2008 IndyCar Open Test Reports...
It's a wrap, Marty Roth "wins" the week impressively, running a top-speed of 212.8-mph. Time to go Racin' Guys and Gals...
(10:30 EDT) This testing session has ended. Once I saw on T&S that there was a prolonged caution with a little more than 90 minutes of running left, and the car of Graham Rahal continued to be shown not in the pits I assumed he had made contact. I called a friend in the Media Center and she confirmed that Graham had indeed backed the car into the wall somewhere, but he was uninjured. I have no more details at this time. Martha Meacham will have further information in her recap, but that won't be until tomorrow morning. She lives in the East, and it is close to 11:00 p.m. there as I write this. I'm working in MDT, so I'll wrap it up.

Once they got back to running several drivers made some impressive gains in speed. Marty Roth ended up with a very respectable best speed of the test running 212.818-mph, and late in the session Roth Racing teammate Jay Howard improved to 111.672-mph. Enrique Bernoldi became the 2nd driver on a former CCWS team to run a 210-mph lap. Here is the final T&S result. Remember the days commentary, photos and incremental T&S charts are posted here...

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

Best Lap

 

 

Last Lap

 

1

Marty Roth (25)

 

25.1200

212.818

49

 

 

60

 

2

Jay Howard (24)

 

25.2560

211.672

58

 

 

101

 

3

Oriol Servia (5)

 

25.4360

210.175

48

 

 

95

 

4

Enrique Bernoldi (36)

 

25.4470

210.084

116

 

 

132

 

5

Will Power (8)

 

25.4840

209.779

114

 

 

145

 

6

Graham Rahal (06)

 

25.4920

209.713

26

 

 

35

 

7

Justin Wilson (02)

 

25.4930

209.705

76

 

 

99

 

8

Franck Perera (34)

 

25.5560

209.188

57

 

 

93

 

9

Ernesto Viso (33)

 

25.5680

209.089

96

 

 

100

 

10

Bruno Junqueira (18)

 

25.6230

208.641

72

 

 

82

 

11

Mario Moraes (19)

 

25.8420

206.873

56

 

 

129

 
Marty Roth, Jay Howard set fast speeds of the day as they join drivers of the former CCWS, as they get their first and final oval track test started at Homestead Miami Speedway today...
(10:00 p.m. EDT) Note that Martha Meacham's coverage of today's test can be read in it's entirety below this wrap up, the remainder of today's commentary, charts and photo's can be found here... 

The session has ended, they did not go into overtime. Marty Roth got in a final 10-lap flyer and increased his chart topping speed to 211.037-mph, I'm impressed... Jay Howard got a small speed gain after dinner as well, as he held onto his 2nd position on the chart... Will Power got into the 209's as everyone found more speed in the last 30 minutes of practice... It may have taken all day to get Justin Wilson up and running, but once hooked up, he got to 206-mph fairly quickly... Mario Moraes was the only driver not to break into the 200's, but he didn't miss by much... The only driver not to run today was Bruno Junqueira.

INDYCAR PHOTO  BY RON MCQUEENEY
Something new has been added to the Marty Roth #25, a sponsor and a new coat of paint. The last time we saw this car it was red with blank sidepods.
Drivers of the former CCWS get their first and final oval track test at Homestead Miami Speedway today  and Tuesday...
While I don't recall whether Al Unser Jr. was hired to assist in driver training before the two-series consolidation was announced or not, but it is a cinch he'll be a busy man now. Last week Al Sr. was at Sebring according to photos I saw, and I talked with Johnny Rutherford at Homestead during the first test of the season, I expect all three will be working with the former CCWS drivers this afternoon and tomorrow.

Actually I was surprised how many of them have quite a bit of oval tract racing experience. We all know that Bruno Junqueira is an Indy 500 pole winner, and has extensive circle track time dating back to when he raced in CART. Oriol Servia and Justin Wilson also have lots of ovals races under their belt. Check out the oval track experience of four of the 9 drivers running today here... The track is about to go green, follow IndyCar T&S all day, and check here for commentary and periodic T&S report recaps here...
It's a wrap. Looking Back at 6 Days of IndyCar testing Sebring Int. Raceway...
(3-21-08) The six days of IndyCar preseason road course testing are over, the question remains as to whether there is anything we can learn from the combined results? The answer of course, is absolutely nothing other than what teams and drivers were there, what the new assigned car numbers are and who was quickest on any given day. We did get to see some pretty cars along the way though, welcome three new teams and six new drivers.

The chart below may be the most blatantly unfair one I ever put together, and offered the most lame comparisons, but that was my intent in doing so, it serves that purpose well. Read more about my testing wrap-up and see the rest of the chart here.

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

Date…

1

Ryan Briscoe (6)

 

52.4202

114.689

3/6

2

Helio Castroneves (3)

 

52.4531

114.617

3/6

3

Oriol Servia (5)

 

52.7035

114.072

3/20

4

Tony Kanaan (11)

 

52.8609

113.732

3/4

5

Will Power (8)

 

52.9451

113.552

3/20

6

Hideki Mutoh (27)

 

52.9513

113.538

3/4

7

Dan Wheldon (10)

 

53.0131

113.406

3/6

8

Scott Dixon (9)

 

53.0386

113.373

3/6

9

Darren Manning (14)

 

53.0433

113.341

3/6

10

Bruno Junqueira (18)

 

53.2339

112.936

3/19
It's raining at Sebring Int. Raceway today...
(5:15 p.m., EDT, they're done, it's a wrap) Oriol Servia has now set the standard for two days of running, and in doing so has posted the 3rd fastest time of the month, 52.7035. Will Power has now eclipsed his quick time of yesterday as well. This is how the T&S chart looks with 30 minutes remaining in the session.

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

Best Lap

 

 

Last Lap

 

1

Oriol Servia (5)

 

52.7035

114.072

55

 

 

62

 

2

Will Power (8)

 

52.9451

113.552

47

 

 

53

 

3

Enrique Bernoldi (36)

 

53.2843

112.829

53

 

 

53

 

4

Franck Perera (34)

 

53.3159

112.762

47

 

 

51

 

5

Bruno Junqueira (18)

 

53.6552

112.049

16

 

 

16

 

6

Mario Moraes (19)

 

53.9831

111.368

46

 

 

49

 

***
(1:50 p.m., EDT) I'm back and they are running again, quite a few laps actually, and Will power is again atop the T&S chart and flirting with another 52 second lap. Follow the afternoon session here. Also follow live timing and scoring here...

IndyCar Photo by Shawn Payne
Early in the afternoon Bruno Junqueira made tire barrier contact and damaged the nose and left front wing/suspension of his Dallara. Here's an IndyCar photo of the contact.

***
(3-20-08, 9:15 a.m. EDT) The T&S loop hasn't been reset and there is no indication from the ICS whether they will run in the rain, so it remains to be seen if they will mount up the rain tires and run, or sit out a fast moving cold front that appears to have already passed to the southeast of Sebring... If and when they get underway, Martha and I will be here for commentary.
A disappointing number of former CCWS teams begin to test their IndyCar Dallara Honda's at Sebring Int. Raceway today and Thursday...
(3-19-08, 8:45 a.m. EDT) Yesterday we learned thru a SPEED TV/RACER MAGAZINE link that Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing has decided to skip the Sebring portion of the Sebring/Homestead test program. The team mentions "not having all the parts necessary to be ready in time to test in Sebring, despite the best efforts of Dallara and the IndyCar Series.&q