The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page C6

Sports THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR WWW.INDYSTAR.COM AUTO RACING Female drivers top NHRA qualifying in 2 divisions Star, news service reports TOPEKA, Kan. Top Fuel points leader Melanie Troxel, Avon, and Pro Stock driver Erica Enders led qualifying for the O'Reilly Summer Nationals, the first time two female drivers have been No. 1 qualifiers in NHRA history. Enders also became the first female Pro Stock driver to qual ify No. 1 at an NHRA national event and became the eighth female to earn a No.

1 qualifier in NHRA history. In just her 32nd career race, Enders already owns all the class records for female competitors. She is the fifth woman to compete in the factory hot rod category. Her Friday night pass of 6.785 seconds at 203.06 mph in a Chevrolet Cobalt was enough to top the Pro Stock field. "This is pretty cool," the 22-year-old said in a news release on the NHRA Web site.

"It's another check mark we get to put on the list of things we want to accomplish. I'm proud of my guys. They've never failed to give me a race car that's capable of winning. "Being a girl in Pro Stock is pretty unique. It was exciting for us to qualify for the first time.

It was exciting to win our first round, to get to a final for the first time. It's all been amazing. It's neat to share the podium with Melanie. I just hope we get to share it again (today). That's the next thing we need to check off that list." Troxel and Funny Car's Robert Hight also stayed No.

1 in their respective classes with their opening-day runs, which took place under the lights Friday night. Troxel earned her second career pole with a best of 4.567 at 321.50 mph. "I'm happy for Erica," Troxel said. "She's a good driver, and she deserves to be the No. 1 qualifier.

I think the real reason we haven't seen a lot of women succeed in motor sports is just because there (haven't) been a lot of women competing. Now we're seeing more out there, and they're having success." Hight used a 4.824 at 315.19 mph in his Ford Mustang to snare his ninth pole in 32 career races. C6 SUNDAY, MAY 28, 2006 2nd Kravitz NIGHT BEFORE THE 500 Westfield teen proves a hit in midget race GREG GRIFF0 The Star PRACTICE RUN: Lance Armstrong takes off for some practice laps at the Speedway. The cycling great will drive the pace car for today's 500. Armstrong feels some rookie nerves would work anywhere, so it was great," said Mockler, who was making just her second national start.

"I touched wheels with Michael Lewis. We were going low between (turns) one and two. I had no choice but to go around him because I was moving forward." While Mockler was moving forward from the 15th spot, Santos was maintaining his lead. Only six caution flags, all in the first 32 laps, let the pack stay close. "When you're leading a race, you hate seeing those yellows," Santos said.

It was after the first restart, which came on the second lap, that Santos showed the strength of his car and cruised past Josh Wise. From that point on, Santos was never challenged. "We tested (the car) here, and it tested well," he said. "Honestly, we didn't have time to play with the car today. The car was unbelievable.

I got out front, and I knew I could just take my time. It was just a good race." Finishing second for the second consecutive year was Noblesville's Ron Gregory, followed by Mockler, Lewis and Jerry Coons, Jr. In earlier feature races, Joe Hill won the 40-lap super truck feature for the second straight year, while Stuart Quakenbush claimed the 40-lap stock car feature and Bob Curry won the modified race, which was shortened to 40 laps due to time. because of that pesky Panoz chassis issue. But she raised lots of eyebrows on pole day, and she's shown everybody with the possible exception of NASCAR Neanderthal Richard Petty that she can drive a race car.

Ganassi versus Penske It's the Yankees against the Red Sox, though Doug Mient-kiewicz doesn't get to drive off in the winning car. All month, Ganassi and Penske drivers have been running up front, and it will be a huge upset if one of their drivers doesn't take the checkered flag. Michael and Marco Andretti In my perfect journalistic world, the final lap features a shootout between the father, who's led all those laps without winning this race, and the 19-year-old son, who'd better back off lest he get sent to bed without his dinner. And who likes milk on an empty stomach? The Hornish Curse OK, Sam's got to have a little more hard luck before he earns his own Curse, a la the Andretti Curse, but if he doesn't win it this year, you wonder when he's ever going to win it. (Wait, didn't we say that about the Colts?) You have to go back to Rick Mears to remember a driver who has been more dominant throughout an entire month.

"We're trying a different strategy," Hornish said. "In the past, we tried to figure out how to win the race. This year, we just want to finish the race, then see where things shake out from there." The Heat All month, it's been cool and rainy, with an emphasis on rainy. Suddenly, now we've got Global Warming Sunday. Conditions are going to change dramatically for drivers, who will have to deal with the slippery track, and fans, who might want to slip in the occasional water or three during the day.

"Given what we've heard about the weather," Wheldon said, "there's an even greater chance for a big surprise in this race." Then he smiled. "Although I hope there won't be any surprises," he said. The nicest surprise, though, would be learning this is the last Indy 500 of the open-wheel cold war. Eleven years is long enough. It's still the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," but it could be so much greater.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or e-mail bob.kravitzindystar.com. Bobby Santos III wins, but Stephanie Mockler makes some waves and fans By Melissa J. Phillips Star correspondent CLERMONT, Ind. Bobby Santos III may have come away winning the 61st annual Night Before the 500, but it was the third-place finish of 18-year old Stephanie Mockler that turned heads at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Santos, who won his second straight USAC race in as many weeks, made the race look easy as he led for 48 of the 50 laps in the midget race. The 20-year-old had been racing USAC National cars for three years before winning at Concord Motor Sport Park last Sunday. "I finally got my first win it took three years to do it and then I get my second a week later," Santos said. "I'm pretty excited. I had an awesome race tonight, and I can't ask for a better race car." While Santos was cruising in the lead, Mockler, who will graduate from Westfield High School this week, was gaining support from the crowd as she passed each driver.

She started in the 15th position and systematically moved up in the field, finally passing last year's winner Michael Lewis on lap 45 to claim third place. "I would run the high run, run the low run the car Tyler ends Gordon's Star report Brian Tyler won the 58th Little 500 at Anderson Speedway on Saturday to break Eric Gordon's five-year winning streak in USAC's grueling 500-lap test for sprint cars. Tyler, a nine-time Indy Racing League starter, took the lead for good on lap 410 and finished four laps in front of Gordon, who had dominated the race since 2001. Even a racing novice knows unified sport would be better. From CI up.

Try flowers. Or diamonds. Diamonds worked for Kobe. "The only thing I see is, if (reunification) is not done correctly, it could kill open-wheel racing altogether," Wheldon said the other day. "If the two sides get together and there's still some head bashing and egos which there always is in racing then it could hurt and make the sport worse off.

"But if it was done the right way, it would be tremendous. Right now, I think the IRL has to keep doing what it's doing I would love for it to happen, but it's got to happen the right way." The IRL has some momentum, a lot of it Danica-related, but, like baseball, there's way too much talk of the glorious past and too little talk of the present and the future. Tradition and history are great, but, then, the Roman Colosseum has tradition and history, too. "I think we all realize it (the split) is hurting the sport," driver Helio Castroneves said. "Indy is still Indy, and I can't imagine we'd ever not have Indy; it's always going to be there.

But would (unification) make the show even better? Absolutely." Especially toward the back of the 33-car grid. The speed disparity between the front and the back is a startling and dangerous 13 mph this year. Imagine exchanging those cars with entries from Champ Car teams. Now you're talking. The good old days of open-wheel racing weren't quite as spectacular as we'd like to remember, and there were problems that led to the great IRL-CART split.

But even a novice my hand is raised understands that a unified sport is far better off than one that is fractured. "At this point, I don't care whose fault it is, who did what, the reason why it happened," driver and team owner Michael Andretti said. "I just want to fix it. I don't even care which camp comes out on top. I'll be in whichever camp I think can fix it.

But that's not something I'm thinking about now." No. Now that Carb Day has come and passed without a peace treaty, there's the issue of the race. Which, despite the split, still figures to be wonderful theater. Story lines. We've got 'em: Danicamania II OK, so she hasn't been much of a factor this month, mostly TODAY'S SCHEDULE 6 a.m.: Public gates open.

8:30 a.m.: Spectacle of bands. 10:30 a.m.: Cars begin entering pit lane. 12:19 p.m.: "On the Banks of the Wabash" Purdue marching band. 12:24 p.m.: "God Bless America" Florence Henderson. 12:31 p.m.: Driver introductions, yard of bricks.

12:45 p.m.: "Drivers to your cars" announcement. 12:52 p.m.: National anthem. 12:54 p.m.: Invocation The Rev. Daniel Buechlein, Archbishop of Indianapolis. 12:58 p.m.: "Taps." 12:59 p.m.: "Back Home Again in Indiana" Jim Nabors.

1:01 p.m.: Command to start engines Mari Hulman George. 1:02 p.m.: Parade lap. 1:07 p.m.: Pace laps. 1:09 p.m.: Green flag for 90th running of the Indianapolis 500. 6 p.m.: Track closes.

Formula One racing while competing in Europe for 15 years and visited a Formula One practice in Monaco on Thursday. He said he has no favorites in today's race but is looking forward to fast competition at the Speedway, which Armstrong said he found extremely impressive. "Actually, (Friday) we flew right over it, and you realize that it's like a city. And when you get in, you realize it's a lot bigger, a lot grander than I thought," he said. "And then on the track, I was a lot more impressed and nervous than I thought I would be, too.

I hope I don't mess it up." Call Star reporter Rebecca Neal at (317) 444-2805. By Rebecca Neal rebecca.neal(3indystar.com Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said he's nervous about driving the pace car during today's Indianapolis 500 in front of hundreds of thousands of spectators. "Coming out of the last turn at 120 mph, that was tougher than I thought," he said after several practice laps around the track Saturday. "And not really knowing where the wall is, they're like, 'Get up closer to the I'm like, 'No, I'm not getting closer to the wall. No, I'm going to stay away from the Armstrong, who received cancer treatment in Indianapolis in 1996 at Indiana University Hospital, said his practice laps Saturday in the 2006 Corvette pace car were his first around a racetrack.

Accompanied by three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford, he said the veteran taught him to keep the cars in line during Sunday's race. "Just try to keep the group together on the last lap because of course I didn't know this but I guess they try to play games with one another, move forward and backward and try to get an advantage somehow," he said. Though he's retired from competitive cycling, Armstrong is now working to discover the next great champion. Armstrong and his Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team have launched "Race to Replace," a campaign that culminates with a cycling race at the Speedway on Aug. 12.

Competitors can register at www.race2replace.com, and the winner will ride as a Discovery team member at the U.S. professional championships in September in Greenville, S.C. But Armstrong's focus this weekend will be on auto racing. He said he has been exposed to streak in Little 500 "It was just our night," Tyler said. "The crew did a great job.

I knew if I could run consistent, I could win it, and when I got by Eric, I figured I was good. You have to have a good car at the end to win here, and we did." Tony Elliot was third, Jeff Bloom fourth and Russ Gamester fifth. Pole sitter Aaron Pierce retired after 349 laps with mechanical problems. I Totn smm yuiiji ml mm auzs urn jil Call by 5 p.m. on Monday and get: amit iaflQ FREE Community Classified listing An extra line FREE Plus a FREE garage sale kit 4lfl'l5lC I I KIlM mssssssssssssss fa.