Green experiences testing times

Team KOOL Green's Indy Lights drivers have undergone a rigorous testing programme before the next round of the championship, in order to get their title bid back on track.

Poor weather cost Team KOOL Green some valuable time limiting Jeff Simmons and Jonny Kane to one day of meaningful running. The crews for both the Kane and Simmons teams focused on chassis development and set-up on the two-mile circuit that is site of the fourth race on the Indy Lights schedule, on June 25.

Kane completed 180 miles, consistently lapping in the high 1m06s, with a best quick lap of 1m06.20 the third fastest clocking of the day, closely behind Casey Mears and Felipe Giaffone.

"The day went pretty well," remarked Kane. "We were one of the quickest cars all day. We worked hard on trying to get rid of some understeer that we picked up. We eventually succeeded, but we stayed out on the old tyres too long and I wasn't able to match my time from the morning session."

Simmons, meanwhile, lapped in the mid 1m07s and managed to get down to a fastest time of 1m06.93 seconds on new tires.

"The car was a little unpredictable at first," said Simmons. "We got that sorted out but then somehow oversteer started creeping in. We put the car on the pad and took a few steps back. We must have gone too far because we were fighting oversteer when we came back. Still, I think with a bit more time and a few more changes, we could have been right there. I don't think we're too far off."

Eddie Jones, Chief Engineer for the KOOL Green Indy Lights team, said that despite the problems encountered with understeer and oversteer, the testing session achieved the goal of trying a couple of optional set-ups and doing some damper work around them.

Team KOOL Green's next testing session is at Mid-Ohio on May 18.