Nakano gets first taste of oval driving

Nakano ran an unofficial lap of 26.72 seconds [203.1mph] on the 1.5-mile oval in Walker Racing's Honda-powered Reynard.

The Japanese driver was second quickest, after Newman-Haas driver Michael Andretti.

'This is my first experience on an oval," said Nakano, who also has tested for Walker on the road course in Sebring, Florida. 'It's a beautiful track, and it's fun to drive.'

Nakano and Andretti were among five CART teams to test on Thursday, joining Penske Motorsports' Gil de Ferran, Dale Coyne Racing's Takuya Kurosawa, and the PPI Motorsports duo of Cristiano da Matta and Oriol Servia.

'CART racing is exciting,' said Nakano after completing the test. 'It's completely different from Formula One.

'I've been working with Prost and Minardi inFormula One for two years, and last year I was with the Jordan Mugen-Honda team as the test driver.

'CART is much more competitive than Formula One.

'The people working with Walker team are completely different, much more relaxed. Formula One is a little bit too intense. Here, I can enjoy motorsports.

'This is the most important thing in motor racing is you have to enjoy your job. Only then can you be really, really serious.'