Homestead, Florida — Team KOOL Green completed its first 522 miles ofpre-season testing Monday at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complexjust outside of Miami. The four day session saw the team log 296 miles onHomestead's road course in two days before recording 226 miles in a pair ofdays on the circuit's 1.5-mile oval. Their top oval time was 29.03 seconds,according to the team.

New for the test and the team: Driver Parker Johnstone, the team'sReynard-Honda 97I, Firestone tires and returning engineer Tony Cicale. Noteam on the CART circuit has gone through as many changes in the off-seasonas the Green outfit.

"We spent some time getting acquainted at first with the car and everyone onthe team," said Team Kool Green Manager Kim Green, who was on-hand all fourdays. "This is our first test, so we've still got some work to do, but it'sall come together real well. Our speeds have been relatively close to theother (eight) cars testing out here, and our best time on the oval (29.03seconds) was one of the quickest by comparison.

The team's new package is identical to that used by 1996 PPG Cup championsJimmy Vasser and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing who unofficially topped the timesheets of the eight drivers testing with laps in the low 28 second range(see related story).

"Everyone here is real pleased with the overall package," Johnstone said.

The fourth-year Indy car driver also gave the Firestone tires and acclaimedengineer Cicale high marks. His biggest thrill, however, was just being ableto test.

"The total miles we've logged in four days is just about 40 miles shy of theentire amount of testing I did last season (with Brix/Comptech Racing),"Johnstone added. "This has truly been a unique and exciting experience forme."

Source: CART News Service