Baguette, so close to glory

The 95th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana on Sunday May 29, 2011. Alex Tagliani took the pole position, and the race was won by Dan Wheldon. It was his second Indy 500 win after the 2005 race, and (sadly) the last win of his career.

Early 2010, Éric Bachelart’s Conquest Racing announced that Belgian Bertrand Baguette would drive their second car in the IndyCar Series. Baguette qualified 24th for the 2010 Indianapolis 500 and finished 22nd, after losing several laps in the pits to replace a rear-view mirror that had fallen off.

With some strong performances throughout the season, especially on ovals, Bertrand managed a best finish of 10th at Kentucky, after qualifying 6th.

Due to a lack of budget, Baguette couldn’t get a full-time seat for the 2011 IndyCar Series. However, he could find a deal with Bobby Rahal’s team Rahal Letterman Lanigan to enter the 2011 Indianapolis 500.

After showing impressive pace during practice, Baguette qualified on the fifth row for his second Indy 500. During the race, he was constantly positioned in the first half of the field and on lap 189, managed a pass on Danica Patrick to take the lead!

His race engineer gambled on the race strategy by extending his time on the track to the limit of his fuel consumption, hoping for a late yellow flag that would have given the car a good chance for the win, but this didn’t happen and low on fuel, Baguette had to pit three laps from the end of the race. He finished 7th, still the best result of his career in IndyCar.

Bertrand Baguette remembers: “We had the speed to win, led 11 laps, but just came 3 laps short and finished 7th…”, the Belgian continues: “What a fantastic experience, working with Bobby Rahal (picture below) and his team was a privilege, and I believe, Bobby was satisfied with my performance.”