Monterey Ca. Feb. 16 — Alex Zanardi set an unofficial track record Sunday as he paced the 14 PPG CART Indy car drivers on hand for the final official CART test of the pre-season held at Laguna Seca Raceway, Saturday and Sunday, February 15 - 16.

Zanardi, the Italian driver who made an unforgettable last-lap pass on the 11-turn road course to slip past Bryan Herta and win the season finale last September, bettered the track record he set last year by clocking in with a 118.806 mph (67.815 seconds) lap Sunday in his Target/Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda. He was also the fastest driver in Saturday's practice session.

"We worked hard to make the car better on Sunday," said Zanardi, last season's Rookie of the Year with three wins, and series-leader in pole positions and laps led. "Morris Nunn, my engineer, made some changes which helped me go faster. I'm very pleased."

Zanardi won the pole for last September's Toyota Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca with a lap of 118.475 mph (68.004 seconds).

Not far behind Zanardi during the two-day test was Brazil's Mauricio Gugelmin, who recorded a 118.359 mph (68.071 seconds) lap in his Hollywood Reynard Mercedes. Third quickest was Richie Hearn who clocked in at 116.627 mph (69.082 seconds) in his Della Penna Lola Ford Cosworth. A total of 14 race cars ran during the two-day test with nine of CART's 18 teams represented.

Penske Mercedes driver Paul Tracy was fourth fastest at 116.583 mph (69.108 seconds) and PPG Cup champion Jimmy Vasser, whose day ended early Sunday morning when his Target Reynard Honda went off and into a tire barrier at Turn 4, registered a 116.466 mph (69.177 seconds) lap to complete the top-five.

Vasser was uninjured but his Target Reynard sustained damage to the right-rear which was not immediately repairable.

"The cause was mechanical," explained Tom Anderson, managing director of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing. "Paul Tracy was behind Jimmy and said the rear wheels locked-up. We won't know more until we can look inside the gearbox."

The Laguna Seca test was the final official session prior to the 17-race PPG CART World Series season-opening race, the March 2 Grand Prix of Miami, presented by Toyota, at the Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex.

Source: CART News Service