©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
 | Tony Kanaan at the wheel of a '97 Lola |
The photo above was taken on October 23 at Firebird. Tony Kanaan was the first to take AndreRibeiro's old '97 Lola out on the track, dodging the occasional Player's Atlantics car. Conditions on thefirst testing day were sunny and 85 degrees.
When Castro-Neves drove the car on the second day, conditions were windy and partly cloudy at a 'cool' 81 degrees. The Lola suddenly had shed all it's sponsor logos (maybe Ramon was spottedat the fence while sticking his long lens through the mesh wire?). The photos from day one may be the last ever taken of a Tasman car sporting an LCI sticker, sinceLCI sponsorship will most likely be leaving the team.
Neves ran laps in the 44-second range - compare that to the best laps of '97 preseason testswhen Zanardi cracked off a 41.xxx time. 44 lat around this track is not too shabby for a rookie trying his first laps in a car that was inferiorall season, and actually was mothballed for the second half of the year. Last time the car was talked about, somebody refered to it as a $600k paperweight...
Rumor has it that Tasman may go back to Lola and become their 'factory team' in '98. Just a few months ago Steve Horne announced he would me moving to Reynard in '98.Money leaving the team may be related to thisnew twist in the Tasman story.
Buddy Lazier nor Roberto Moreno who are both rumored to be considered for one ofthe two Tasman seats were not seen at Firebird at all — just toanswer all the "Lazier has been signed by Tasman" messages on various CART fanforums. We would call that a little premature.