IndyCar Road America test notes

Juan Montoya tears around Road America. The IndyCar lap times were nowhere near the 15 year old CART lap record

Sunny skies and a surprisingly large week-day crowd greeted five Verizon IndyCar Series teams (10 cars) as IndyCar held a test at Road America in preparation for next June’s return of the series to America’s National Park of Speed.

In a nutshell, here are some notes and comments gathered during the lunch break after the first four hours of practice.

• Observers thought that perhaps a thousand open-wheel fans paid to have paddock access and roam the winding, four-mile RA circuit to watch teams from: Rahal Letterman Lanigan (Graham Rahal); AJ Foyt (Takuma Sato); Carpenter Fischer Hartman(Josef Newgarden); Chip Ganassi (Dixon, Kanaan, Kimball) and Penske (Montoya, Pagenaud, Castroneves, Power). Sato, Kimball and Newgarden haven’t raced here before.

• The track record for Indy cars here is 1min: 39.86 set by Dario Franchitti in 2000 at a CART race. Sebastien Bourdais ran a lap at 1min: 41.535 in the last Indy car/Champ Car race here in 2007.

• Ganassi managing Director Mike Hull on testing at Road America: “Today’s test will put us in good stead for when we come back in June. It’s a long way around 14 corners, so we can gather a lot of info and get it done in a short period of time. The track is pretty high in grip level even with your harsh Wisconsin winters. It’s a good day for all of us to be back."

• Tony Kanaan comparing 2002 with 2015: “The first lap today was fun. A lot of good memories came back from the last time I was here in 2002. My speed came up quick, but I forgot how long the carousel curve is and the strain it puts on your neck. I had to put a pad next to my head to keep it up under the g-force. We’re quicker through the corners with this car but slower on the straights than the old car. Overall we’re a couple of seconds slower than 2002 this morning.

• Scott Dixon on getting around a somewhat familiar circuit: “The track has changed a bit over time. The hard part on a long track like this is putting together a whole lap. This car requires a lot of momentum, so if you miss one corner, it affects your whole lap. The carousel is almost flat-out already; corner speeds are up. I think the record is a .39 and we’re about a .43 or.44, so we’ve got a ways to go."

Helio Castroneves – all the drivers love the challenge of Road America

• Helio Castroneves on speeds here: “Our straightaway speeds back in 2001 were 10-15 mph faster back then when we had almost a 1,000 horsepower, but the corners are faster now."

• Simon Pagenaud on using the test for preparation: “Since we don’t have much, if any, testing anymore, we have a whole long list of things we’re going to address today. I’ve been here in a sports car quite a bit and you can really play with the car here and challenge it in the corners. You can extract a lot of information out of the cars here. It’s a good place to understand the package that you have in the car."

• Graham Rahal on how his car reacted in the morning test: “I was impressed today with how the car pulled on the top end. Top speeds were down a little compared to our 2007 Champ Cars-but just a bit. But if Dixon is almost flat out in the Carousel, he’s way ahead of me. I’m nowhere near flat there. Maybe the balance of my car isn’t good enough." Paul Gohde/Racing Nation