Indy car drivers Tony Kanaan & Vitor Meira heading to the Ironman World Championships

Indy

Here’s an interesting question that you might be asking yourself?

How do you get to race at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii? One answer might be to become a successful Indianapolis race car driver.

Today we got word that Indy car drivers Tony Kanaan and Vitor Meira will be racing in Hawaii this October at the 2011 Ironman World Championships. Both men raced the at the Ironman 70.3 Championships last year with Tony Kanaan completing the half Ironman race in 5:06:43 while Vitor Meira finished in a very fast 4:47:18.

“For the pros it’s about winning or losing, but for me and for Tony it’s about the competition with yourself — to challenge yourself if you can and believe in yourself once you finish,” said Meira, who will start on Row 4 for the Indianapolis 500 on May 29th.

“And I think that goes for every sport. So I think it’s important for everyone to know that if you set a goal and it’s pretty hard to do it, then once you finish it you get confidence and you’ll believe more in yourself. That’s what Ironman does very well,” he added.

For his part Tony Kanaan says, “Race car drivers, we look at each other and what each other are doing to be better in the race car, and then all the sudden Vitor is training (for a triathlon) and I’m training.”

Kanaan is the driver of the No. 82 GEICO-KV Racing Technology-Lotus car and will start in the middle of Row 8 at Indianapolis later this month.

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“We want to do the same and we copy each other a lot,” Tony added. “The great thing is it’s a great opportunity. I think if you’re a race car driver, you want to do the Indy 500, and if you’re a triathlete you want to do Hawaii. So I’m very fortunate to get the invitation.”

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