Vasser tops close Homestead test times

Vasser clocked 26.7 seconds on two separate occasions on Thursday, but this mark was also achieved yesterday by Bruno Junqueira, who only ran on Wednesday before handing over his Lola-Toyota to Team Ganassi colleague Nicolas Minassian, and Gil de Ferran before the reigning champion crashed his Penske-run Reynard-Honda due to a tyre failure. Mauricio Gugelmin was also in that bracket late on Thursday with fresh tyres on his PacWest Reynard-Toyota.

"It was a good solid blue collar, workman-like test," said Vasser. "We weren't trying to set any track records and we still ended up with the fastest time. I think with the improvements we made, and the information we gathered, we have developed a very solid 1.5-mile oval platform."

Gugelmin said: "We were able to run a lot of miles and learn even more about the car. My quick time was comparable to Vasser's, and of the cars on the track on Thursday we were one of the quickest. There were no negatives that came out of this test."

CART rookies Minassian, who completed 275 troublefree miles on Thursday, Tora Takagi (Walker Racing Reynard-Toyota) and Scott Dixon (PacWest Reynard-Toyota) were also close to Vasser's time. No teams encountered any tyre problems during Thursday after Firestone had issued a limit of 40 laps on its rubber due to de Ferran's high-speed crash the day before.