Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bucknum gets chance to follow in father’s footsteps

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.

American Le Mans Series driver Jeff Bucknum will attempt to make his first Indianapolis 500 start next month as a second driver for the Indy Racing League's Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

Although he never has competed at the Brickyard, Bucknum certainly is no stranger to the Indy 500. His father, the late Formula One driver Ronnie Bucknum, competed in three Indy 500s from 1968 to 1970, finishing a career-best 15th in 1970.

"For a racing car driver, to get an opportunity to race (at Indy), I think no matter where your focus is in racing, what ladder you've tried to climb ... the Indy 500 is basically a dream and a pinnacle point of my racing career," Bucknum said.

"Then (there is) the heritage and history. My father ran there three years ... that's just been a part of, literally, my family. You grow up with that sort of thing, with A.J. Foyt calling your house when you are a little kid; you're jumping up and down because he's calling your house. That's kind of fun stuff and I'm really looking forward to this opportunity."

Bucknum, who was a member of the LMP2 class-winning team in this year's 12 Hours of Sebring sports-car race, passed his Indy Racing League rookie test last month in Phoenix and will make his IndyCar Series debut later this month at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. Bucknum will team with Dreyer & Reinbold's fulltime driver, Roger Yasukawa, in Japan and at Indy.

Bucknum, 38, admitted to being nervous as his first IRL start approaches.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a little nervous going into it because any time you're doing something for the first time, there are things that you know that you're going to expect," he said. "But there are just some things that ... I just haven't had the experience (with), to be honest with you.

"I'm anticipating some of that stuff, just how it's going to go. I'm going to try to really focus during the practice sessions to get in and mix it up with cars more than trying to just run by myself."

Although his deal with Dreyer & Reinbold is for two races, Bucknum said he is working on a deal to drive in the IRL on a full-time basis.

BOURDAIS IMPRESSES: Fresh off his victory in the season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, defending Champ Car World Series champion Sebastien Bourdais won the second round of the 2005 International Race of Champions five days later at Texas Motor Speedway.

Bourdais, from Le Mans, France, led 53 of 67 laps and held off NASCAR Nextel Cup veteran Mark Martin in the closing laps. Bourdais became the first Champ Car driver in eight years to win an IROC race and only the fourth foreigner to win in the all-star series.

"The biggest chance we had was if he would have made a mistake," Martin said of Bourdais. "It didn't look like that would happen. He did an awesome job; he is an incredibly talented young racecar driver."

Veteran stock-car driver Dave Marcis, who sets up the identically prepared IROC cars, called Bourdais "the best I've ever seen in an IROC car."

"For an open-wheel driver to come here to a track he doesn't know, a car he doesn't know and win against these guys that do it every weekend is a great accomplishment that I am proud of," Bourdais said of his victory. "They are very good at what they do and they do it every weekend for years and years.

"I had to hold Mark Martin off and that's no easy task. I stayed up front and never really dropped past third place. I wasn't trying to lead every single lap, I was just trying to stay up there to fight for it in the end. It wasn't an easy race at all and that's why I am so happy about it."

JASKOL ON PODIUM: Matt Jaskol of Las Vegas qualified fourth and finished third in Round Two of the Star Mazda Championship last weekend at Road Atlanta.

Jaskol, who drives for Las Vegas-based Hearn Motorsports, earned his second consecutive podium finish after opening the season with a second-place effort at Sebring International Raceway.

Jaskol, 20, is second in the Star Mazda Championship after two of 11 rounds and trails Raphael Matos by 12 points. Matos, who drove for Hearn Motorsports last year, has won the first two races this season.

FOUR-STAR HONOR: Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will drive the 2005 Chevrolet Corvette convertible pace car to lead the field to the start of the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500 next month.

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