Audition on the biggest stage

By Brian Hilderbrand

Friday, May 27, 2005 | 9:45 a.m.

Richie Hearn is a member of a growing sub-culture within the open-wheel racing community: A talented, proven winner who doesn't have a fulltime ride in a major series.

Hearn, a Henderson resident, is looking to change that designation Sunday during the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500. Hearn will start 20th in the 33-car field in a Chevrolet-powered Panoz fielded by fellow Henderson resident Sam Schmidt. Hearn said he hopes he can parlay a strong run Sunday into another opportunity in major-league racing.

"It's a good opportunity -- it's the best opportunity I've had in a long time and I feel pretty good with the guys and the equipment," Hearn said. "If we run well, there might be an opportunity to race somewhere else. Hopefully, I can turn my career around a little bit -- maybe it's not in the IRL, maybe it's in sports cars.

"I still feel like I can do a good job and I'd like to be able to still make a living driving a racecar. If an opportunity came and it was a good opportunity, I wouldn't hesitate to take it. There just aren't that many opportunities."

Hearn, 34, hasn't had a steady driving job in racing since the 2002 season when he competed in 10 Indy Racing League events. He made the most of that opportunity, posting six top-10 finishes in nine races with Sam Schmidt Motorsports (he also ran one race for A.J. Foyt), but was left without a ride when Schmidt's funding dried up. Hearn competed in four races in 2003 and his lone start last season was for Schmidt in the Indianapolis 500.

Left without a ride following the 2003 season, Hearn started his own team, Hearn Motorsports, and has been fielding cars in the developmental Star Mazda Series for the past two seasons. He is taking a break from the role as team owner this month to compete in his sixth Indianapolis 500.

"I kind of started my (Mazda) team out of necessity because I wasn't employed and I needed to do something," Hearn said. "The team is more building for the future for when I'm not (driving), but I still want to race really bad."

Hearn established himself as promising talent in 1996, when he moved up to the Indy Racing League from the Toyota Atlantic Championship with team owner John Della Penna. Hearn finished third in his first Indy 500 start and won the inaugural IRL race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in only his fifth start in the series.

Following the 1996 season, in which Hearn finished tied for fourth in the points standings, Della Penna Motorsports moved to the rival CART series (now known as the Champ Car World Series), where he started 59 races in three-plus seasons and posted a best finish of fifth in the 1998 Michigan 500.

Sunday's race will mark the fourth consecutive year Hearn and Schmidt have teamed at Indy. The pair's best result came in 2002, when Hearn finished sixth.

"I think Richie was a good choice for us because we have worked with him on-and-off for the last four years," Schmidt said. "He has a great relationship with the engineering staff and he knows when he gets in the car, I mean he can go on down in there in turn one and leave it flat. Last year, I think he was flat the sixth time by and we only had a hundred miles on the car before he started the race.

"This year, we'll obviously have a lot more time than that. But he gets the job done and doesn't complain. We just need somebody that's going to go out and stand on the gas."

For the first time since his rookie year, Hearn has had the luxury of spending the whole month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- as opposed to the past three years, when Schmidt had to scramble to put a car in the field.

"I feel a lot more confident going into the race where, before, I never really had a full (month) to really even work on the race setup; it was just a matter of getting up to speed," Hearn said. "I had three full days of working just purely on (racing in) traffic and getting a feel for the car.

"I feel a lot better, just at the start, that I'm going to have a decent car. I think we've done everything we could to get a good car in the time frame we had, so I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm starting the race with. It could always be better, but I'm pretty happy with what I have."

By virtue of his starting position, Hearn said he would be tested early in the race.

"Starting 20th as opposed to starting 10th, the only difference is that I'm going to have to hustle my butt to make sure I don't get lapped," he said. "We'll be doing like 208 (mph) at the beginning of the race where the leaders will be going 225, so it doesn't take long for them to come around.

"You've basically got to stay on the lead lap until you get to that first pit stop and then hopefully you can shuffle back up and just stay out of trouble."

Although his four-lap qualifying average of 222.707 was nearly 5 miles an hour off Tony Kanaan's pole-winning speed, Hearn said that shouldn't make a difference once the 33 cars take the green flag Sunday morning.

"Usually, the guy who runs the fastest lap of the race is not the guy who wins the race," Hearn said. "It's more or less having the most consistent car. You have to have some speed; you just can't be running around at 215 all day. You have to be at least fast enough to run with the lead pack (but) you don't have to lead the lead pack.

"It comes down to how well can you tune your car and get it right for the last run and how well can you use your strategy and not making any mistakes. All those things factor in where you're placed on the track for that last stint."

Although he is listed as a 30-1 shot by one Las Vegas oddsmaker to win open-wheel racing's marquee event, Hearn said he likes his chances to at least be in contention to win the Indianapolis 500.

"I know I can drive well enough (to win)," he said. "I'm confident enough that we can at least place ourselves in a position to win if we stay out of trouble and that's really all you can plan on.

"Anybody who sits there and plans on how they're going to win this race -- forget it; so many things happen that you can't account for that you just have to be conservative in your approach and put yourself in a position to win and hopefully things fall your way near the end."