IndyCar Homestead/Miami Open Test Concludes
Written by Allan Brewer · February 23, 2007
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Dan Wheldon. Photo: Allan Brewer
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Dan Wheldon Emerges As Season-Opening Leader
IPS Bobby Wilson Tops Pro Series Drives at Miami
From Indy Racing League Media Reports
Friday February 23, 2007
2005 IndyCar Series champion Dan Wheldon paced the IndyCar Series Open Test on the banked oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the second consecutive day, as testing on the 1.5 mile raceway in South Florida came to a close.
Dan Wheldon recorded a lap of 24.9405 seconds, 214.350 mph in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-powered Dallara on Thursday evening to claim top spot on the combined time sheets of the two-night test at Homestead/Miami Speedway, where the IRL season commences in approximately one month.
Wheldon definately has a “comfort zone” at the speedway, recording two victories and a third-place finish in his three previous visits here during the 2004-2006 IRL seasons. His in-test crash on Wednesday, however, put a small, and very expensive, damper on his day.
“It was a very good test in terms of outright speed, but I did destroy a car the first day,” Wheldon said. “That was my first crash since 2003. I’m performing well, but there are still some improvements that we can make.”
“It was a productive two days other than the fact that I did $300,000 worth of damage. Chip (Ganassi) was nice about it. I have a good relationship with Chip.”
Wheldon’s best lap was faster than 2006 IndyCar Series champion Sam Hornish Jr. in the No. 6 Team Penske Honda-powered Dallara, who recorded a best lap of 24.9606 seconds , 214.178 mph.
“We’re not exactly where we want to be yet, but we’re in a lot better shape than where we were Wednesday night,” the reigning Indy 500 champ said.
“We’re going to continue to analyze the data to see if we can continue to move forward. Hopefully, we’ll have everything straightened out when we come back for the race (next month).”
Tony Kanaan (214.119 mph), Marco Andretti (213.944 mph) and Helio Castroneves (213.869 mph) rounded out the day’s fast five. The times stood as fastest for each of the drivers for their two-day effort, as most spent Wednesday performing routine checks and data assessment on their machines.
Also on Thursday, Bobby Wilson led the oval-testing portion of the Indy Pro Series Open Test at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Wilson turned heads with a lap in Brian Stewart Racing’s No. 1 entry, recording a time of 28.7611 seconds, at 185.876 mph. Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Alex Lloyd was second-fastest at 28.7828 seconds, 185.736 mph.
“Hats off to the team today,” said Wilson later. “They did a great job.”
“The car was awesome. We showed some speed straight away in the session and then kept getting faster. All in all it’s a good day.”
There were 2,852 incident-free laps turned by IndyCar Series cars and 2,817 incident-free laps turned by Indy Pro Series cars on Thursday. Wheldon’s accident on Wednesday evening was the only significant on-track mayhem recorded over either series’ on-track activities for either day.
The 2007 IndyCar Series season begins under the lights with the XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 24th. The race will be telecast live by ESPN2 at 8 PM (EST) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network. A Spanish-language telecast of the race will be carried by ESPN Deportes. The IMS Radio Network broadcast also is carried on XM Satellite Radio and www.indycar.com. The sixth season of Indy Pro Series competition begins with the Homestead-Miami 100 on March 24 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It will be webcast live on www.indycar.com and will be telecast on at 5 PM (EST) on March 28th by ESPN2.
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