common schedule. But he would soon begin enrolling in classes designed to simply pass student–athletes.Among the more infamous of these are so called “paper classes,” which required no attendance and had only a single term paper.That’s a single paper McCants claimed a tutor would write.Williams quickly denied these allegations. And whether there is any truth to the claims is beyond me. I really don’t care on such a small scale. The point is, an obvious problem with student–athletes balancing time in the classroom and playing field still exists.If the NCAA wants to ensure credibility in its often-questioned system of allocating scholarships and education to athletes, it’s time for the leaders of collegiate athletics to put an end to any questions surrounding academic credibility.The leaders of the “Power Five” conferences — the ACC, Big 12, Pac, 12, SEC and Big Ten — need to act as one in teaming up to enforce stricter regulations in the classroom.The “Power Five” all have enormous deals with TV networks and financial support.With all the funding, they have say in restoring credibility in education. If the powerhouse conferences of 65 schools all act in unison to confront academic problems, the rest of the Division I schools will surely follow.And when the rest of the schools follow, the NCAA as a whole can make a strong statement in ensuring student–athletes are in the classroom getting the education they deserve.A situation like McCants described — whether it actually happened to him — should never be even a remote possibility.McCants summed up his opinion when he told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” about the purpose of college athletes like himself.“You’re there to make revenue for the college,” he said. “You’re there to put fans in the seats. You’re there to bring prestige to the university by winning games.”If ensuring academics is really the priority for student–athletes going to college, the UNC case will be investigated.If the NCAA really wants to restore academic integrity once and for all, the power conferences will act as one and ensure McCants’s story becomes a “blue-chip” of the past.sbeishui@indiana.edu
(06/02/14 3:24am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>I grew up with a poster of a young Tiger Woods reading a putt taped to my door.He’s knelt down with putter in hand and eyes fixed on a target underneath the brim of his black Nike hat. Above his head, the phrase “the eyes have it” is written, like it’s a secret to life itself. Woods probably made the putt. He always did. But this year, he’s out of the game. Again. As he so often does, Woods took to his website last week to announce he would not be competing in the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst because of a back injury. It’s another massive blow to his goal of catching Jack Nicklaus’s major record.Because of the injury, I don’t expect Woods to win a major this summer. But the next six months will be pivotal for Woods if he ever wants to catch Nicklaus.He doesn’t have a realistic chance to be playing competitively until the PGA Championship in August, and, even then, Woods has shown it takes time for him to get back into rhythm.Because of his flaky habits, an entire generation of young 20-something players has become unafraid of Woods. He won five times last year in the non-majors, but that doesn’t put the same fear into the eyes of competitors as a major crown. Talking about Woods has become like talking about the Cubs: “Next year,” we say. But “next year” never comes. The time is ticking and the amount of “next years” is limited.Woods is not going to win a major this summer, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a productive one. He needs to do something with his game between now and September. With his constant nagging injuries and his fear of hurting himself even further, I think the most obvious trick could be the most important part of the game showcased on my poster — putting.Putting puts nearly no strain on the body. It’s more mental than physical. And when Woods is making putts, he’s dangerous. Between 2004 and 2008, Woods only finished outside the top 10 in putting strokes once. He finished 22nd in 2006, a year in which Woods won two majors, even while coping with the death of his father.Since then, Woods has averaged a rank of 53.5 in putting strokes gained in the past four years. That does not bode well for winning major tournaments.But if he can get his putter figured out during the next five months, the rest of his game should fall into place. Then he can chase majors in 2015.Although Woods won’t be playing in any majors soon, the process of catching Nicklaus starts now. And it starts with the putter.Woods needs to become the player on the poster of my door who seemingly never misses putts. Then he can start worrying about everything else and return to major glory. After all, “the eyes have it.”sbeishui@indiana.edu
(05/25/14 11:23pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Ryan Hunter-Reay slowed his car on the cool down lap approaching Turn 3. The Indy 500 faithful chanted "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A," in as close to unison as they could manage, and the newly crowned 500 champion drove by.For the first time since 2006, an American has won the world's greatest race. For only the third time in the last 15 races, a homegrown driver will get his face etched into the Borg-Warner Trophy on Memorial Day weekend.Maybe I'm a biased American. But that feels right."I'm a proud American boy, that's for sure," Hunter-Reay said in Victory Lane. "This is American history, this race, this is American tradition."The Indianapolis 500 is an American tradition. But lately the tradition has been for Americans to struggle.I typically don't care what a driver's nationality is. I grew up a fan of Brazilian Helio Castroneves, and it breaks my heart seeing him dejected after falling 0.060 seconds behind Hunter-Reay. I was wearing my Englishman Dan Wheldon memorial shirt at the track on race day.But this win hits home.American open-wheel racing needed this. We need more Ryan Hunter-Reays.Open-wheel racing in the United States has been through its ups and downs. There are no American drivers currently racing in Formula One. The United States just recently got back its Formula One Grand Prix event in Austin, Texas. IndyCar isn't drawing the attendance numbers it used to, despite on-track action that I would rank the best in the world.This columnist is an open-wheel traditionalist. No fenders, open cockpit cars racing on ovals, street circuits, road courses and whatever else you can throw at a driver.Pure racing.It used to be that you could go to a local short track and watch a young Mario Andretti or AJ Foyt cutting his teeth in a USAC Sprint Car on the road to IndyCar or Formula One. You'd find young Americans wrestling their cars around grassroot tracks in small towns with funny names and dreams of one day racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.But young American drivers don't grow up wanting to race in Formula One or IndyCar. They have dreams of NASCAR. That's where the American audience is glued. And I think part of the problem was that the casual American fan was turned off from IndyCar because of the lack of Americans winning the 500.But what I saw out of Hunter-Reay on Sunday restored my confidence in IndyCar and American open-wheel racing.His move on Castroneves to take the lead with four laps still has me in awe, and it's etched into my memory forever.Castroneves left no room for Hunter-Reay to go low, but Hunter-Reay showed him a tire low anyway to let him know he was there. Hunter-Reay made a slight cut to the right, which forced Castroneves to defer from his line slightly up the track and still left practically no room to his inside.Hunter-Reay went for the little space there was. As quickly as he went outside, Hunter-Reay dove back to the inside and got his nose on the preferred line going into Turn 3.He forced Castroneves to make a decision: concede the spot or risk wrecking both drivers in the process of defending. It was a move Ayrton Senna himself would have been proud of.Now, I've grown up watching racing. I've seen too many races to count everywhere from Martinsville, Ind., to Eldora, Ohio, and from Indianapolis to Anderson Speedway and just about everywhere in between.But THAT ranks as one of the single greatest passes I've ever seen. And it's a carbon copy of the type of move I'd expect to see in a sprint car race at a local short track in the middle of nowhere.The place where Andretti and Foyt would have cut their teeth. The place American open-wheel racing still lives on.Hunter-Reay's win is a reminder that open-wheel racing in America is not dead. Americans still have the talent. Not everyone is running to the world of stock cars like the pessimist in me feared.American Ryan Hunter-Reay won the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500. An American in Victory Lane on Memorial Day weekend celebrating on racing's grandest stage.So go ahead and chant, fans in Turn 3. It's your day too. "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A."
(05/23/14 4:38pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Ed Carpenter sat on the pit wall overlooking his No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet. He was waiting in line on day one of Indy 500 qualifying, feeling slightly nervous.It's not an uncommon feeling for Carpenter, the owner-driver of Ed Carpenter Racing. Each year when May begins and the Indianapolis 500 draws near, Carpenter gets paranoid about his racecar.He questions his car's speed. How fast is the equipment? Is it a front-row contender? Will it struggle to simply make the race?The anxiety for a racing driver preparing to push the limits of man and machine around a 2.5 mile oval would overwhelm the common man. The competition on track is intense. Danger lurks around every corner."Before you go out for qualifying here, it's not a good feeling," Carpenter said.Carpenter doesn't say much as he lifts himself off the pit wall. He walks around the front of his car before his team pushes it further up the line. He joins JR Hildebrand for discussion. Carpenter is Hildebrand's new boss, fielding his No. 21 entry in the 500.Ten minutes pass, and Carpenter is now next in line. It's the first time Carpenter has been officially on the clock in seven months. But now he's ready to wrestle 600 horsepower around one of the world's most daunting racecourses.As he takes the track, applause can be heard above the sound of the engine. The Indianapolis native is a fan favorite at the Speedway, and after winning the pole in 2012 the fan expectations are high.On the track, Carpenter puts his nerves aside. A racing driver can't afford to drive while nervous or scared. Fear leads to mistakes. Mistakes leads to cars wrecking into the wall."I think qualifying here is one of the hardest things to do," Carpenter said.The perennial odds are largely against Carpenter. Despite adding a second car, Ed Carpenter Racing is largely a single-car operation. He's going up against power teams owned by Michael Andretti, Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske, who have their hands in fielding a combined 12 cars.Despite that, Carpenter's anxiety about a slow car proves to be unwarranted. He beats the big teams on Saturday and claims the pole on Sunday.For the second consecutive year, Ed Carpenter will lead the field to green in the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.But that's not what he came to do."We come here to win," Carpenter said.***Carpenter felt out of place the past few race weekends.Carpenter — the only current owner-driver in the Verizon IndyCar Series — made a career-changing decision prior to the start of the 2014 season: only drive the oval races on the schedule, allowing for Mike Conway to drive the road-course races.It's not always easy to tell a racing driver to get out of the car. It's even tougher when he has to watch another driver get in it. But Carpenter made the move to get out of the car in the best interest of his team.The IndyCar schedule is made of a mix of road and street courses, as well as ovals. Carpenter cut his teeth on ovals across the Midwest racing sprint cars. Conway, on the other hand, was a road racing ringer of sorts. After a few scary crashes on ovals, Conway decided to end his oval-racing career.The partnership between the two drivers was the perfect marriage. Carpenter would handle the ovals while Conway would race the road races.It was a career-changing decision for both men. One that caught the attention of their competitors."I think it was a brilliant move," Andretti Autosport driver James Hinchcliffe said. "You've got two guys that really needed each other, and so I think from a team owner perspective it was perfect."The move instantly paid dividends.In the second race of the season, Conway won the prestigious Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Conway got the drivers trophy, and Carpenter took the owner's trophy standing on the pit box.But with IndyCar returning to Indianapolis, Carpenter is back where he feels most comfortable — the cockpit of his No. 20 Verizon IndyCar Series Dallara-Chevrolet."I feel like I'm back home," Carpenter said. "I don't know what I'm doing on the timing stand all the time. I'm just trying to stay out of the way, and I probably talk more than I should. But the guys on the team do a great job."I think I'm a better asset to them in the car than I am standing up on the timing stand."***The time off led to questions about what kind of racing shape Carpenter would be in once he finally got back into the car.Sunday's Indianapolis 500 will be Carpenter's first race in seven months. The Butler alumnus finished second in the 2013 season finale last October at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.Since that race, Carpenter spent the offseason concentrating on work within his Ed Carpenter Racing team. He worked on developing his cars and going through day-to-day duties as a team owner.Despite the layoff, Carpenter didn't have much trouble trading his owner's hat for a driver's helmet. He qualified at 231.067 mph to claim his second consecutive 500 pole."I don't think that I was at a disadvantage at all," Carpenter said of his layoff. "I've done as much oval testing since the last race at Fontana as anybody. You know, we did two days at Texas and two days at Fontana. So I don't really — I didn't feel any rest. I'm always so excited to get back out on this track."When Carpenter puts on his driver's helmet, the owner's cap gets set aside.He had a laundry list of people he thanks for allowing him to drive, including his wife, Heather.Carpenter says when he is out on the track, his focus turns to the driving ahead. He can't afford to be thinking about ownership and funding. When he's on the track, he's just another driver."When I'm driving, it simplifies things for me a lot," he said. "Just because to be prepared and to be ready to race it takes a lot of work with the team, so I've really just been trying to stay out of ownership stuff and focus on driving and trying to win this race."***As an owner, Carpenter knows the value of money in racing.It's no secret that larger teams such as Team Penske, Ganassi Racing and Andretti Autosport are going to win more often because of funding for better equipment. Since forming Ed Carpenter Racing two years ago, the organization has been a single-car operation, but Carpenter has long dreamed of expansion to compete with the dominant forced in IndyCar.Carpenter got one step closer to realizing that dream this May with the addition of workout partner and friend JR Hildebrand for the Indy 500.The benefit of the second car has shown itself throughout the month of May. Rain washed away a majority of the practice time leading up the qualifying, but Carpenter was able to rely on data from both of his cars to find speed like bigger teams typically do.The results spoke for themselves. Both cars qualified in the top nine positions."I'm really happy we have the second car this month with the way it's gone with limited running and the rain," Carpenter said. "Having JR on the team has been a huge help. I'm happy we're in a position to have a chance to win a pole again, and at the same time I feel like we're in better shape for the race than where we were last year, too, so it's shaping up to be a fun weekend."Hildebrand has his own infamous record at Indianapolis. He was leading the race in 2011, going into the final turn, before notoriously crashing, which left the door open for the late Dan Wheldon to pass him for the win.Hildebrand said the relationship with Carpenter has gone well for him. He has put 2011's incident behind him and has been enjoying his time working with and learning from his new team owner."Until this week, I've never worked so closely with another driver," Hildebrand said. "That has made this a much easier process getting through all that stuff. I feel like we have strong equipment, strong people, and like I said, I've not worked together with another driver ever to this level."Hildebrand's success could go a long way toward helping Carpenter secure the financial backing required to run a second car full time. Having Hildebrand as a teammate could potentially help Ed Carpenter Racing join the elite ranks of a powerhouse team in IndyCar."Running the second car at Indy is easier than a lot of places because you don't have to transport equipment and people, because you can shuttle it out here," Carpenter explained. Hopefully (expansion) happens this year or next year after we try to figure out a way to win the race."***Carpenter says winning the Indy 500 stands out above everything else.Last season, after starting on the pole, Carpenter led 37 laps in the race — the most of any driver. But he found himself marred in traffic throughout the race. He could never make his way back to the front of the field through the dirty air, and he ultimately finished in 10th.Carpenter was disappointed in the finish. After having the hype and excitement of starting on the pole and being able to lead, he was frustrated in the middle of the back without anywhere to go."We weren't bad last year. I mean we led the most laps in the race," Carpenter said. "It wasn't that our car was bad. It was more of just we made a couple decisions that I think if we could have changed it, we would have been in a better position."With the luxury of running a second car this year, Carpenter put most of his energy on race setups during practice, despite his strong showing in qualifying trim.He placed most of the credit for the speed in the hands of his engineers and mechanics, most of whom all work part-time.He doesn't quite have the money to pay for a full-time staff for two cars, but he has gotten the most from his Ed Carpenter Racing team as they try to figure out a way to improve from last year's mistakes with car setups."When you're working on race setup, when we talk about it, you're constantly trying to find grip in the car," he said. "You're trying to find ways to make your car work in dirty air."Carpenter won't know exactly what his car will do until Sunday. When he gets in the car, he will be racing as not just a driver but as an owner trying to have an impact in IndyCar by propelling a small team to compete with giants.Ownership won't be on Carpenter's mind as he puts on his helmet. The mind of a racing driver requires focus at such a high level on one of the world's grandest stages.All the sacrifice and all of what Carpenter put into his dream of building his race team will come to life as Mari Hulman George raises two thumbs up into the air as she iterates the most famous words in racing."Drivers, start your engines."And as Carpenter drives off the grid and the pace laps tick away, all that matters is the race. His biggest race. Five hundred miles and 32 other competitors stand between him and racing glory."This is my primary goal as a racecar driver in my career," Carpenter said. "To win the 500."
(05/22/14 7:39pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, IND. — Juan Pablo Montoya’s Indianapolis 500 record speaks for itself — he’s perfect.The Colombian dominated in 2000, as he led 167 laps and became the first rookie to taste the milk in victory lane since Graham Hill had won 34 years prior. With a CART Championship and Indianapolis 500 to his name already, Montoya seemed like he would be challenging for wins at Indianapolis for years to come.Montoya has not made an Indy 500 start since. He spent time in Formula One and NASCAR, accumulating race wins from Monaco to Daytona, Fla., and a number of other places in between.But now, 14 years after etching his face into Borg-Warner Trophy, Montoya is back in an IndyCar at Indianapolis. He's driving for Team Penske and is ready to defend his perfect record in the Indy 500.He will begin that quest for a second title in as many tries from 10th position, and, despite being away from IndyCar at Indianapolis for 15 years, Montoya was blunt when describing his displeasure about his qualifying run.“I think it’s terrible,” Montoya said of his starting spot. “I was too conservative.”Montoya’s negativity about his place on the grid stems from his self-assurance. Four races into his return to IndyCar, Montoya is already comfortable in his role with Team Penske. His confidence in his team and failure to accept anything short of a win, despite getting reacquainted with open-wheel racing, is what drives him.He said he hopes it pays dividends in Sunday’s race.“Coming back to open-wheel is something I already did,” Montoya said. “It was just readjusting to the car, understanding the car and the tools that I had.”“I’ll tell you the truth, I was really surprised when I came on (the first time back),” he said. “I went out, and I said, ‘I’m going to take my time. Full throttle, lifted on three and four, second lap, third lap, fourth lap. I’m good.’ It was nice.”But the turnaround for Montoya to transition back into an IndyCar after spending seven years in NASCAR and six years in Formula One before that is not an easy task.Montoya has struggled at times this season, as he recorded only one top five finish at the Grand Prix of Long Beach and failed to finish in the top 15 the other three races. The current IndyCar chassis and engine combination is quite different than the one he drove last in 2000. Montoya called it a blend between an IRL and Formula One car when considering the weight to horsepower ratios.Admittedly, Montoya entered Indianapolis — the first oval of the IndyCar season — slightly defensive. He said he wanted to feel his way into the car before trimming out and running full speed. On his side, however, is the experience he has gained through his time driving cars ranging from NASCAR to Formula One to Grand Am Sports Cars, which he says has helped.Throughout his time in NASCAR, Montoya was often criticized for his lack of immediate success. The driver used to winning on Formula One’s world stage only had 24 top five finishes in 253 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts.He said he doesn’t like to talk about the mixed success in NASCAR.“It is what it is," Montoya says.But he said his time racing stock cars helped him grow.“(I have) just a lot more experience,” Montoya said. “Smarter, wiser. But at the same time you’ve got to figure out everything again. I’ve been outside of an open-wheel car for a long time.”On his pit box is team owner Roger Penske, who considered Montoya a rival throughout his career when Montoya drove for rival Chip Ganassi Racing. But Montoya’s attitude and commitment in competition against Penske in both IndyCar and NASCAR are among the same traits that attracted Penske to hire Montoya when he became a free agent looking for a ride at the end of last year.“Quite honestly, I’ve known Juan from the very beginning of his career here in the United States,” Penske said. “He’s been a guy that’s fast. Quite honestly, I think (teammates) Will (Power), Helio (Castroneves) and the guys look forward to having him come with us. He’s pushing the guys. That’s just been a great cross-pollination of information getting Juan to where he wants to be.”Penske added he wasn’t sure he would even field a third car for this season. Former driver AJ Allmendinger left the team to return to NASCAR. When Montoya became available, Penske instantly opened the seat for him.“When (Montoya) became available, it was a matter of 'Let’s go,'” he said. “We’re very happy to have him on the team.”Montoya, now 38, returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the length of his remaining career unknown. Three other Colombian drivers—Sebastian Saavedra, Carlos Huertas and Carlos Munoz — are all IndyCar regulars below the age of 23.“The funny thing is, all these young kids started watching me,” Montoya joked, making fun of his own age. “You know what I mean.”“Now I just need to win the race.”
(05/22/14 1:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Sunday will bear one of motorsport’s ultimate tests of endurance for Kurt Busch — 1,100 combined miles of racing between Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway.Four drivers have attempted what the racing community simply calls, “the Double.” The most recent attempt came from Robby Gordon in 2004. Only one driver — Busch’s NASCAR owner Tony Stewart — has completed all 1,100 miles on the same day. Stewart finished sixth in Indianapolis and third in Charlotte in 2001.Simply joining Stewart in completing both premier events would rank as one of the greatest accomplishments in Busch’s career. A win in either of the races — especially Indianapolis — would instantly cement Busch’s name among legends.But Busch isn’t concerned with the history books. He said Indianapolis serves as a new benchmark — a personal goal of testing himself on one of racing’s greatest stages.“It’s not like I’m putting my career or my credentials on the line to prove anything,” Busch said. “This is a moment to check off something on the bucket list, but also to challenge myself to see where I can end up in this open-wheel rank at one of the most difficult races in the world.” Busch’s crossover from the stock car world to the IndyCar world has been well-received by those at Indianapolis. As Busch finished debriefing with his team before qualifying on May 18, a crowd of about 30 fans had gathered around his pit box. A few of them requested pictures as Busch got onto his golf cart to drive back to the garage, and Busch obliged.For years, the often outspoken Busch has been among NASCAR’s most polarizing figures. The 2004 NASCAR champion carries the nickname “the Outlaw” because of his past history of disagreements with competitors and public scrutiny from comments made to media and his team.But that isn’t the Kurt Busch teammate James Hinchcliffe has seen. Hinchcliffe initially joked that Busch was normally “throwing things and cussing a lot,” but he quickly corrected himself.“No, no, that’s clearly the Kurt of old,” he said after qualifying. “The guy we’ve had has just been awesome. It’s been really cool seeing someone with as much racing knowledge and experience as he has. He’s brought a lot to the table in that respect. Some of the philosophies are very different, but you’re taking a rookie who happens to have a billion races under his belt.”Despite his experience at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car, adjusting to drive the radically different No. 26 Dallara-Honda has taken some getting used to. While in NASCAR, the cars Busch described as a “workload truck” would happily go into Turn 1 around 200 mph. His “sports car” IndyCar makes the first turn at about 230 mph.Like Busch, competitor Juan Pablo Montoya has had experience in both NASCAR and IndyCar. Montoya said he has been impressed with what he has seen from Busch, but he added racing scenarios will be different.“In NASCAR, you get probably about 20 percent of the understeer that you get here, I think,” Montoya explained. “He’s doing a really good job in a really good car with a good team. The racing will be harder because he’s not 100 percent sure what he’s going to get.”Busch got a taste for just how difficult race conditions can be on Monday during the final full day of IndyCar practice. As he exited Turn 2, Busch felt a bobble in the car. He quickly tried to correct the car, but he overcorrected and sent the car into a spin that left Busch with a torn up racecar.It’s the exact scenario Busch will look to avoid in Sunday’s race at Indianapolis. Readjusting to the IndyCar start will be the most challenging aspect. Busch said he will take the first third of the race to simply practice and get his bearings before starting to make his move through the field.“It will be just a matter of controlling emotions, as this is the start,” he said. “The tow of the draft will be phenomenal. It will be overwhelming to the point where breaks will come on to my mind, ‘I’m slowing down,’ and just staying off of the car in front of me and settling in. It’s a matter of just trusting the car in the dirt dirty air.”Busch said running in the Indianapolis 500 will be a dream come true. He’s called the open-wheel paddock a whole new world, and he has been complimentary of the competition and the help he’s gotten from other drivers.Once one dream race comes to an end, Busch will go into NASCAR mode. Busch will hop onto a private plane in his fire suit for a 50-minute flight back to Charlotte, where doctors will attend to him and make sure his health is in the proper state to compete in NASCAR. He’s been training for the endurance test with karate and runs to the gym, but the doctors will serve as precautionary aids.He said he’ll take a nap on the plane, eat and be ready to hit the track once again, chasing a win in NASCAR’s longest race. With the IndyCar race beginning at 12:12 p.m. and lasting roughly three hours and the NASCAR race starting at 6:15 p.m., any delays during the day will cause more stress on the already tight schedule.But Busch said he isn’t worried as much about that. He is only worried about one thing — becoming the second person to complete “the Double” and trying to find a way to win either race on Sunday.“I’m enjoying and taking it all in,” Busch said. “To be on the fourth row of the Indianapolis 500, I’ll give it a thumbs up.”
(05/22/14 1:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Thirty-three drivers are set to take the grid at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with one goal in mind — etching their likeness in the Borg-Warner Trophy as the winner of the 98th Indianapolis 500.This year’s field of drivers is one of the most diverse to date. Six former winners take the grid, including Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve, who return to the track as defending winners after years away in other forms of motorsport. Of the seven rookies taking the field, NASCAR regular Kurt Busch will look to complete his first Indy 500.The diversity of the field and the unpredictability of the Verizon IndyCar Series this season, combined with the current aerodynamics packages of the cars, has made determining a race favorite difficult, various drivers have said.Five different teams are represented in the top nine after qualifying, and after a record 68 lead changes this past season, Team Penske driver Will Power said he believes the race is anyone’s for the taking.“There isn’t a car out there that can’t win it,” Power said. “The whole field is going to start on the front stretch, and the whole field is going to finish on the front stretch on the last lap. They’re all going to be there because with the draft it doesn’t matter. No one can get away.”Power’s reference to the draft is a direct result of the new style of racing at Indianapolis that has since occurred with the introduction of the new chassis implemented two seasons ago.Unlike years past, when a lead driver could run away from the field, the current rules package limits teams’ abilities to develop dominating cars. Instead, the field is tighter than ever, with few teams having a distinct speed advantage.The result of the change is added emphasis on being able to navigate through traffic.Sunday’s race — which will start at 12:12 p.m. — will likely be determined by which drivers can navigate through traffic the best and navigate through the dirty air created by competitors’ cars. Sunday will be the first time all 33 cars will be out on the track in race conditions, which adds to the difficulty of keeping up with the track conditions.“There’s quite a lot of turbulence in these cars,” Josef Newgarden said. “When you run the actual race on Sunday, it can be different sometimes than just practicing on a race day, when you’re in a train of four cars, because in the race if you get in a pack of 10 cars, it’s even more turbulent.”Teams will vary how much downforce they put into the car.Teams in the back of the field will use more wing to better take advantage of the draft, while the front of the field will trim more to try to fend off the tow.Since the implementation of the new chassis, the Indy 500 has come down to late passes in the closing laps.The first four races of the IndyCar season have been won by four different drivers.A different face has been etched into the Borg-Warner Trophy in five of the past six years at Indianapolis.With the parity in the series, combined with the unpredictability of Indianapolis, Power said he hopes everything falls into place.“It’s funny, racing,” Power said. “It’s all just got to fall your way on your day.”
(05/19/14 12:09pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, IND. -- In 2000, Sam Schmidt was told by doctors that he would never walk again after a racing accident rendered him a quadriplegic.Sunday, he used a semi-autonomous car (SAM) to drive laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.“Racing has been a dream of mine since I was 5 years old,” Schmidt said in a release by the track. “I thought I’d never be able to race again after my accident, but this vehicle made it possible.”Schmidt, the owner of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, piloted his SAM Corvette C7 Stingray around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway before qualifying took place for Indianapolis 500 pole day. His best lap time had him average 73.712 mph using the movements of his head to guide the car.The Stingray was modified with an electronics system and human-to-machine interface that allowed Schmidt to drive. The car was equipped with an infrared camera system with four sensors connected to Schmidt’s hat working with four infrared cameras mounted on the car’s dashboard.The infrared cameras were able to detect the tilt of Schmidt’s head to steer and accelerate the Corvette. Braking was controlled with a bite sensor kept in Schmidt’s mouth that would slow the car when Schmidt bit down.A GPS served as a guideline around the track for safety, and it was designed to keep the car from getting too close to the edge of the track. Schmidt was able to steer the car within 1.5 meters of the track’s outside and inside barriers.The idea to have Schmidt pilot the car took about a year to develop. It was not revealed that the event would take place at the track until after final practice for qualifying, which took place during the weekend.The SAM system was a project formed by Arrow Electronics, Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, the Air Force Research Laborator and Falci Adaptive Motorsports. Colorado Neurosurgeon Scott Falci spearheaded the movement to put a disabled racing driver on the racetrack again.“While I was in the SAM vehicle, I was unencumbered by my disability,” Schmidt said. “It was the most normal I have felt in nearly 15 years. It was amazing.”
(05/19/14 12:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Perfect weekends in Indianapolis are virtually nonexistent, but Ed Carpenter came pretty close.Every time the Indianapolis native took the track during the qualifying stages, he set the quickest time. His Fast Nine four-lap average of 231.067 mph earned him the pole for the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500.“The team did a phenomenal job, just really blessed to have a lot of great people behind me on the team and partners of the team,” Carpenter said. “All their hard work and dedication is what makes a weekend like this worthwhile.”Carpenter was the final driver to qualify, and each time Carpenter passed the start–finish line, his team would relay his lap times. He knew exactly where he stood after each lap in relation to the provisional pole set by James Hinchcliffe.As Carpenter turned laps, his times naturally slowed. He said he knew he would need a consistent fourth lap to edge Hinchcliffe’s time and capture the pole. He credited a change in his gear strategy during his fourth lap for helping his car maintain speed and not scrub off as much time.But at the end of the day, the numbers he had going through his head meant nothing. The only number that mattered was 231.067 mph, his final average speed — the pole-winning average speed.“It’s hard to do math at 230,” Carpenter joked.Carpenter’s speed bumped Hinchcliffe’s 230.839 mph average to second, and Will Power rounded out the front row with 230.697 mph.Hinchcliffe’s second-place run came only a week after he suffered a concussion in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Andretti Autosport driver blamed small mistakes during his final lap for costing him the speed he needed to beat Carpenter for the pole.As he went through Turn 3 on his final lap, Hinchcliffe said the rear end slipped out. The time it took for him to correct the resulting oversteer made the difference on the stopwatch.“At that downforce level, you don’t really have time for correction, and I had to crack the throttle,” Hinchcliffe said. “I knew that was it. I was screaming into my helmet through Turn 4 down the front straight. I just knew.”Helio Castroneves will start in fourth, Simon Pagenaud in fifth and Marco Andretti in sixth. Carlos Munoz, Josef Newgarden and J.R. Hildebrand rounded out the first three rows.But it was Carpenter who owned the weekend.As he navigated through the final corners, he knew the pole would be his, and celebration kicked in.“Going into three was when I started just making sure I nailed those last two corners,” Carpenter said. “And then coming down the front stretch, you really just kind of enjoy it, knowing you’re going to be on the pole.”
(05/18/14 11:59pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>SPEEDWAY, Ind. — It’s no secret that in racing, money goes a long way.It’s a good portion of the reason why powerhouse teams owned by Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti win as often as they do in IndyCar. Money buys developmental resources, better facilities, better equipped crews, and it simply makes cars go faster.Breaking it down further, more money equals more wins.But in IndyCar, the gap between the richer, large multi-car teams and the smaller teams with less money is closing. And the quality of racing is benefiting.IndyCar has seen four different teams win in the first four races this year alone. One third of the “Fast Nine” in Indianapolis 500 qualifying was made up of teams that predominantly operate as single-car operations.This type of parity is fantastic for the state of IndyCar when a series that has fallen victim to being dominated by Penske and Ganassi teams in recent past is now full of potential winners. It means you don’t need to break the bank to win an IndyCar race.It rewards the best drivers and hardest-working teams with wins. It’s gotten to a point where one slip can cost a podium finish. One bad race can make the difference between a championship and falling out of contention.I thought Josef Newgarden described the current state of IndyCar best.“It’s getting pretty silly now, at certain points,” Newgarden said Saturday. “If you literally miss something by, I mean, a 10th of a second, you can be out of the whole mix.”It’s true. It’s silly to think that the single-car program run by Ed Carpenter could compete with a four-car powerhouse like Chip Ganassi Racing.But Carpenter beat Ganassi. Twice.Newgarden in his single-car operation joined Carpenter as well as the likes of Andretti Auto Sport and Team Penske, beating all four of the Ganassi entries.This type of thing is uncommon. The richer teams are always going to rise to the top. The teams spent many years building their programs, and those are the teams the fans look up to.But parity in IndyCar is never a bad thing.It’s the unpredictable nature that keeps people coming back to IndyCar. And as the Indianapolis 500 draws increasingly near, it becomes harder and harder to determine a favorite to win.My early consensus says one of the Penske boys will kiss the bricks on Sunday. Indianapolis Motor Speedway practically owes the Captain a win after some of the luck his teams have had the past few years, and I feel like Will Power is due for his big win.Because Josef Newgarden will tell you, IndyCar is downright “silly.”And based on the racing in IndyCar as of late, “silly” is absolutely fantastic.sbeishui@indiana.edu
(05/12/14 1:30am)
Simon Pagenaud won the inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix Saturday.
(05/12/14 1:09am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — It was Indianapolis, and it was IndyCar. It just wasn’t the Indianapolis 500.It was the IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis, and it was far from perfect. The drivers embarrassed themselves with yet another failed standing start.There were too many cautions and not enough passes. The race was largely decided by strategy, not speed.But it was exactly what IndyCar needed.Change — and this is a word the traditionalists fear — seldom comes in IndyCar.When it does, it arrives slowly and is usually met with hate and disgust from the fans who still think the Indianapolis 500 is what it was in the late 1970s when Tom Sneva broke 200 mph for the first time.As much as it pains me to admit it, the “Magic of May” hasn’t really been around for years.The Indianapolis 500 is still magical, but fans aren’t coming to qualifying and practice days as they used to when Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt were in their primes.You can’t really blame them, considering the current state of IndyCar trying to find itself again.But with the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and the new qualifying procedures, the “Magic of May” seems to be coming back.When I pulled into the track seven hours before the race started, the fans were already there and you could practically hear the buzz.You can argue attendance numbers until your face turns blue, but the speedway reported 40,000 spectators, and I was shocked it wasn’t more with the number of fans I saw.And I only expect this to continue during the new changes this month.Qualifying now spans two days, and points are awarded the first day. The series championship has been decided by less than a race in seven of the past eight years, so it doesn’t take a math major to realize how important these points could be.The Sunday qualifying has been manufactured to restore added drama and fit into a network television time slot.It climaxes with a pole shootout and a final chance to fill out the final row with a decision on the final three spots.It isn’t exactly what Indianapolis was built on, but no longer does the track see 50 cars trying to qualify. The new format is undoubtedly exciting and is going to attract eyes.Toss Jacques Villeneuve and NASCAR outlaw Kurt Busch into the mix, and IndyCar has enough storylines to keep paragraph factories like myself busy all month.With the addition of these storylines, a qualifying format asking for drama and the road course race fans were treated to Saturday, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is finally creating buzz again.The month of May is changing. And traditionalist fans and IndyCar faithful are going to be bitter about it. Although the month of May lost its magic long ago, it can still be saved. A road course race and new formats won’t fix everything, but it’s a start.And it all culminates with 33 cars running 500 miles around the world’s greatest racecourse.That magic will never die.Welcome back, May.sbeishui@indiana.edu
(05/09/14 11:18pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A new era of open-wheel racing is set to begin Saturday as the IndyCar series takes to the hallowed Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.Series points leader Will Power will look to extend his points lead while Ryan Hunter-Reay looks to win his second consecutive race. In total, 25 drivers will be taking the green flag at 3:30 p.m. looking to add a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to their racing resumes. Series point leader and road racing ace Will Power will look to extend his points lead over last week’s winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. Other than a brief trip off the course at Barber Motorsports Park two weekends ago, Power has been nearly perfect thus far this season. The Penske Racing driver has three top-five finishes so far this season and will almost undoubtedly be a threat to win Saturday.The Grand Prix track is not the same as fans may remember from the days of the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix circuit which last took place in 2007. The redesigned course is 2.434 miles in length and features 14 turns, incorporating portions of Turns 1 and 2 and the front stretch of the conventional Indianapolis Motor Speedway.The racing will begin on a standing start and run clockwise, opposite of the Indianapolis 500 layout. The total race distance will be just shy of 200 miles, with drivers completing a total of 82 laps.The newly repaved portions of the track have seen little action other than testing and are nearly perfectly flat. This has allowed teams to drop their car’s ride height to measurements rivaling cars meant to race on ovals rather than road course circuits.Going down the front stretch, fans will see speeds not typically seen out of IndyCars in road course trim. Drivers will reach speeds of around 190 MPH before making a 90-degree right hand corner into Turn 1 which may be the drivers’ best opportunity to pass on the track.After a brief rhythm section through the newly-designed Turns 2-6 complex, the drivers will head down the backstretch which has remained the same since the days of Formula One. Drivers will get another ideal passing zone heading into Turn 7 as they downshift into lower gears after the straightaway.The Turns 8-9-10 complex is going to be critical for lap times with a technical section of S-curves that have given drivers some trouble during practice. Over driving one of the S’s will ruin the entire section and ruin a lap time before drivers make their way back onto the conventional track before diving into Turn 12.Turn 12 is going to be another passing opportunity the Formula One track never saw, but MotoGP drivers have experienced. The transition from the banked oval to the flatter road course section is slight, but could be a point to watch during the race as driver cope with the transition.The most important corner on the track will be the final turn—Turn 14—as it leads onto the long front stretch where cars will be running at their quickest. Having a good exit off of Turn 14 is critical for the drivers to get up to speed and reach their maximum speeds before hopping back onto the breaks in Turn 1. Botching Turn 14 can make or break a driver’s momentum and can either gain or lose serious track position.An important technical aspect to keep an eye on will be how much down force teams elect to put into the car with the rear wing. Teams have been experimenting with wing positions during practice, trying to find the perfect blend of straight-line speed down the front stretch and down force for the technical sections of the track.Too much down force will lead to slower speeds down the long front stretch and backstretch sections. Too little down force and drivers will struggle through the technical aspects of the track like the Turns 8-9-10 complex, especially as the Firestone tires begin to wear down.The driver who manages to best find the right combination of straight-line speed and technical prowess will add their names to the record books of drivers to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(05/09/14 3:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Barry King called IU’s opening round of the NCAA women’s water polo tournament against top-seeded Stanford, “the quintessential ‘We’ve got nothing to lose’” situation.Senior attacker Shae Fournier reiterated her coach’s statement, but with only three wins separating IU from a national championship, the Hoosiers are going into the tournament knowing anything can happen on collegiate water polo’s biggest stage.“We’re not necessarily going in with expectations,” Fournier said. “‘Nothing to lose’ is a good mentality because we can go in there and play our best and do what we need to do. We’ll be happy with anything, but obviously we’re still going to play to win.”Stanford (22-1) enters the first-round matchup 6:30 p.m. in Los Angeles against IU (23-5) as the No. 1 team in the country. The team’s single loss of the season was Feb. 22 against UCLA. Since then, the Cardinals have had a 13-game winning streak, outscoring opponents by 7.8 goals per game.IU most recently played a top-ranked team March 21 against then-No. 1 USC. The Trojans defeated the Hoosiers 15-5 in a game where IU managed only one goal the entire second half.Despite the loss, Fournier said the game against USC gives her confidence her Hoosier squad can keep up with the best teams in the nation.“We know we stuck in there at the half with USC before,” Fournier said. “We’ve played good games, and it’s not that we’re incapable of doing it.”Fournier will be responsible for leading the Hoosier offensive charge against the Cardinals. The Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, native is the program’s leading scorer and had three goals off of penalty shots in IU’s win against Wagner in the NCAA Tournament play-in game.She credited her goals against Wagner to her teammates for earning the penalty shots. The Hoosiers found success against Wagner by taking advantage of penalties offensively while not giving up any power play goals on the defensive end.For that trend to continue against Stanford, junior utility player Rebecca Gerrity said the Hoosiers will need to continue to communicate in the water.“Just like in any sport, communication’s key,” Gerrity said. “Being able to talk to each other and take criticism, adjustments are important, and we do that well this year.”Gerrity believes IU — who enters the tournament on a 12-game winning streak — is playing some of its best water polo this year. She called IU’s 14-7 win against Michigan in the conference tournament the best IU has played all year.With the top-seeded Stanford scheduled next, Gerrity said he hopes the high level of play continues.“Going in, you want to be playing your best water polo, and there’s always room to improve, but this has definitely been a highlight this past month in a half for sure,” Gerrity said. “We’re going to go out and try to play our best water polo this weekend.”
(05/09/14 3:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Coach Curt Miller announced Monday that Curtis Loyd will be joining his coaching staff as an associate head coach.Loyd, who spent the past four seasons coaching at Minnesota, has 17 years of experience coaching college basketball. Miller and Loyd worked together as assistants at Colorado State during the 1998-99 season before going separate ways with their careers.“We are excited that Curtis has accepted our offer to join our program,” Miller said in the team’s press release. “We had tremendous interest as I spoke to numerous candidates, but I kept coming back to Curtis as the right fit for our team. Curtis brings great power conference experience to the Hoosiers, including the last four years in the Big Ten.”Loyd worked as an associate head coach for Minnesota the last two seasons after working as an assistant coach the previous two years. He helped lead Minnesota to the third round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament last season with an overall record of 22-13.Prior to his time at Minnesota, Loyd spent a season coaching at Akron. Before that, he spent time as an assistant at Virginia, Arizona and Colorado State.Loyd now joins a staff that also includes assistants Brandi Poole and Kevin Eckert. Jimmy Colloton, who served as an interim assistant coach in 2013-14, will return to his role as video coordinator for the team.“I am so blessed and honored to be joining the Hoosier Nation and Indiana University,” Loyd said. “The tradition of the University’s academics and its ties to athletics goes a long way into making Bloomington one of the nation’s top college sports towns.“I’m excited to work with Curt Miller and eager to get involved with him and the staff right away. They have already set a winning tone, and I hope to be able add to that and build on the already strong tradition at IU.”Sam Beishuizen
(05/05/14 2:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In IU Coach Barry King’s eyes, the IU women’s water polo team is playing with house money.IU never trailed Wagner University in Saturday’s NCAA Tournament play-in game. The Hoosiers defeated the Seahawks 11-6 in the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center to punch No. 8 seed IU a ticket to Los Angeles, where they will play No. 1 Stanford Friday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.“This is the quintessential, ‘We’ve got nothing to lose,’ kind of situation,” King said. “(Stanford) is incredibly talented and extremely well-coached, but I’d like to believe we’re pretty good ourselves. I’d imagine this will be the best 1-8 game in the history of the tournament.”This year marks the third time in program history IU has advanced to the NCAA Tournament. The winner of the IU-Stanford matchup will move on to play the winner of Arizona State and California Saturday for a chance to advance to Sunday’s national championship game.King said he had no firm expectations for his team in the tournament, which features six teams from California, a water polo-dominant state. Senior Shae Fournier echoed his sentiment, but said the win against Wagner and reaching the tournament has the Hoosiers eager to make some noise.“It’s definitely great to know that we’re not done,” Fournier said. “This has been our goal all year and to see that realized just boosts our confidence a lot. We’re just ready to play and excited.”IU set the tone against Wagner early in the match, controlling both the offensive and defensive sides of the pool and taking an early lead.Junior Rebecca Gerrity scored on IU’s opening possession to put the Hoosiers up 1-0 quickly, while sophomore goalie Jessica Gaudreault kept the Seahawks off the board by making three of her nine saves in the opening four and a half minutes.IU held a 6-4 lead heading into the halftime break, but as the third quarter got underway, the Hoosiers pulled away.Only 30 seconds into the second half, Gerrity found herself unmanned in front of the net and was able to deflect a pass from senior attacker Meghan Lappan into the back of the net to extend the Hoosier lead to three.Fournier, all-time program leader in goals scored, would make the score 8-4 a minute later, capitalizing on a penalty shot.Penalty scores became a trend for Fournier who was a perfect 3-of-3 on five-meter penalty opportunities. While the Hoosier offense was taking advantage of the high percentage penalty opportunities, the Hoosier defense did not allow any goals via penalty or power play.IU was able to hold defensively and clog up the front of the net while down a player throughout the match.“That’s a dangerous part of the game and one that you have to try to find as many opportunities as possible, because they’re kind of a double-whammy play,” King said. “Those are going to happen when we’re kind of controlling the middle of the pool, and that’s what happened there.”Wagner pulled back within three goals late in the third period, but that would be the closest the Seahawks would get to a comeback the rest of the match.Gaudreault and the Hoosier defense held Wagner scoreless for the game’s final nine minutes and 48 seconds while the offense added a pair of goals in the closing period to finalize the 11-6 victory.IU (23-5), the Collegiate Water Polo Association conference champion, heads to play Stanford (23-1) looking to build upon the team’s 12-game winning streak. Fournier said the Hoosiers were playing at their best against Michigan last week and added there is still room for the Hoosiers to improve.IU will have the week to practice and tighten areas up before heading to NCAA women’s water polo’s big dance. The Hoosiers will be playing for the program’s first NCAA National Championship title in school history.“It sounds cliché to say that it’s such a great reward for all the hard work, because all the other teams worked hard, too,” King said. “But this is what they come to do and come to play for. It comes to fruition when they play well and earn their right to be in the tournament at this level.”
(04/28/14 4:16am)
The ingredients of a perfect storm were there.
(04/22/14 5:56pm)
A brief recap of this spring's Qualifications, Individual Time Trials, and more.
(04/22/14 5:47pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It isn’t uncommon for groups on campus to half-heartedly discuss forming Little 500 teams.The thought normally gathers some attention but then stalls without much actual result.Unlike many of the failed start-up teams, when IU Ski and Snowboard Club began tossing around the idea of forming a team, they followed through.“At the beginning of the year, we were talking about how it’s always unfortunate that we never have anything to do around Little Five season,” Ski Club Captain Natlie Laser said. “When we started throwing the idea around, there was a big enough response that it worked.”But Ski Club hasn’t just managed to bring together a team — it has found success. The rookie team qualified seventh with a time of 2:51.29, by far the best-placing rookie team.The results have come as somewhat of a surprise for the riders. The team of Laser, Ashley King, Alex Benigni and Megan Huibregtse combine for zero years of competitive cycling experience.Huibregtse didn’t even have her Little 500 bike until January.Because of the lack of experience, the team knew if it wanted to make a Little 500 run the right way they would need to commit to training on the bikes.That meant while the Ski Club made a trip to Aspen, Colo., the cycling team stayed home.“We knew we had to stay,” Laser said. “We knew it would be worth it. “With not very much track time at all, we needed to be here if we wanted to be serious about it.”So while other members of Ski Club were out on the slopes, Ski Club Cycling was training on the bikes around Bloomington.Coaching and other teams, such as Teter, have been helpful to Ski Club Cycling as it has prepared, but still, the struggles of being a rookie team have been present.King said the first time she was out on the track during practice with other teams around her was one of the scarier parts of learning how to race.“It’s like riding in a traffic jam going 100 miles an hour,” King said. “There is so much sensory input that we didn’t know how to do.”But after the weeks of preparation and practice, King said all four members have become at home on the track.“It was crazy at first, but now we feel really comfortable,” she said.For a rookie team with no competitive cycling experience, qualifying for the race was a big accomplishment.But now that Ski Club Cycling has proven itself in qualifications to start on the inside of row three, the team members are focused on exceeding their increasing race expectations.“I think before quals, we thought that breaking into the top 10 would be goal for us and, still, that would be amazing,” King said. “But after we saw what we could do in Quals, I think we can even raise our expectations. But for us, I think anything in the top 10 would just be awesome, but we’ll see at the race.”
(04/22/14 5:44pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In late February, Thomas Larson fell down while training. Again. He was riding his bike downhill through the Morgan Monroe State Forest when he reached for his water bottle. His hands dropped down and he flew headfirst over the handlebars.“Luckily, my face broke the fall pretty well,” Larson said, only half-joking.He immediately hopped up and reached for his bike. His first instinct was to check for damage. He was worried the frame had cracked.What Larson hadn’t noticed was his own injury, which was bad enough to prompt drivers passing by to ask him if he needed help. He waved them all off.It wasn’t until a woman pleaded with him that Larson took a look in a mirror and realized the extent of his injury. His face was covered in blood. He needed to be taken to a hospital. The first person he called was Robert Martin, a Delta Upsilon Cycling teammate.“I’m hurt. I crashed my bike. Can you pick me up?” Larson asked Martin on the phone.“Oh no, not again,” Martin responded.When Martin arrived on the scene, Larson was grinning from ear to ear. For Martin, it was an odd sight. Larson’s face was still covered with blood, but it didn’t seem to bother him.Martin drove Larson to the nearest emergency room, where he recalled Larson walking around the hospital like he owned the place. He knew every room and practically everyone’s name.At this point, Larson was fairly used to hospitals. He had spent the previous six years of his life in and out of them. He couldn’t remember the exact number of surgeries he has underwent since 2008. He said it’s between 30 and 35, but he’s lost count.The hospital stay that stands out the most to Larson came 15 months earlier. He went through a triple organ transplant to replace his stomach, pancreas and small intestine. But this emergency room trip wasn’t as serious. Despite the bloody injury, Larson kept the mood light. Larson was cracking jokes with nurses as they performed various tests. He even asked if he could inject himself with a shot because he had gotten used to doing it himself in previous hospital stays.“I shouldn’t have been laughing,” Martin said. “But his head’s bleeding, his leg is cut and his shoulder looks dislocated, and he’s cracking jokes with the nurses, and I’m just cracking up in the corner.“That’s just Tom.”***Thomas Larson knows what it’s like to fall off the bike. The 24-year-old Delta Upsilon rider has fallen down in more than just a bike race. His most adverse falls have sent him to various hospital beds around the Midwest. At one point after getting sick, Larson’s body weight fell to 83 pounds. He went days without eating. A majority of his time was spent bouncing between hospitals as doctors tried to determine what was wrong with his body.After years of testing and hospital stays, Larson’s doctors determined the best solution to getting Larson healthy again would be to replace the organs causing him to become ill.Larson would undergo a triple organ transplant in October 2012 to replace his stomach, pancreas and small intestine. A little more than four years have passed since then. Now a junior, Larson is set to make his Little 500 debut with his Delta Upsilon teammates.“There’s a stubbornness about him,” Martin said. “If you tell Tom he can’t do something, he’s going to do it. If you tell him he can’t ride, he’s going to ride.”Larson got sick, but he got back on the bike.***The pain started in October 2009.Larson was a sophomore. He had rushed Delta Upsilon the previous spring with intentions of riding for the fraternity’s Little 500 team.He bought his first carbon fiber bike frame in the summer. When Larson wasn’t in class, he was training.But before Halloween, Larson began experiencing stomach pains. He was admitted to Bloomington Hospital. Doctors performed a number of tests, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He spent the next few weeks in and out of the hospital.During that time, Larson stopped eating — nothing tasted good. He only managed to eat whatever food was in the Delta Upsilon house every few days.Larson’s health deteriorated. He was weak and nobody, not even the doctors, knew why.“I can only explain it as a hangover,” Larson said. “It just wasn’t right.”The pain forced Larson to transfer to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where he spent three weeks. Larson said doctors performed every test they could think of.But still, no answers.The only way Larson could get the nutrients and minerals he needed was through Total Parenteral Nutrition. TPN is used for patients who either cannot or should not receive their nutrition by eating. A needle was placed in Larson’s vein in his arm at night, pumping in the various nutrients he needed to survive.The TPN treatment continued until mid-February. Larson was transferred to Iowa. Doctors began to think it was a problem in his small intestine.After doctors pumped in more nutrients and minerals Larson’s body desperately needed, he was told it would be a waiting process.“There wasn’t much more they could do,” Larson said. “So I went home.”***At Larson’s home in Wheaton, Ill., things only got worse.He still couldn’t eat. He was miserable. Weighing just 83 pounds, his face showed the worse signs of his weight loss. The lines in his cheekbones became completely exposed and his head became soft. “My head was sort of like a newborn baby’s,” Larson said.The weight loss caused Larson to become so small that he shopped in the children’s section for clothes. His hair became so frail that when he ran his hand through it, the hair would fall out.On March 27, 2010, Larson woke up with stomach pain considerably worse than before. He was rushed to emergency surgery at a local hospital. When he woke up a couple of days after the emergency surgery, doctors told him they had removed 19 feet of his small intestine, which the human body needs for absorbing nutrients and minerals.Just under 50 inches of his small intestine remained. The prognosis from the doctors wasn’t good.“It was drastic,” Larson said. “Doctors told my parents that I’m never going to live a normal life. You’re just going to have to manage. This is not going to get better and you’re probably going to have to go to a bigger doctor because this is beyond us.”But Larson wasn’t interested in managing. He didn’t want to be labeled as “sick” or “different.” He wanted a normal life. Larson spent most of his 2010 summer in a hospital bed at Northwestern University. He was constantly having tests run. He doesn’t like to think about the surgeries because he says he is passed them at this point in life, but he had one done about every two weeks.As time passed in the hospital bed, his health started to improve. His body weight returned to a healthy number. He was able to eat again, but he remained on a strict diet. In fall 2011, normality was still far away. Larson returned to school in Bloomington, but he still spent time in and out of the hospital.“I was managing,” he said.But Larson’s health once again took a turn for the worse. He finished the fall semester, barely getting by in his classes. To this day, Larson says he is thankful for his professors understanding his situation.He returned for the spring semester, but only lasted 10 days. “I think of those 10 days, nine of them were spent in the hospital,” Larson said. “My condition wasn’t getting any better.”Larson returned home and spent most of his time resting. His condition remained the same. He wasn’t getting better, but it wasn’t getting too much worse.Then, on Feb. 9, 2012, Larson collapsed in his home.He was immediately rushed to the hospital. Again.***Four days after his collapse, Larson awoke from a medically induced coma. His entire small intestine had been removed. He was relying on machines to feed him. “My system is kind of ghetto rigged,” Larson said. “I was fully dependent on the IV meds. I couldn’t take anything by mouth. If I did, I would throw up.”Twenty-eight months had passed since Larson initially began to feel sick. With no signs of his health improving, doctors began to look for solutions. The next step was an organ transplant.Larson didn’t have much choice. He was admitted to the IU Health Hospital in Indianapolis.When Larson met with the surgeon, he had just one question for him. “I want to know now, ‘Do I sell my bike? I don’t want to keep it if I’m going to be out for 10 minutes because I’m still decrepit,’” Larson said.“Oh no,” his surgeon assured him. “I’ve got you.”Larson wasn’t worried about cycling. He wanted to return to where he was before he started feeling sick.He wanted to be normal again.***October 4, 2012 was a special day for Larson. Normal came back.Larson was put on the organ transplant waiting list for a stomach, pancreas and small intestine. Though the small intestine was the problem, it was safer for Larson to replace the whole system.“The doctors said it was more beneficial to do those three organs because when they do donor organs, it’s like changing the engine of the car instead of the individual parts,” Larson said.While his classmates were graduating in Bloomington, Larson laid in a hospital bed, waiting for an organ transplant to come.He got the call he needed on October 3, 2012 — the organs were available. After waiting 13 weeks for an organ donor, Larson was driven to Indianapolis where at 4:01 p.m. on October 4, 2012, he went into surgery.The operation was a success. Larson had a new stomach, pancreas and small intestine. He said one of the best parts was simply eating again.“My first meal was McDonald’s chicken nuggets,” Larson said. “I had fantasized about them for the entire summer.” He still had therapy to go through, but he was happy.***The recovery process for Larson was slow at first. Simple tasks, such as climbing staircases, were difficult.For a long time, Larson said he couldn’t watch sports. It wasn’t anger — he just wanted it back. “It was just kind of taunting me,” Larson said. “‘You can’t do this.’”Doctors kept setting bars for Larson. Every time an expectation was set, he wanted to shatter it. Every bar, he wanted raised.After the first initial checkpoints were reached, Larson’s recovery started to quicken.Before long, Larson was walking. Walking quickly turned into jogging, jogging into running.Normal didn’t seem too far away. ***“The bike will wait for you.”It was a message from Christian Vande Velde, who rode in the Tour De France for the U.S. Postal Service team.Vande Velde is from Lemont, Ill., only 20 miles from Larson’s home. Vande Velde was getting maintenance on his bike at a shop where Alpha Chi Omega rider Kelsey Tharnstrom worked. She told him of Larson’s story and he wrote the message, along with his autograph, on a plain piece of white paper.Larson got it framed.“It just felt good hearing from someone else like him,” Larson said. “It was hard seeing my friends graduate from college, doing adult things, having responsibilities. It was just nice to hear from someone close to home.”The first time Larson got back on his bike was at home.It was 20 degrees outside. When his father saw him taking the bike from the house, he told his son there was no way he would be able to go out.“So I took that as, ‘Alright. I’m going out now,’” Larson said.Larson hopped on his bike and almost immediately fell over. He laughed it off and started again.He made it 3 miles from his house when he started to feel pain.“I thought, ‘Oh man this is brutal,’” Larson recalled, laughing.But that cold winter day was the start. Each day Larson would push himself a little bit further.His goal was always to go the farthest on the fourth of each month — the anniversary of his surgery. He challenged himself to ride a path he hadn’t done before or to go somewhere new.“It kept me motivated,” Larson said. “I kept saying, ‘What am I going to do this month?’”After months of training, Larson got back into competitive shape. For the first time in years, he had no setbacks. In summer 2013, Larson’s road to the Little 500 began.***It took five years, but in December, Larson finally got his own kit.“This was the first year that I didn’t get hand-me-downs,” Larson said. “I think I wore that DU kit four out of five days at the track.”To an outsider, the kit was just a blue and yellow jacket and spandex. But to Larson, it was a sign that he had made it.“On the track, every team kind of recognizes each other by the kit,” he said. “It was just kind of cool to finally be — it sounds lame — but part of the team.” When Martin first got a text from Larson asking to ride, he wasn’t prepared for how serious Larson was.“He came out and was in his full kit,” Martin said. “He had his carbon fiber bike, legs shaved. He was ready to go.”Thirty miles of riding later, Larson was keeping up with Martin and the other riders. His months of preparation had paid off. Martin was impressed.“We hammered it out for a good afternoon,” Martin said. “I was like, ‘Wow, you’re an asset to this team.’”From that moment on, Larson wasn’t just back on the team. He was back where he had been, nearly four years earlier. He was riding for Delta Upsilon in the Little 500.“I wanted this illness to have a definite beginning and a definite end,” Larson said. “I wanted to pick it up right where I left off with these guys.“It was over.”