The Indy Racing League concluded its only pre-season Open Test March 6 with 17 Indy Pro Series™ drivers turning 1,966 laps on the 1.5-mile, variably banked oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Teams from the IndyCar® Series and Indy Pro Series tested at the facility March 2-6 on the oval and the 2.21-mile road course in preparation for the season’s first races at the track on March 26.
Rookie Jay Howard, driving the No. 7 Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry, topped the time chart with a quick lap of 28.4738 seconds, 187.752 mph. Andretti Green Racing teammates Jaime Camara and Jonathan Klein were second and fifth quick. Camara was just five-hundredths of a second behind Howard.
Wade Cunningham, the Indy Pro Series defending champion, turned the third-quickest lap of the day in the No. 1 Brian Stewart Racing car. Marty Roth was fourth quick.
POST-TEST QUOTES
JAY HOWARD (No. 7 Sam Schmidt Motorsports, quickest time): “It was pretty good, can’t complain. The track’s changed a little bit throughout the day, which was quite a surprise in my rear window. After lunch the car was really, really good. Just after lunch I had taken off quite a bit of understeer. The boys made some changes, we put some tires on and went quicker again. Pretty good day. We were on it right out of the box. I’m real happy, and they’re real happy, so that’s the main thing. It’s nice to end the day just like we did. To come here with all the other cars with experience, for them to come in and look at us and use us as their marker, that’s a good start to the year.”
JAIME CAMARA (No. 11 Andretti Green Racing, 2nd quickest): “We tried a lot of setups today for the race and for qualifying, and most of them worked. I think we have to make little changes for the race year at the end of the month, but it was really positive. I think it could be better, but during the day we had some problems that kept us from being faster, but it’s OK. I’m going to do my best to be on the front at qualifying at every race.”
WADE CUNNINGHAM (No. 1 Brian Stewart Racing, 3rd quickest): “It wasn’t too bad. We had a list of things to get through, and we did most of them. We didn’t want to be as far off the pace as we were. The two Schmidt/Andretti Green cars were in front of us today, and we couldn’t really bridge that gap. We’ll have to look at what we learned today and apply it to the race in a few weeks.”
MARTY ROTH (No. 4 Roth Racing, 4th quickest): “We accomplished a lot, and I can’t wait to get to the race at the end of March. It’s one thing to be out here testing, but it will be another thing when everybody is out here racing.”
JONATHAN KLEIN (No. 27 Andretti Green Racing, fifth quickest): “It’s a good way to start off the season. Driving with most of the rest of the field here, it’s good that we’re top five. The road course was good. We kept at it and we found speed at the end of the day. Today, we struggled a bit more. My teammates were a bit faster than me. That’s why it’s a test day. We’re just here to learn. It’s not a race weekend, so we’re not too worried about it. We’ll take what we learn here today and apply it to the Klein Tools/Turn Key Forging and Design car for the race weekend. Everything should work out.”
POST TEST NOTES:
IndyCar Series Testing By The Numbers: Test session results are difficult to interpret, as teams and drivers concentrate on different aspects of performance besides pure speed.
Some teams work on aerodynamics. Some focus on race setups and make long runs using full fuel tanks, which in turn, slow the car.
But analyzing the time sheets, Helio Castroneves was the top overall driver during five days of IRL IndyCar® Series preseason testing, Jan. 24-25 at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway, March 2 and 3 on the 2.21-mile road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway and March 5 on the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval.
Castroneves was one of five drivers who were ranked among the top seven drivers on each of the testing days. The other drivers represent the last five IndyCar Series champions – Sam Hornish Jr., Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Dan Wheldon.
“Target Chip Ganassi Racing has won championships, and they’ve won all the big races. They should be proud to be on top (of the speed charts),” said Wheldon, who like Castroneves led the time sheets twice. “Yeah, you feel good, but it’s just a test. It means nothing, really. We need to make sure we’ve got a good car for the race. We need to work hard on doing that in the next few weeks.”
Rankings were determined by adding each driver’s position on the final speed chart each day. The driver with the lowest score prevails, though it may not be the most accurate indicator of performance.
Wheldon dominated testing and continued his top form throughout the 2005 season, while his new teammate, Dixon, was the most consistent driver in testing in 2004, and was never a factor in the championship. In contrast, Buddy Rice had a breakout season in 2004, but didn’t crack the top-10.
The top 10 overall for 2006:
Pos. Driver 1/24 1/25 3/2 3/3 3/5
1 Helio Castroneves 2 3 1 1 4 11
2 Scott Dixon 7 2 3 2 2 16
3 Sam Hornish Jr. 5 4 2 3 3 17
4 Dan Wheldon 6 1 4 6 1 18
5 Tony Kanaan 1 6 6 7 5 25
6 Dario Franchitti 4 11 7 5 8 35
7 Bryan Herta 3 5 10 8 15 41
8 Buddy Rice 8 12 9 9 7 45
9 Scott Sharp 10 9 11 4 12 46
10 Ed Carpenter 12 8 16 14 6 56
(tie) Kosuke Matsuura 11 10 8 13 14 56
***
The IRL IndyCar Series opens the 2006 season with the Toyota Indy 300 at 3:30 p.m. (EST) on March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race will be broadcast live on ABC Sports and the IMS Radio Network. The IMS Radio Network broadcast is also carried on XM Satellite Radio and indycar.com. The fifth season of Indy Pro Series competition opens with the Miami 100 at 12:30 p.m. on March 26 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race will be telecast at 1 p.m. on March 31 by ESPN2.
