INDYCAR: Servia, Marotti beating the odds at Indy

Will Marotti has been a pastor for the past 20 years and an IndyCar fan for the last 45 but it took more than divine intervention to put together his racing team for next month's 100th Indianapolis 500.

"I think I've been pretty persistent and determined for the past nine months," said Marotti (left, photo courtesy of Marotti Racing), who is partnering with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to field a car for veteran Oriol Servia. "When I first talked to IndyCar they said they had 1,000 people a year calling about getting involved like I wanted to and then Jay Frye (IndyCar president of competition) told me it was more like 10,000 people and it was a million-to-one shot. So right now nobody is happier and nobody is more surprised than I am."

After listening to the Indy 500 on the radio for years, Marotti attended his initial race in 1982 to cheer on Mario Andretti. Since then he's hosted a racing radio show, traveled to several IndyCar events and yearned to be a part of it.

"I reached out to several teams last year and Andy O'Gara and Sarah (Fisher) were the only ones that called back, so I met them at Pocono," continued the man who preaches at the New Life Church in Wallingford, Ct. "I came to Indy and went through their shop and they were great but nothing was decided.

"Then I called Sam and told I was looking for a mentor to teach me the business and we began talking. I like Jack Harvey a lot but he didn't have any money so Sam said Oriol had a little bit of funding and suggested we get together. It's pretty amazing to have a driver of Oriol's caliber."

The 41-year-old Spaniard (right) will be sponsored by ABC Roofing in Avon, Carson Fire Arms in Terre Haute, a mobile application named Fit Com for personal trainers and a couple others yet to be announced.

"I haven't been full-time racing for a season and a half and when I drove Justin's (Wilson) car at Sonoma last year I realized how much I missed it and how out of shape I was," said Servia, who will carry #77 and team with James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin. "So since last September I've been working out hard and when I filled in for Will (Power) with Team Penske at St. Pete a few weeks ago, I felt much better."

Starting third at IMS in 2011 and leading 18 laps before finishing sixth, Servia stormed from 27th to fourth in 2012 for Dreyer & Reinbold (LEFT) and is highly regarded in terms of chassis setup, teamwork and race craft.

Asked if it was next-to-impossible to expect a good result anymore as a one-off considering the depth of the field, he replied: "Indy is the easiest to find chemistry, because we are there all month and get to know the team, on and off track. There is no magic – just got to have the seasoning and years of preparing to that race. I've been doing it for almost a decade now.

"And, it feels great to have more than one practice session to prepare and jump in the car like I did at St. Pete. I've had great races in the past at that place and I feel better than I ever have."

Added Schmidt: "This is a long time coming, I've respected Oriol's performance at the 500 for many years. I've been trying to put this together for quite some time and it's not a typical one-off deal – it's getting maximum preparation."

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