Castroneves sets record pace in testing

The Brazilian and his team-mate Gil de Ferran made it another Penske one-two as the Marlboro cars again showed awesome road course pace.

"I'm kind of surprised really," said Castroneves after realising he had set a record pace. "We worked to get the car where it needed to be and it is really, really fast."

However, the Penske driver was then involved in the incident that curtailed the test early, colliding with Newman-Haas driver Christian Fittipaldi and bringing out the red flags.

Over the course of the two-day test, incidents and accidents had meant that the red flags flew no less than 25 times. No-one was hurt, although Cristiano da Matta seriously damaged his PPI Reynard-Toyota in a shunt at turn six on day one.

The best non-Penske was Patrick Carpentier. Eager to find a new drive for next year after a major breakdown of relations with his Player's/Forsythe team, the Canadian was still 0.7s slower than Castroneves.

Tony Kanaan was fourth in the best of the Mercedes-powered cars for Mo Nunn Racing, ahead of points leader Michael Andretti.

PacWest ran Indy Lights star Scott Dixon alongside regular drivers Mark Blundell and Mauricio Gugelmin, the New Zealander ending the test 19th fastest.

Former AAR and Penske driver Alex Barron made his first CART appearance of the year in Dale Coyne's Lola-Ford. This car has been driven by Gualter Salles since regular pilot Takuya Kurosawa was injured at Michigan, but the team is looking for a replacement for the Brazilian for the final six races of the season.

The next round of the Fedex Championship Series takes place on the streets of Vancouver next weekend, with the Laguna Seca event following seven days later.



1 Helio Castroneves Penske Reynard-Honda 1m08.707s
2 Gil de Ferran Penske Reynard-Honda 1m07.896s
3 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Reynard-Ford 1m08.477s
4 Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Reynard-Mercedes 1m08.576s
5 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 1m08.669s
6 Oriol Servia PPI Reynard-Toyota 1m08.707s
7 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 1m08.734s
8 Mark Blundell PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 1m08.763s
9 Juan Montoya Ganassi Lola-Toyota 1m08.789s
10 Jimmy Vasser Ganassi Lola-Toyota 1m08.803s
11 Michel Jourdain Jr Bettenhausen Lola-Mercedes 1m08.892s
12 Max Papis Rahal Reynard-Ford 1m08.941s
13 Alex Tagliani Forsythe Reynard-Ford 1m09.004s
14 Roberto Moreno Patrick Reynard-Ford 1m09.080s
15 Dario Franchitti Green Reynard-Honda 1m09.197s
16 Mauricio Gugelmin PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 1m09.315s
17 Adrian Fernandez Patrick Reynard-Ford 1m09.375s
18 Kenny Brack Rahal Reynard-Ford 1m09.494s
19 Scott Dixon PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 1m09.521s
20 Cristiano da Matta PPI Reynard-Toyota 1m09.600s
21 Shinji Nakano Walker Reynard-Honda 1m09.842s
22 Alex Barron Coyne Lola-Ford 1m09.905s
23 Tarso Marques Coyne Swift-Ford 1m10.687s
24 Luiz Garcia Jr Arciero PRG Reynard-Mercedes 1m10.802s