©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
By Peter Burke, with excepts from CART news service
The weather in Japan allowed only for one day of practice, but CART made the most of it by extending theThursday afternoon session to a full 2 hours. Their trust in the weather forecasting proved to bewise: even Friday morning the conditions were not suitable for an early qualifying time. The grid was determined based on Thursday's practice speeds. See the special Japan section on SpeedCenter for all thenumbers and the exact ranking behind Motegi pole sitter Jimmy Vasser.
Before practice began, Payton-Coyne Racing announced that Gualter Salles will be driving in place ofDennis Vitolo for this week's race at Twin Ring Motegi. Vitolo is still suffering from a broken finger sustainedduring pre-season testing at Homestead. Vitolo is expected to be back in the car next week for Round Three of the FedEx Championship Series, the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Gualter Salles entered all races in the 1997 season for Davis Racing, but remains without acertain ride for 1998. His practice performance in which he put the #34 Payton Coyne Reynard/Ford on the 13th grid position, in frontof Homestead winner Michael Andretti, underlines that it is not lack of skill that put him in substitute driver duty for Dennis Vitolo.
There were two incidents in practice that should be mentioned here. First, Arnd Meier in car #77cut a left rear tire after exploding a brake rotor of his Lola at the exit of Turn 2, spreading debris on the track. Meier madeno contact with the wall. Apart from this mishap, the Lola appears to be catching up with the rest of the pack, postingmuch more competitive lap times than at Homestead. Meier is only 4.6% off the pace, compared to 7.1% at Homestead. Every lap theyturn on ovals means one more testing lap they should have been running three months ago. At Motegi, there are a few cars thatwill start behind Meier.
After Meier's debris was cleaned up, practice resumed. A few minutes later a larger cleanup effort was needed whenGreg Moore made heavy contact with the wall in Turn 3. Turn 3 is the only turn where drivers use brakes at this track, and some downshift one gear. Moore's telemetry reported the car's transmission shifted from 6th to 2nd gear, instead of 5th. The resulting rearwheel lockup put the car instantly into a spin. Moore was able to exit the car under his own power, but the car sustained major damage to the right side. Apparently, Player's-backed Forsythe Racing will have less weight to fly back to the US after this incident,unless Moore and Carpentier manage to collect some heavy trophies on raceday. 
