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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Jaime Camara's debut in the Indianapolis 500 next week won't be his first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Three years ago, as a rookie in the developmental Infiniti Pro Series - now known as Indy Lights - the Brazilian driver started from the pole and won the Freedom 100. Then, smoking his tires along the main straightaway, he put the car into a celebratory spin and inadvertently backed into the inside wall, damaging a side wing and suspension.
That embarrassing burnout was his only bobble at the track, though, until this year. Now, he feels a bit snakebit.
"This track is not easy, at least for me it is not easy," Camara said Saturday after qualifying for the May 25 race.
Camara was third in the Freedom 100 in both 2006 and 2007, then moved up to the IndyCar Series this season with Conquest Racing and was 21st in his series debut last month at Kansas. He returned to Indy for rookie orientation two weeks ago but crashed in practice and spent a night in the hospital.
On Saturday, he qualified at 219.345 mph.
"You feel the wind, you feel the heat. The track conditions change every lap. If a cloud comes over the track, it changes again," he said.
The 27-year-old Camara said it also was difficult coming back from the crash and the hospitalization for a soreness in his back.
"I just have to suck it up and go," he said. "It is just getting out there and having seat time and track time, and figure it out again. ... I got here and I thought this was going to be easy, but it is a tough track."
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OWNER-DRIVER: Driving a race car might be the least of Sarah Fisher's worries.
Fisher qualified Saturday for her seventh start in the Indianapolis 500, but it's her first as both the driver and owner of her own race team. It's also her first race this season amid a difficult search for money to keep the team afloat.
Two potential sponsors still haven't come through with the cash they had promised, and Fisher and husband Andy O'Gara have had to invest their own savings in the team.
