Preview: The heat is on
Today's (Sunday) Champ Car round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course might resemble an endurance race. Extended from 83 to 92 laps this year, Mid-Ohio is considered the most physical race on the CART calendar. And after clear and reasonably cool conditions marked the past two days, race day is expected to be steamy, with temperatures approaching 90F.
"It's going to be a long afternoon," remarked Dario Franchitti after he ran the third fastest time in the race day warm-up. "My car didn't feel too clever this morning, but based on the times, it looks like it was the same for everyone else."
The warm-up was led by Tora Tagaki, whose 1m08.531s lap was a clear half-second faster than Team Green's Paul Tracy and Franchitti. Pole holder Patrick Carpentier was 11th fastest on 1m09.637s.
"I think this course is one of the toughest races we get all year because we're always turning, with elevation changes, hard braking and heavy G-loads," remarked Carpentier. "With today's heat, I think it's going to be a really tough race. The pace, unfortunately, doesn't seem to be coming down at all. Every lap is like a qualifying lap. You run pretty hard, and this is the start of a stretch of four straight races. It's tough on the cars and everything."
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