Tracy tops spring training day 1

The Canadian completed a total of 80 laps with a fastest time of 1:06.707 seconds setting an average of 120.779mph around the 2.238-mile Laguna Seca course. His time put him just 0.03 seconds ahead of defending triple champion Sebastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

Tracy said: "After the troubles we had in Houston, to come here and set a good time is pretty encouraging. I mean, I've never been that great here, and on my quickest run I still had seven gallons of fuel in the car and I locked up going into the Corkscrew turn so I was slow out of it. So we could have been even quicker.

"We had a small glitch at the end with the gearbox, but generally our reliability has been pretty good."

Talking about the new Panoz DP01 he said: "The whole car is better than the old one. It's faster in fast corners because it's so much more stable because of the extra downforce. And it's also more tunable whereas we had maxed out the Lola."

Bourdais was left frustrated with mechanical ills on several occasions. He remarked: "We didn't get as much done as we would have liked because we had an engine problem this morning and two gearbox problems today and the parts aren't available.

"We could try a few things but we still have quite a bit of work to do. I'm not unhappy with the car - it's consistent and pretty well balanced. It's enjoyable to drive and pretty stuck to the ground. But we weren't able to gain much on new tyres which is a little weird."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan team-mate Graham Rahal wound up sixth fastest, having concentrated on long runs, just ahead of erstwhile Atlantic championship rival Simon Pagenaud of Team Australia.

Rookie Neel Jani was third fastest for PKV Racing, but only a hundredth of a second behind Bourdais after topping the times in the morning session. The Swiss commented: "We tried a lot of things, but we had to be careful because we could only run a limited number of miles on the engine. With that in mind, we decided to go for quality over quantity with our work. We made a lot of changes and tried a lot of different things and our job tonight is to evaluate what worked and what didn't, so we can put it all together tomorrow."

New team-mate at PKV Tristan Gommendy wound up 3.5 seconds off Jani's pace. He said: "This was my first time in a Champ Car, so today was a day to learn about the car and get to know the team. I really like the Champ Cars. They handle well and have plenty of power."

Will Power was delighted with Team Australia's performance, setting fourth fastest lap less than 0.25 seconds off Tracy's quickest. "It's like we've picked up from where we left off at the end of last season, even though we've changed chassis," he commented.

"We didn't do our time on new tyres, because we were mainly concentrating on long runs. This new car is really quick because it's got serious amounts of downforce. Our guys are really on it as well, and it helps that Simon [Pagenaud] and I have a similar driving style."

Team manager Rob Edwards concurred with Power's verdict. "Yeah, we've had hardly any staff changes in the off-season, and we really have the strength in depth with the people. We all click together, and Will and Simon are competitive but sensible. They both want to win, but they're smart enough to know that working together is a lot more productive than playing games against each other."

Ex-Formula 1 driver Robert Doornbos did an impressive job for Minardi Team USA to finish the day fifth quickest. Team manager Keith Wiggins said: "I expect him to be competitive and he is. Obviously we want to be at the front, but there's more to come from Robert and from the team in terms of the learning process. No problem."

Zsolt Baumgartner, who was testing the second Minardi car, blotted his copybook in his first encounter with Champ Cars with a big crash in Turn 6 which the ex-F1 driver admitted was his own fault. The Hungarian has been confirmed as Minardi's test and reserve driver and will pilot the F1x2 for passenger rides at the Champ Car events this season.

Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani were eighth and ninth for the merging RuSPORT/Rocketsports squad, although Tagliani set a marginally quicker time than his British team-mate after the chequered flag fell.

Tenth was a highly impressive Matt Halliday of Conquest Racing. The New Zealander was beset by gearbox woes for most of the day, but retained a philosophical approach. "It was good that we were quick straight away," he commented, "but even on my fastest lap I was losing gears.

"It's frustrating because I want to go quicker and obviously the team has to learn despite missing the first test of the season. But I guess were encountering the problems that would have been ironed out in Sebring. If we have a smooth day tomorrow, that will be exactly what myself and the team need."

Pacific Coast Motorsports' baptism of fire continued, with Ryan Dalziel and Alex Figge between them encountering boost, gearbox, braking and steering problems.

Said Figge: "To be honest, the steering issue - where it was locking in one place in fast corners - was something experienced teams like Newman/Haas and Forsythe would have resolved quickly. But we're rookies so it took us most of the afternoon.

"I'm not being hard on the guys. We've got a great team here, but we're all finding our way together."

"It's part of the deal," agreed Dalziel. "We knew what the situation would be, and the most we can aim for in Las Vegas is reliability. We're not deluding ourselves. After the first three races are out of the way and we have that long gap, well, maybe then we can start looking at timesheets."

Andrew Ranger, who spent the last two seasons with Conquest Racing, got his first taste of the new Panoz DP01 chassis with a day at Dale Coyne Racing.

"Well, we missed half the day because we had to change the engine," said the Canadian who finished up 0.65 seconds off team-mate for the day Katherine Legge. "It was fun to come back and it's a fun car to drive. Lots of downforce. But I need more track time. At the moment though, I only have the money to do maybe eight to ten races."

The second and final day of Spring Training will see Ranger replaced by Bruno Junqueira in the DCR car.

Day one times:

Pos  Driver              Team                 Time
 1.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe             1:06.707
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:06.737
 3.  Neel Jani           PKV                  1:06.749
 4.  Will Power          Team Australia       1:06.939
 5.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi              1:07.237
 6.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:07.243
 7.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia       1:07.380
 8.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT              1:07.497
 9.  Alex Tagliani       Rocketsports         1:07.623
10.  Matt Halliday       Conquest             1:08.338
11.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne           1:08.543
12.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast        1:08.930
13.  Andrew Ranger       Dale Coyne           1:09.208
14.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast        1:09.562
15.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV                  1:10.229
16.  Zsolt Baumgartner   Minardi              1:10.415