Veekay shows resilience during the challenging Sonsio Grand Prix

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been a recurring theme throughout Rinus VeeKay’s career. Not only has he started from the front row twice in the most important race of the year, the Indianapolis 500, but the Hoofddorp native also won his first IndyCar race on the track’s infield in 2021. With the arrival of May, that means, in IndyCar terms, that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway takes center stage for several weeks.

Before practice, qualifying, and the ultimate highlight—the 500-mile race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval—get underway, tradition dictates that the Road Course race comes first, utilizing large sections of the old Formula 1 track. While VeeKay can boast of magnificent past successes, the driver of the #76 Orion 180 Chevrolet from Juncos Hollinger Racing faced quite a few challenges this year.

During Friday’s free practice sessions, the chosen setup proved ineffective. As a result, the white-and-red car’s setup was completely overhauled, something VeeKay had immediately requested of his team. Later that day, however, he was unable to test this new setup, as rain threw a wrench in the works. Qualifying was pushed back a day, and the warm-up was even canceled entirely.

The misfortune was far from over, because during that qualifying session it turned out that one of the springs on the rear shock absorber of VeeKay’s car was not properly secured. As a result, the Dutch driver had to pit during the session to try to fix the problem, causing him to lose valuable time—time that ultimately cost him that one fast lap. The white-and-red Juncos Hollinger car could not get any better than 21st on the grid.

To make matters worse, the start of the Sonsio Grand Prix was chaotic, to say the least. During the rolling start, several drivers decided to ease off the gas multiple times, causing a domino effect. At the back of the field, drivers had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting each other, causing the driver in front of VeeKay to suddenly come to a stop right in front of him. VeeKay had nowhere to go and hit the car in front of him, resulting in a broken front wing and a flat tire. The 85-lap race had yet to begin.

Throughout that 85-lap race, VeeKay showed he never gives up. Not even a controversial drive-through penalty could rattle him. When VeeKay had to have the damage from the start repaired, the pit lane was officially still closed. As a penalty, any driver who violates the rule by entering the pit lane must drop back to last place. However, the two drivers behind him stayed right on VeeKay’s tail as he moved at a near standstill while attempting to serve his penalty. The race officials ruled this VeeKay’s fault, resulting in the Dutchman receiving yet another penalty. At the end of the race, after all the chaos and incidents had settled, VeeKay was classified in fifteenth place.

“A challenging weekend,” says VeeKay with a sense of understatement. “We started at a disadvantage because we struggled with the setup during free practice, and we didn’t have much time to fix it, since qualifying was postponed and the warm-up was even canceled. At the start of the race, I got caught up in the chaos; the cars in front of me suddenly hit the brakes.”

“From there, it was a matter of damage control. We had a good strategy and ended up moving up a few spots, so in that sense, it was a decent end to a tough weekend. We’re now going to focus on the most important race of the year: practice for the Indianapolis 500 starts next Tuesday, and qualifying is this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it,” VeeKay concludes with determination.

The next race is the 110th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. It will start on Sunday, May 24, around 6:30 p.m. and can be watched live on Ziggo Sport.