Doornbos learns lessons the hard way at Indy

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Dutch driver Robert Doornbos brushed off the advice of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk twice last week, so the 2.5-mile Brickyard oval got the message across instead.

Luyendyk, a mentor for his countryman in his first season in the IndyCar Series, has consistently included patience as a key component of his lessons about how to drive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Doornbos, an Indy 500 rookie, was fast enough, quickly getting his car over 223 mph. But he crashed in practice both Friday and Saturday and now Doornbos is scrambling to qualify for the May 24 race.

While Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate Graham Rahal has already qualified fourth, Doornbos will be trying to get into the field on Saturday, when time trials resume. Twenty-two of the 33 starting spots were filled last weekend.

Luyendyk’s first lesson for Doornbos was the same one he tries to teach every driver who attempts to follow in his footsteps at Indy.

“Respect the racetrack and respect what it can do to you if it goes wrong,” he said Thursday, “but I think he kind of skipped that part a little bit.”

Doornbos was not injured in the crashes, and on Thursday, completed 68 crash-free laps with a top lap of 218.428 mph in the six-hour practice session. Clearly, he learned from his mistakes.

“You have to respect it,” he said of the track. “If you go too far, it bites you, and it bit us. So we know now what the limit is and what to do and what not to do.”

Doornbos could be excused for making a few errors. Heading into the Indianapolis 500, he’s only driven one race on an oval track. That’s why he contacted Luyendyk and asked for his help.

“It’s going to be a quick learning curve, and I need to speed that up as fast as possible,” Doornbos said. “With his help, I can do that.”

Indy provides a unique challenge to him.

“There’s very long straights, the speed’s so very high,” he said. “Very long corners, and you have almost different conditions in each corner because they’re so long. You can have a lot of wind blowing you in turn two and nothing in turn four, so you have to stay sharp.”

Doornbos ranks 13th in the IRL point standings this season. He finished 11th and ninth on the circuits at St. Petersburg and Long Beach, then started second, led two laps and finished 12th at Kansas in his first race on an oval track.

“I was happy because you never get a second chance to leave a good first impression with your team on an oval, and the boys gave me a good car,” he said.

Doornbos got off to a good start this month. He had the top speed among rookies at more than 221 mph in the one-day rookie orientation program, and was the fastest rookie during the first full day of practice and seventh-fastest among 32 drivers overall.

Things went downhill from there. Doornbos crashed on May 8 during the first hour of practice when his car skidded up the track and hit the wall in turn two.

The next day, before the first of four days of qualifying began, Doornbos spun his backup car and hit the wall in turn two, in nearly the same spot where he crashed his primary car the previous day.