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Team KOOL Greendrivers Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti tuned upfor next weekend's Bosch Spark Plug Grand PrixPresented by Toyota by completing 270 miles oftrouble-free testing at Nazareth Speedway onWednesday, April 8. A second day of testing onThursday, April 9 was canceled due to rain.
Tracy (KOOL Reynard Honda), the two-timedefending polesitter at Nazareth, completed 165laps on the one-mile oval. His best lap of 18.65seconds was nearly two-tenths of a second fasterthan the track-record clocking of 18.831 seconds,a world record for a one-mile oval, which Tracyrecorded while winning the pole for last year'sBosch Spark Plug Grand Prix Presented by Toyota.
That translates to an improvement ofapproximately three miles per hour, from lastyear's track record of 191.174 mph to just over194 mph during testing. Tracy was elated with theresult.
"I knew what I wanted out of the car when I gotthere," said Tracy, whose victory from the poleat Nazareth last year was one of only two in theFedEx Championship Series all season [AlexZanardi had the other, at Cleveland]. "John Dick[race engineer] wanted to start conservativelyand I said, 'No way. Let's get down to business.
"I don't need any practice getting around thistrack," added Tracy, who tested extensively atNazareth during his six previous seasons withPenske Racing. "I've done 20,000 laps here, soput all the tricks on right now! Within 30 laps,I'd done an 18.8."
"After lunch, we could see it was going to rain.So we put on a new set of tires and I did an18.65, which is faster than I've ever run [atNazareth]. It's too bad the rain kept us fromrunning Thursday, because I know there's more inthe car. We've just opened the envelope. I thinkthe pole is going to be in the low 18s[seconds]."
Franchitti (KOOL Reynard Honda) completed 105laps during the test, with a best time of 19.2seconds (187.500 mph), seven-tenths of a secondfaster than his 19.9-second qualifying run duringhis rookie season last year.
"I got used to driving [at] Nazareth a littlemore," said Franchitti, who enters the BoschSpark Plug Grand Prix Presented by Toyota off acareer-best runner up finish at the April 5Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. "I picked up onebig tip from Paul: I need to carry more speedaround the track. It's all a matter of gettingcomfortable and I feel a lot more comfortable atNazareth after this test."
Tracy and Franchitti are scheduled for roadcourse testing Wednesday and Thursday at PortlandInternational Raceway. The FedEx ChampionshipSeries visits Portland for Round 9, theBudweiser/G.I. Joe's 200 Presented byTexaco/Havoline, June 19-21.
Source: CART News Service
