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Papis happy again

Max Papis came out on top in the opening day of Champ car practice in Detroit. Papis finished the day more than four-tenths of a second faster than the field, a relatively large margin by CART standards, although no fewer than five drivers were within another tenth of Papis

"The car was very fast from the start today," Papis said."We've been impoving all the time on street courses but we haven't captured the best of it yet."

Papis spun without damage on the lap after his fast lap."The track was a little slippery," he said."The grip is coming up but it's still only about seventy per cent of what it was last year. It's a nice layout here. I'd like to se it paved properly without all those cement sections and it would be a great racetrack."

Papis was asked his opinion of his team boss taking over the job of running CART."I'm a race driver and I just pay attention to my job, rather than the politics," Papis remarked."I only hope this series gets the right credit it deserves because it's one of the best racing series in the world. It's a special series with special drivers and engine manufacturers, but we are treated (by the American media) as less than softball (amateur baseball) teams and that's not right."

Helio Castroneves was second fastest today followed by Papis's team-mate Kenny Brack and his own team-mate Gil de Ferran. Dario Franchitti was fifth on Friday followed by Juan Pablo Montoya, all of these within half a second of Papis.

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