Homestead, Fla. -- The drivers of the PPG CART World Series got back to what they do best Saturday and so did the Florida weather. And after spending the night at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital, PacWest Racing Group driver Mark Blundell was back at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex for CART Spring Training, but not behind the wheel.

After a crushing defeat by a team of Hollywood and sports celebrities in last night’s MCI Charity Softball Classic, the PPG Cup drivers returned to the more familiar environment of their race cars and the Homestead track for the third and final day of 1997 CART Spring Training. The South Florida weather is also the best it has been all week with the sun shining and temperatures in the mid-70s.

The best news of all, however, was that Blundell was released this morning with a clean bill of a health. He spent the night in the hospital after hitting the wall exiting Turn 1 late in Friday’s final practice. Blundell never lost consciousness, but complained of lower back and neck pain. Early Saturday afternoon, Blundell reported he was still sore but X-rays taken yesterday were negative and he has no injuries. He returned to the race track, where he had lunch with PacWest team owner Bruce McCaw and other members of the team. He will not drive today.

The first of today’s two sessions began as scheduled at 9:00 a.m., and it marked the Spring Training debut of Scott Pruett and Michael Andretti. Pruett is driving the No. 40 Reynard Ford Cosworth XD Raul Boesel capably handled the last two days while Michael Andretti jumped into the same new Swift Ford Cosworth XD his teammate Christian Fittipaldi ran the last two days. The Newman/Haas Racing crew even placed Andretti’s familiar No. 6 on the Swift.

The day’s story was the same as it has been all week, though, as Jimmy Vasser topped the session with a lap of 195.467 mph (27.943 seconds) in the Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda HRR, the only sub-28 second lap run so far at Spring Training.

PacWest’s Mauricio Gugelmin was second fastest Saturday morning in the Hollywood Reynard Mercedes-Benz at an average speed of 194.853 mph (28.031 seconds). Pruett was third quickest at 192.423 mph (28.385 seconds) in the Brahma Sports Team car.

Paul Tracy with fourth fastest in his Marlboro Penske Mercedes-Benz at 192.024 mph (28.444 seconds) while Andretti did well to round out the top five in the Swift at 191.465 mph (28.527 seconds).

The morning’s only incident came one hour into the session when PPG Cup rookie Patrick Carpentier went high out of Turn 4 and brushed the outer wall on the front straight. The right front wheel of Carpentier’s Alumax Reynard Mercedes-Benz was sheared off as the car rode the wall. The team believes the race car can be fixed in time to make this afternoon’s final practice, but it is not likely they will return to the track because they do not have enough time to give the Reynard a thorough safety check. Carpentier checked-out OK at the CART medical center and released soon after the accident.

Complete Saturday Morning Testing Result