Independents Rule Race

The 52nd running of the men's Little 500 came and went in the tradition of past years without emphasis on the controversy that led up to the race. \nSaturday The Corleones won the race with speed, humor, and an almost two-lap lead over the majority of the competition. \n"Everything went off smoothly," senior Daniel Burns said. "I don't know, nobody is going to like us now because we won, so no one wants to be our friend. It's kinda cool when you lose because everyone wants to be your friend because everyone lost with you. But once you win nobody likes you which kinda sucks, but we won, so it's cool."\nThe Corleones, made up of Burns, senior Luke Isenbarger, junior Clint Seal, and senior Chris Irk, won the race with a large margin of victory, which they said is a result of smart riding and avoiding the nearly 10 minor wrecks. The teams rode under the yellow flag caution pace only twice within the race. IU Student Foundation assistant director and Little 500 Coordinator, Alex Ihnen, said the two yellow flags on the race were a significantly small number as opposed to past years, which usually has four or five yellow flag periods.\n"Everything was pretty safe with just a couple of accidents," Ihnen said. "Nothing was too bad."\nThe Corleones made exchanges twice within the final ten laps of the race while they held on to their one and a half-lap lead, which translated into a 2:04.58 finish over second place finisher, Gafombi who ended the race at 2:05.25. The third place team, Dodds House finished at 2:05.29. When the final two laps approached the team and fans were already celebrating and Burns relied on humor to get the crowd going. Burns sped past The Corleones' pit with his tongue out and a smile on his face. After the final exchange Burns and the remaining two riders waved to the crowd in victory while Irk finished off the race.\n"Once we got that quarter lap, it's kinda iffy for awhile, but then once we started pulling away at 185, 190 we knew we had it," Burns said. "But I almost got in a wreck, so anything's possible."\nThe race began after the pace car left the track and without much surprise the three front runners; Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta, and Team Major Taylor broke out to lead the pack.\nComing out of the tenth lap, things changed dramatically. Gafombi lead the pack with Team Major Taylor, The Corleones, and Phi Gamma Delta following close behind. The devastation of the first major wreck happened during the 19th lap. Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Tau Omega, Sigma Nu, Chi Phi, and Delta Chi all went down near the first turn. No riders were seriously hurt and only a few bikes needed to be replaced. \nThe Corleones followed the pack again in the 20th lap, as they fell from second to fourth place. As the race neared the 20-minute mark, The Corleones entered first place and remained near the front, never falling lower than fourth place for the remainder of the race. \nAt the 60th lap, Phi Gamma Delta was involved in an individual wreck that slowed them from gaining from their fifth place position. They finished in sixth place.\nThe 80th lap proved to be a large gain for The Corleones; the team finished the lap at 49.10 with an almost 40 second lead over the second-place team, Phi Delta Theta. The 40 second lead translated into almost one lap.\nAfter The Corleones gained their lead in the 80th lap, they led the field for the majority of the race. Even through exchanges the team did not falter, extending their lead to one-and-a-half laps. The second and third place teams; Gafombi and Dodds House also contended for the lead throughout the final 100 laps, but a wreck in the early stages of the race slowed Dodds.\n"We had a wreck and that kinda affected us for second and third place because it was between us and Gafombi," Dodds House rider, freshman Craig Luekens said. "Gafombi did a hell of a job and you gotta give them credit. They had a hell of a race and we had a wreck and they took advantage of that and did a great job."\nAfter Acacia and Team Major Taylor, who had been top competitors throughout the race, were involved in a wreck during lap 157, the two dropped from first place contention. The wreck, which involved the fourth through seventh teams, gave the top three finishers the chance to trade positions through first, second and third and not worry about the remaining teams. \n"With wrecks like that, especially in the beginning, it kind of makes you feel more optimistic at the start of the race," Gafombi rider, senior Michael Rubin said. "We knew that we were going to be up there if we just stayed out of the wrecks." \nThe Corleones were lucky to stay out of many of the wrecks that slowed Team Major Taylor to a ninth-place finish and claimed defending champ Phi Delta Theta, who did not finish within the top ten.\n"It's great and there were a lot of great teams out there and a lot of good teams went down and that's a part of racing," Isenbarger said. "Things happen and we were ready for whatever would happen. We got lucky today, no wrecks and everything went smoothly as planned."\nThe final ten laps had already determined the winners, at which The Corleones turned to humor and celebration, despite their disbelief that they captured the 2002 Little 500 title.\n"It's great. I don't even know what to say. It's kind of surreal," Burns said. "I never thought that it would ever happen, but it did happen"