Team Australia lead Elkhart test

 Power lapped the famed 4.048-mile course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin in 1:43.75, an average speed of 140.46mph, with teammate and Atlantic champion Pagenaud winding up just 0.12 seconds behind, while their nearest opposition was almost a second slower.
 
Derrick Walker, Team Australia co-owner said: "I'm very happy, it was a good day's work. I think actually we could have gone faster, because Will said the track was very grippy. He definitely thought there was more to come.
 
"But unfortunately then [Tristan] Gommendy brought out the red flags at the end when we were about to do our final laps. I think Graham Rahal got screwed by that too."
 
Walker cautioned against the team assuming they were now at the head of the pack though, because Rahal's Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais has not yet returned to the US from his Peugeot duties at Le Mans.
 
"I think it would be wrong to assume Sebastien wouldn't have been right up there," said Walker. "He doesn't arrive until tomorrow, and we aren't going to be there because we're saving our testing miles. Plus, I'd say Elkhart Lake doesn't have a lot of relevance to the next few tracks.

"On the other hand, regardless of where you go to test, the more you learn about the new car, the better it is. It means you're more advanced on a given race weekend, and are therefore more productive."
 
Unlike most of the other teams who will use up their annual quota of 600 miles testing tomorrow, Team Australia are keeping miles in reserve for a test in September before their home event in Surfers Paradise.
 
The star of the test was Conquest Racing's new signing, Jan Heylen, who finished the day third quickest, and who claims the timesheets - which suggest he was almost a second slower than Power - are unrepresentative.
 
"It was actually really encouraging," said the Belgian. "In the morning, we were pretty much fastest, and then at the end we could have been much closer to Team Australia but there was a red flag when we were about to do a run on our fifth set of tyres.
 
"I think everyone else used their fifth set, so it's good that we have an extra set to use up tomorrow. I'm really pleased also that we managed to equal our morning time in the afternoon on a used set. On new tyres in the afternoon, I reckon we could have got down to a 1:44.0."
 
Heylen, who only joined Conquest in time for the Grand Prix of Portland nine days ago, says the mood within the squad is upbeat heading to this weekend's fifth round at Cleveland.
 
"The way things have been going has been really good for everyone in the team. With just that little test at Putnam Park, then the race weekend in Portland and now the work we're doing here, I think we're already making really good progress.
 
"I think there are some things that we've learned today that we can use in Cleveland, because right now I'm still at the stage of simply learning about the car, so every lap of testing makes a difference.

"I feel more comfortable, the team feels more comfortable with me, and now we just have to keep up the good work - and have something to show for it."
 
According to Cosworth's timing, fourth fastest was Team Minardi USA's Robert Doornbos, though Minardi apparently clocked him at 1:44.3, which would put him much closer to Team Australia and ahead of Heylen. The Dutch ex-Formula One driver completed over 200 miles on Monday.
 
He commented: "I've heard a lot of good things about Road America. Some of the other drivers have compared this circuit to one of the greatest circuits in the world, in my opinion, Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. They were right, it is an amazing place, and I got used to it quickly, which is one of my strongest points.
 
"We had a good car right from the start, and we tried different set-ups to use both here in August, and at Cleveland and Mont-Tremblant."
 
PKV Racing's Neel Jani and Tristan Gommendy were fifth and eighth fastest, sandwiching the two RSPORTS cars of Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani.

However, both Gommendy and Wilson had off-track excursions, with the Frenchman tearing a corner off his car at the infamous Carousel, and the Briton going off at Canada corner.
 
Forsythe Championship Racing's poor form continued, as Oriol Servia and Paul Tracy battled to combat severe understeer.

"I think we're going to be fine on street courses where it's mainly 90 degree turns," remarked Tracy at the end of the day, "but here, it was just as bad as at Portland in the last race.

"Any long corners where we need the front end to stick, it's just pushing out. So we're just having to slow down too much for the turn-in, which is killing our lap times.
 
"Today was a waste - I might as well have not been there. Obviously I only have limited testing mileage left, and Oriol has a lot because this is his first test with us.

"We both did some laps in the morning, and the plan was for him to try various differential settings and decide which was best and then I'd try it.
 
"We thought the session was ending at five, so once Oriol had made his choice of diff set-up, the team put them on my car and I guess we hit the track at 3.30 - by which time we discover the test ends at 4, and from 4 til 5 it's just standing start practice. Then Gommendy goes off and brings out a red while I'm on an out lap. We come in, go out and then Justin goes off and that's it - we're out of time.

"I mean yes, the car felt better, but it's pretty hard to tell from two out-laps!"
 
Tracy, who also made a brief trip into the gravel at Turn 2, said he is expecting an upturn in performance on the second day of testing.
 
"The upside of the disaster today is that it means I've got seven sets of tyres left for Tuesday and I think about 35 laps to use them in. So if the car really has improved then we should look a lot stronger. We need to."
 
While Team Australia have departed, Dale Coyne Racing are arriving for the second day, with cars for both Bruno Junqueira and Katherine Legge, while Bourdais will join Rahal at Newman/Haas/Lanigan.

Monday's testing times:

                    
Pos  Driver            Team                 Time
 1.  Will Power        Team Australia       1:43.75
 2.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia       1:43.87
 3.  Jan Heylen        Conquest             1:44.68
 4.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi USA          1:44.73
 5.  Neel Jani         PKV                  1:44.80
 6.  Justin Wilson     RSPORTS              1:44.86
 7.  Alex Tagliani     RSPORTS              1:45.09
 8.  Tristan Gommendy  PKV                  1:45.25
 9.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:45.28
10.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe             1:45.30
11.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe             1:45.97

All timing unofficial