Ray quick but Gregoire stays fastest
Greg Ray set the fastest time of the final of day of the IRL's Test in the West at Phoenix on Saturday, but his time didn't come close to that set by Stephan Gregoire on Friday
The Frenchman's 20.3611s was over two-tenths clear of Ray's 20.582s, which was set on his final run on Saturday. Oldsmobile-powered Dallaras led the way, locking out the top six times, while the first non-Aurora engine was Eddie Cheever's Infiniti motor down in ninth.
"I wasn't happy at all on Friday," said Ray, who was only tenth quickest and over a second off the pace. "It wasn't making sense. You have to know a good car and a bad car before you know what you want."
Gregoire, quickest overall from Sam Hornish Jr, suffered a fuel pump failure on Saturday, which hampered his final run. The test was his first since Dick Simon Racing switched to Dallara chassis from G Force, and the Frenchman is happy with the change.
"For our first test with the new car we did a good job and went pretty fast," he said. "It was better than we expected and I think we could've gone faster yesterday for sure."
Team Penske's Helio Castroneves picked up the pace on Saturday, moving up to fourth quickest overall (third fastest on the day) as the CART FedEx champions get up to speed with its new IRL machinery. Although the regulations for the series have produced much heavier cars, the test produced much quicker times that the Champ Cars achieved in January. His team-mate, Gil de Ferran, is still suffering from rib injuries sustained in two CART testing crashes and was only 13th fastest.
IRL regular Buddy Lazier, who was fifth quickest, admitted: "Penske looked good, but that wasn't a surprise."
1, Stephan Gregoire, Dallara-Aurora, 20.3611s (176.808mph), 160
2, Sam Hornish Jr, Dallara-Aurora, 20.3904s (176.554mph), 360
3, Greg Ray, Dallara-Aurora, 20.5825s (174.906mph), 149
4, Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Aurora, 20.6408s (174.412mph), 277
5, Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Aurora, 20.6417s (174.404mph), 240
6, Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Aurora, 20.6878s (174.016mph), 282
7, Felipe Giaffone, G Force-Aurora, 20.7224s (173.725mph), 150
8, Airton Dare, G Force-Aurora, 20.8962s (172.280 mph), 248
9, Eddie Cheever, Dallara-Infiniti, 20.9015s (172.236mph), 136
10, Al Unser Jr, G Force-Aurora, 20.9357s (171.955 mph), 253
11, Stan Wattles, Dallara-Aurora, 20.9718s (171.659mph), 190
12, Robbie Buhl, G Force-Infiniti, 21.0445s (171.066mph), 73
13, Gil de Ferran, Dallara-Aurora, 21.1666s (170.079mph), 153
14, Casey Mears, G Force-Aurora, 21.7260s (165.700mph), 140
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