INDIANAPOLIS – Oriol Servia couldn’t wait for his partners with Scuderia Corsa to experience the drama, tension and joy that Indianapolis Motor Speedway can inflict on a race team taking its first dip into the Verizon IndyCar Series.

But Servia didn’t expect nearly all of it to happen in one day to the accomplished sports car team.

Driving the Honda-powered No. 64 for Scuderia Corsa in a partnership with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Servia danced with an ill-handling car on bump day and the very real possibility that he wouldn’t qualify for the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.

But before anyone could say, “Welcome to Indy, but you’re out,” the veteran made a hold-your-breath drive late in the session to squeeze enough speed and qualify for the his 10th Indy 500. Everyone on the team exhaled at that moment. Then they realized the rest of the month remained to experience more from a place that can fill your heart with hope, break it, then restore it if you never give up.

Servia and the Scuderia Corsa team didn’t quit.

He started Sunday’s race from 26th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, used fuel strategy and daring moves on restarts to move steadily toward the front. Servia led three times, including a dozen laps before he was passed on a lap 193 restart. A late pit stop for fuel dropped the veteran of 203 Indy car starts to a 17th-place finish.

It ensured the Scuderia Corsa team, the successful sports car operation that has an eye toward a full-time entry in the Verizon IndyCar Series as soon as next year, felt the full gamut of the emotional Indy 500 experience – from the are-we-in-or-are-we-not moments of bump fay to leading in the race’s final laps.

“I had been telling them about the drama at Indy,” Servia said. “I told them the stories about when Roger Penske didn’t make the race (in 1995). I told them that it doesn’t take much to all of a sudden be on the bubble (in qualifying), and there we were. For their first experience here, Scuderia Corsa got the full up and down.”

The best part is that Scuderia Corsa owner Giacomo Mattioli, whose Ferraris have blazed an impressive record of sports-car success since the Las Vegas-based team began racing in 2012, loved the experience.

“The Indy 500 is what everyone told me it would be and much more,” Mattioli said. “There's no event quite like it.”

Simply seeing the Scuderia Corsa logo on the race car and above the Gasoline Alley garage symbolized a major step in Mattioli’s dream of bringing a team to the 500. He was born, raised and instilled with a love for racing – especially open-wheel – in Modena, Italy, the birthplace of Ferrari. He worked in Ferrari’s legal department out of law school and now is president and CEO of Mattioli Automotive Group in Southern California.

The Scuderia Corsa sports car resume includes four IMSA championships, a Pirelli World Challenge title and a class victory and two podium finishes the past three years at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The GT team raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2014, but this was Mattioli’s first glimpse of the Indy 500.

“It is emotional, for sure,” he said. “It’s a great accomplishment for such a young team as Scuderia Corsa. Six years ago, we started the operation. We did quite OK in the GT field, and now stepping into open-wheel (racing) is very, very exciting.

“We are not afraid of taking a hard look at ourselves, and that’s the fun part. I always say that. There’s always something to learn, always something to do better, and that’s what I think has been the key. Nothing fancy, nothing magic, but hard work.”

Mattioli made it clear the Indy 500 wasn’t a one-and-done program with the series.  While RLL supplied crew for nearly all car prep and performance, he said some Scuderia Corsa personnel joined the effort to learn what’s needed to field a full-season team.

“We’re really looking forward to developing a full-season (program) for next year,” Mattioli said. “For this year, this is all we have. Then we will digest everything and work hard for next year, possibly a full-time entry. For sure this race (in 2019), but hopefully we can be a full-season (team).”

With INDYCAR moving to a new engine formula in 2021, and showing interest in having more manufacturers join Chevrolet and Honda, Mattioli would love to see his beloved Ferrari in the series.

“You have to ask them,” he said. “It would be great to see Ferrari, but we are here as Scuderia Corsa independently.”

Racing at Indy was more Mattioli’s dream than part of a master plan when the Scuderia Corsa program started.

“I am from Modena. Open-wheel has been the top as far as performance,” he said. “That’s what attracted us.”

The idea shifted from the dream stage when Mattioli became intrigued with the one-off Indy 500 success of Townsend Bell, the NBCSN analyst on INDYCAR telecasts who also drives for Scuderia Corsa’s sports car team. Mattioli said talks with sponsors and RLL co-owner Bobby Rahal about fielding a car for this year’s 500 got serious last fall.

“We started developing the idea, and our partner sponsors were very keen on it,” he said. “We are very lucky to have the support that we have. We met with Bobby and it was fairly easy.  It has been a great experience so far.”

Even the nervous moments, like the anxiety-filled first qualifying day when Servia didn’t get the car into the race until his third run, made lasting memories.

“If you like motorsport, it means you like to suffer, right?” Mattioli said. “You have a range of emotions when you win, when you lose, when you are disappointed.”

Having experienced the highs and lows of May, Mattioli described this year’s effort as a journey for Scuderia Corsa.

“And,” he added, “it’s the beginning of the journey.”