Final practice, air demonstrations and music acts round out schedule Friday, May 24 at IMS. Read More>
Two departure times provide more flexibility for fans who want to commute to the track on their bike on Race Day. Read More>
This partnership represents the first time a major athlete's sponsorship has been decided by a vote using blockchain technology. Read More>
View images from the shortened first day of the Indianapolis 500 Open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. View Photos>
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Josef Newgarden unveils the 2024 Indianapolis 500 Ticket View Photos>
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway prides itself on its fire rescue and medical response teams that arrive to the scene of an accident within seconds. But how do they get that good? On Behind the Bricks, IMS President Doug Boles takes you through the annual Motorsports Safety Training at IMS, which features specific training scenarios for INDYCAR, NASCAR, IMSA and more to make sure every driver at IMS is safe. Watch Video>
On this episode of Doug and Drivers, 2022 Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson sits down with Doug Boles to talk about the pain of coming so close to scoring back-to-back wins, how he wanted to compete on ovals after his Formula 1 career and the transition to Andretti Global. Watch Video>
Why does Scott McLaughlin move his hands around so much in the car? What "button" is he pushing? What's the pressure of the iconic Yellow Submarine like? We cover that and so much more with Scott McLaughlin on the latest Doug and Drivers. Watch Video>
May 14, 2014 | By Verizon IndyCar Series
Jack Hawksworth says he was duly impressed on his initial visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in October 2011 for a Mazda Road to Indy test on the road course. “I remember turning up and thinking, ‘Bloody hell, this place is big.’ The size of the facility and the grandstands, especially when there’s nobody in them, is just impressive,” said the native of Bradford, England, who was 20 years old at the time for the Star Mazda test. His perspective of the iconic 2.5-mile oval was dramatically altered May 5, when he participated in the Indianapolis 500 Rookie Orientation Program. “When you’re doing 220 mph the place seems small,” Hawksworth added. “When you get out there, suddenly the track is a lot narrower and you’re flat out coming off Turn 4 and Turn 1 looks a lot tighter than when you’re looking at it from the grandstands or on TV. It’s much trickier; you see that they are real corners. Turn 1 looks like a hairpin the first time you come up on it.” Hawksworth, who has logged 89 total laps in practice for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in the No. 98 BHA/BBM with Curb-Agajanian entry, handled the upgrade flawlessly until midway through the shortened session May 14 when the car made contact with the Turn 3 SAFER Barrier in the first incident of the month. He was checked and cleared to drive. Hawksworth, with a best lap of 224.000 mph (40.1786 seconds) is confident the repaired car will contend for the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying for the first oval race of the Verizon IndyCar Series season. He qualified on the outside of the front row for the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis and has recorded two other top-10 starts in the four races. He led a field-high 31 of the 82-lap race May 10 on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in finishing a season-high seventh. “Our race pace is a bigger confidence boost for us we continue to chip away and get quicker for the rest of the season,” said Hawksworth, the 2012 Star Mazda champion who placed fourth in the 2013 Indy Lights championship with three victories. “Leading the race, that’s when I feel most comfortable as a driver. The car was just working fantastically and felt pretty easy out front. “Every single race I’m learning about how the races develop. It’s not like a sprint race where you qualify on pole you probably win the race. You never know who’s going to win until the last stop. I’m beginning to get my head around that and hopefully as I do and the team improves overall we’ll exploit the opportunities.” The opportunity to drive for the team co-owned by former Indy car driver Bryan Herta and Steve Newey arose from a test Feb. 17 at Sebring International Raceway. Hawksworth had already auditioned with Dale Coyne Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, and was making contingency plans to explore being a personal trainer if a full-season Verizon IndyCar Series ride didn’t materialize. “It was a realistic plan; I didn’t think I was going to be in INDYCAR this year,” he said. “The people around me thought there was more of a shot than I did. I had been doing a bit of karting but nothing really developed on the IndyCar side and I wasn’t going to do Lights again because there really weren’t any options there. I didn’t want to sit all year, so I had a realistic plan to focus on something else and not be bitter if it didn’t work out.” So far, it’s worked out well. “I want to win and I think we have a great opportunity to build on what we’ve done from the beginning of the year so I’m really happy,” Hawksworth said. “I’ve been blessed to have this opportunity; it was unexpected.”