KV RACING TECHNOLOGY– LOTUS PLACES THREE CARS IN FIELD FOR 2011 INDY 500
SATO TO START 10TH, VISO 18TH AND KANAAN 23RD
KV Racing Press Release
SPEEDWAY, IN – MAY 21, 2011 – KV Racing Technology – Lotus will have three cars in the field for the 100th anniversary running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29, 2011 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.
Takuma Sato, No. 5 MonaVie - KV Racing Technology – Lotus, who had an impressive qualifying run yesterday on the historic 2.5-mile super speedway oval will start 10th on the inside of row four after posting a four-lap average of 225.736 mph. Sato will be contesting his second Indy 500. Last year in his debut at the Brickyard the 34-year-old from Japan struggled in qualifying and started 31st, but had a strong race getting into the top-10 before he had a problem in the pits and ended up finishing 20th.
Sato spent the day working with his engineer reviewing race setup data and signing “With you Japan” t-shirts at the charity’s booth located in the Pagoda Plaza.
E. J. Viso, No. 59 PDVSA - KV Racing Technology – Lotus, will be making his fourth Indy 500 start after a strong qualifying effort yesterday. The 26-year old Venezuelan had an average speed of 224.732 mph placing him 18th on the grid on the outside of row six. This is Viso’s best starting position for an Indy 500. His previous high was 19th last year. His best finish is 24th in 2009.
Viso also spent his day working through and reviewing data for possible race setups with his engineer.
Tony Kanaan, No. 82 GEICO – KV Racing Technology – Lotus, was in the most danger today of being “bumped” from the field after provisionally qualifying 23rd yesterday with an average speed of 224.417 mph. Kanaan was in his firesuit with the crew ready to put his car in line for a possible re-qualifying attempt. However, a combination of rain, which has plagued the area since Opening Day, and other competitors simply not having enough speed, kept him safely in the field. Kanaan will start in the middle of row eight.
Kanaan, who will be competing in his 10th Indy 500, is considered one of the greatest drivers never to win this race. In nine previous contests at IMS the 36-year-old Brazilian qualified in the top-six in his first eight events including taking the pole in 2005. Kanaan, who has led 214 laps at the Brickyard and is the only driver to lead laps in his first seven Indy 500 races, has finished in the top-eight on four occasions and in the top-five three times with a best showing of second in 2004. Last year starting last, may have been Kanaan’s most impressive performances at the Speedway as he charged into second place before finishing 11th.
“This is great,” Kanaan said. “We are the only team with four cars that got them all in the field the first day. It was a great job by the KVRT – Lotus boys. For me, starting 23rd is higher than last year so let’s hope my life will be a little easier in the race.” (Note: KV Racing Technology operates a separate team from KVRT – Lotus. KV Racing Technology – SH Racing fields the No. 07 Team REDLINE Xtreme machine driven by Tomas Scheckter.)
Commenting on the team’s performance so far at Indianapolis KVRT – Lotus co-owner Jimmy Vasser said, “I am really proud of the whole team and all the work that was done. You can see how difficult it is to get all your cars in the field solid and how important it is to get them all in on the first day. We were prepared with Tony (Kanaan) and Tomas (Scheckter) to have to play the game and fortunately we didn’t have to.”
KVRT – Lotus General Manager Mark Johnson said, “The entire team worked very hard and while we would have liked to have qualified better the fact is that we have all our cars in the show. I think it is an honor to be able to compete in the 100th anniversary running of the Indianapolis 500 and we look forward to producing good results in the race for our partners and fans.”
The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 is Sunday, May 29. It will be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.
