CART Online (January 16) — The brand new Swift Indy car chassis made afantastic debut at Phoenix International Raceway on Wednesday and Thursday.

At 11:52 a.m. (Mountain Time) on Wednesday, January 15, Michael Andrettirolled the new car - officially named the Kmart/Texaco Havoline Swift 007.i- out of the pits at PIR for its maiden run. The team recorded 34 lapsaround the 1-mile oval (all on the same set of Goodyears) including 18"flyers" that resulted in a top Wednesday time of 20.38 seconds.

"There was a lot of excitement," Andretti said. "A lot of hard work has beenput into the program. There's been a lot of good feelings about the project,but you never know until you get on the race track. I think the car ispretty good."

By comparison, Bryan Herta won the pole at PIR in 1995 in CART's lastappearance on the PIR mile with a lap of 19.78 seconds. Compared to Herta'sReynard-Ford Cosworth, however, the new Swift 007.i was running with fiveless inches of boost (40 inches compared to 1995's 45 inches of manifoldpressure) and considerably less downforce. The Ford powerplant in the backof Andretti's Swift was also a 1996 specification Ford Cosworth XD.

Andretti recorded 27 more laps today (61 total for the test) and eclipsedhis Wednesday time on only his fifth circuit with a 20.25 second tour ofPIR. Five laps, later his 10th lap on the track gave the team its best timeof the two days: 20.11 seconds for an average speed of 179 mph. That wouldhave been good enough for sixth on the grid at the 1995 race.

"It seems to be more comfortable to drive than cars I have driven in thepast," Andretti added. "It seems very balanced so far. It is doingeverything a good race car is supposed to do."

The team will switch the Swift over to road course configuration tomorrow soMichael Andretti's teammate Christian Fittipaldi can take his inaugural lapsin the 007.i on the Firebird road course. The first of the three straightdays will come on Fittipaldi's 26th birthday (Saturday, January 18). Not abad birthday present!

With Dan Gurney's All American Racers switching to British-built Reynardthis year, the Newman/Haas Swift will be the only American-made race carcontesting the PPG CART World Series Championship. Andretti believes theyhave a package good enough to win it.

"I think we can win championship," Andretti said. "It is all going to comedown to reliability. If everything stays reliable, I think we'll have a goodshot at it."

Source: CART News Service