Wilson tops Fontana test times

The RuSport driver lapped the Fontana infield road course 0.235 seconds faster than Newman/Haas Racing's Sebastien Bourdais.

The reigning champion acknowledged that the competition might close in on Newman/Haas this season, but was not making any firm predictions.

"Our main competitors will be RuSport and Forsythe again, and Oriol (Servia) could be strong," Bourdais said.

"Not a lot more to say until we get to Long Beach and see how we stack up against the rest of the field."

Servia, who has moved from Newman/Haas to PKV Racing, was pleased to be third fastest but remained cautious about the team's prospects.

"Today showed that we are catching up, but we know that we need to build some consistency before we start talking about wins," said Servia. "When we become a consistent threat for podiums, then we can start thinking about wins."

Former champion Cristiano da Matta was eighth quickest on his second day with new team Dale Coyne Racing. The team tried out Belgian Jan Heylan on Thursday, having evaluated Dutch driver Nicky Pastorelli the previous day. Coyne has indicated that both drivers are in contention for the second seat alongside da Matta.

Thursday testing times:

Pos  Driver              Team               Time
 1.  Justin Wilson       RuSport            52.090
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas        52.325
 3.  Oriol Servia        PKV Racing         52.396
 4.  A.J. Allmendinger   RuSport            52.417
 5.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe           52.425
 6.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman/Haas        52.485
 7.  Mario Dominguez     Forsythe           52.798
 8.  Cristiano da Matta  Dale Coyne Racing  52.818
 9.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne Racing  53.448
10.  Jimmy Vasser        PKV Racing         53.469
11.  Charles Zwolsman    Conquest Racing    53.525
12.  Andrew Ranger       Conquest Racing    53.555
13.  Katherine Legge     PKV Racing         53.686