©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
Photos Courtesy Sutton/USA
Herdez backed driver Michel Jourdain Jr. wrapped up at the 1.5 milecircuit of Homestead in Florida, his first official testing with the newpackage for the 1999 FedEx Championship Series season: a Lola chassiswith Ford-Cosworth engine and Firestone tires.
The Herdez/Payton-Coyne Racing Team had scheduled to start thetesting on Tuesday, but due to rainy conditions the session was cancelled.
The first session started on Wednesday with good weather. That dayMichel completed 100 laps and today he put in 119 laps of testing.
The next two-day testing session for Michel Jourdain Jr. and hisHerdez-Viva Mexico! Team will be again at Homestead, later in December.
Michel Jourdain Jr.:"We made a lotof changes. At the middle of the session we've got lost, but the team keptworking and the car was improved towards the final two runs. This wasnot really a speed test; we were concentrated in learning the car and itsreactions with different kind of changes. Unfortunately, there was apoint when the sunshine blinded me in some parts of the track, but so far I amvery happy with the work done. The car has a lot of potential and thereare a lot of things to work on."
Dale Coyne, owner of the Herdez/Payton-Coyne Racing Team: "We learneda lot and the most important thing is the input we've got. Last season theonly Lola car in the Champ Series used Goodyear tires and this time weused Firestone. We had the settings for the Goodyear tires, but withFirestone the car has many different needs, it reacts different. Happily wereached a lot of improvements in the set up."
Other cars running at the same test session at Homestead were Dennis Vitolo (Payton-CoyneRacing), Scott Pruett and Cristiano da Matta (Arciero-Wells), as well as Patrick Carpentier (Player's Forsythe Racing),while PacWest was putting the new Reynard through a road course test at the nearbySebring facility. A hopeful Gualter Salleswas also present. He is working on finding funding for the next season.
