Clarke shines on oval debut

The Briton lapped the 1.032-mile Wisconsin track at an average of 165.561mph in his CTE Racing-HVM Lola Ford to record a time of 22.44 seconds, beating Team Australia's Will Power who recorded 22.50 seconds.

Clarke said afterwards: "To be honest, it's how I expected it to feel - completely weird. You get used to the speed, but learning about the camber, the castor and toe-in necessary to get the best out of this track is the hardest part. And it also felt really odd having to steer right to go down a straight.

"The other significant factor was because the turns are so long, you have to plan your line through them a long time in advance. I did have a squiggle coming out of Turn 2 on one lap which certainly woke me up."

The Briton paid tribute to the team too. "One of the things that made it easier for me was knowing that I had a good set-up. This team scored Champ Car's most dominant win ever here two years ago [Ryan Hunter-Reay led from pole to chequer in 2004] so CTE-HVM know what they're doing.

"The new tyres didn't make a lot of difference, because honestly, the car's set-up was so good that the tyres didn't go off much and I never picked up any bad oversteer."

Clarke admitted, however, that the Milwaukee race, which will be held on Sunday 4 June and is the fourth round of the Champ Car World Series, will still be a culture shock. "I got a feel for how the car feels in the draft when I was following one of the other cars today. He was taking a different line to a turn, so I experienced the way the car felt as the airflow was on, then off my wings as we went through the turn.

"What it will be like when we have the full pack of 18 of us out there, well that's a different matter. There'll be all the air disturbance, there'll be rookies who might be hesitating, there'll be drivers taking different lines dictated by their set-ups, and so on. It will be a different ball game."

Third quickest behind Clarke and Power was Conquest Racing's Charles Zwolsman, who although there are no official times yet available, was believed to have got down to the low 23 seconds bracket.

Last of the four runners was Nicky Pastorelli who will soon be confirmed by Rocketsports Racing as one of their drivers from the second round in Houston, and, autosport.com understands, for the remainder of the season.

The Dutchman declared himself satisfied with his first taste of oval tracks. "Well, I'm still alive and at least I have a feeling for how to drive this sort of track. It is strange to be steering while you're going down a straight but ovals is something I wanted to try.

"I could really feel the difference from lapping solo compared to running behind another car, so it will be interesting to see how it is to run as part of a pack at 180mph. New tyres made a real difference to how much confidence you have entering the corners."

Antonio Pizzonia, who raced for Rocketsports in the opening round of the championship in Long Beach, was not present at the test as he is still in discussions with team-owner Paul Gentilozzi regarding competing for the team over the remainder of the season.

Katherine Legge was the other Champ Car rookie absentee, due to a prior commitment in Italy. Although she was present on Tuesday, when this test had been scheduled to take place, it was delayed by 24 hours due to high winds and cold ambient temperatures.

PKV Racing will thus give Legge her first taste of ovals next week, again at Milwaukee.