Indy 500: Fan Chatter Intercepts Fisher's Race Radio

INDIANAPOLIS May 30, 2004; Mark Jewell writing for the AP reported that as Sarah Fisher slowed with the rest of the Indianapolis 500 field during an early race caution, an unfamiliar but encouraging voice in her radio earpiece suggested she move up in the race. The advice wasn't from her pit crew. It came from a man claiming to be a fan.

"Somebody named Tom got on the radio and told me to get up front," Fisher said.

A radio pirate who intercepted Fisher's race radio frequency chatted with her periodically throughout the five-minute caution, suggesting she needed to pass a few cars in advance of approaching rain and a race delay, she said.

"I was like, 'Hey, man, could you please get off the radio?'" Fisher said, laughing.

The man eventually complied.

The interruption was not as disruptive to Fisher as another radio problem. Before the pirate latched onto her frequency, contact with her pit crew was broken up by interference from the track's race broadcast, she said. That problem continued off and on most of the day.

Fisher was not flustered by the pirate's chatter, but said she might have reacted differently if the interruption had occurred during a green light instead of the caution, when cars may go no faster than 90 mph. Though the radio intrusion could be a violation of federal law, Fisher said she did not intend to press a complaint.

Fisher, the third woman ever to qualify for the 500, started 19th Sunday and finished 21st. It was her best 500 finish -- and only the second 500 she has completed -- in a career marked by three early retirements due to crashes.