Gregoire tops first day of Test in the West

He lapped his Dallara-Aurora in 20.3611 seconds (176.8077mph) after 42 laps of the one-mile oval. He was closely followed by Sam Hornish Jnr's similarly Aurora-powered Dallara, who circulated in 20.3904secs.

Reigning IRL champion Buddy Lazier was third fastest, three-tenths slower than the pacesetters but still faster than the quickest recent Champ Car test time at the one-mile Arizona oval.

Speaking of CART teams, Team Penske made its official IRL test debut with the pair of Dallara-Auroras it will field in the Phoenix opener and May's Indy 500. Helio Castroneves was fifth quickest, posting his fastest time of 20.8495s on his penultimate of 96 tours. Team mate Gil de Ferran only managed 22 laps, a legacy of his heavy bruising from two Champ Car testing crashes recently. He was 11th fastest on 21.8827s, just outpacing Casey Mears who was the slowest of the dozen runners.

Testing continues on Saturday.


1 Stephan Gregoire, Dallara-Aurora, 20.361s
2 Sam Hornish Jr, Dallara-Aurora, 20.390s
3 Buddy Lazier Dallara-Aurora, 20.642s
4 Felipe Giaffone, G Force-Aurora, 20.722s
5 Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Aurora, 20.849s
6 Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Aurora, 21.132s
7 Al Unser Jr., G Force-Aurora, 21.148s
8 Airton Dare, G Force-Aurora, 21.179s
9 Stan Wattles, Dallara-Aurora, 21.238s
10 Greg Ray, Dallara-Aurora, 21.547s
11 Gil de Ferran, Dallara-Aurora, 21.883s
12 Casey Mears, G Force-Aurora, 22.724s