Bourdais tops first test day

The reigning three-time champion set a time of 51.024 seconds in his Newman/Haas Racing car to head the field by almost 0.6 seconds after 58 laps of the 1.669-mile version of the famous Sebring track.

He commented: "It was good to finally put some miles on the new Panoz after hearing about the car and planning for it for so long. The speed is in the car but it behaves differently from the Lola so it will be a challenge to figure it out at each track.

"The important thing is that the essence of the car is still a Champ Car. We have many areas we can improve on to get the car to suit my style better but at the end of the day the thing that matters is being the quickest."

Second fastest was Neel Jani, who was confirmed as one of the PKV Racing drivers for the 2007 season. The Swiss, who suffered a minor front wing failure today, set a time of 51.620, despite not getting a clear lap until his ninth tour on 'new' tyres.

"I only did 12 laps this morning, so the afternoon was the first time I got a serious run going," said a content Jani.

"I had a braking issue - I was braking too early - but I think the potential is there for good times. I need to come back tomorrow and really train myself to get the best out of the tyres."

His teammate for the test session was none other than team co-owner Jimmy Vasser, who, considering he hasn't driven a Champ Car since April last year in the Long Beach Grand Prix, set an impressive pace to go sixth quickest.

"I'm only shaking down the chassis for us. I'm not intending to be on the grid at [season-opening race] Las Vegas," said Vasser.

The Californian also confirmed that he was 'less positive' about his chances of signing Clivio Piccione, who had been linked with the second PKV drive.

"It comes down to money. In my ideal situation, money no object, we'd be running Neel and [2006 PKV driver] Oriol Servia. We'll have to see what happens."

Servia was one of many drivers - along with Jan Heylen, Dan Clarke, Nelson Philippe, Bruno Junqueira, Ronnie Bremer, Ricardo Sperafico - who spent the day scanning the pitlane for a drive.

Mario Dominguez, who was testing for RuSPORT but has not yet done a deal with any team, ended the day fourth, a few hundredths quicker than confirmed RuSPORT entrant Justin Wilson, and a few thousandths off Forsythe Championship Racing's Paul Tracy.

Champ Car Atlantic graduates Graham Rahal and champion Simon Pagenaud ended the day seventh and eighth, driving for the teams with whom they are expected to be confirmed - Newman/Haas and Team Australia.

Champ Car's 2006 Rookie Of The Year Will Power will be driving for the latter squad tomorrow, sharing the team's sole chassis with Pagenaud.

Katherine Legge, who topped the morning's times driving for Dale Coyne Racing, ended the day ninth, while Alex Tagliani, who will soon be unveiled as Rocketsports driver, wasted much of the morning session to having his seat fitted and could only manage 10th fastest.

Robert Doornbos drove for the Minardi Team USA (formerly CTE Racing-HVM) and said he wants to race in the series this season.

"Now I have a Formula One test contract in my back pocket, I want to go racing again. I really think Champ Car is a good chance to see everyone on a similar level. It's been too long since I've sprayed champagne!"

The Dutchman, who tested the old Lola B2K for Forsythe before Christmas, enjoyed the new Panoz. "I had a few software problems, and I think a lot of us are saying the gearshift is conservative and could be made quicker.

"But it's a good car. There is going to be a lot of good racing this year, and I'd like to be part of it."

Doornbos will miss the rest of the test as he has a Red Bull function to attend tomorrow, and so Minardi USA will run their lead driver from 2006 Nelson Philippe in tomorrow's test.

New team Pacific Coast Motorsport had a trying day, with Alex Figge losing his gears in the morning session, and both he and teammate Ryan Dalziel tearing their undertrays this afternoon.