Sato happy with two-day test in Alabama

Takuma Sato

Takuma Sato and the ABC Supply team left Barber Motorsports Park satisfied with the two-day IndyCar "Spring Training" Open Test. The No. 14 ABC Supply Honda was fourth quickest of the 22 cars attending.

"It's been a very productive two days," said Sato. "We've been unlucky in terms of the weather-it was wet in the morning so we didn't run and the afternoon was cold so that won't replicate for the race weekend. Nevertheless we did a lot of the test program that we wanted to do and saw how the car reacted. It was very positive performance-wise and for the feedback. It's been a good preparation and we are ready to go to St. Petersburg."

With temperatures in the 40s on both mornings, plus rain this morning, weather left teams with less time than originally scheduled. However the ABC Supply team made the most of the time allowed, posting a total of 96 laps around the 2.3-mile scenic course outside of Birmingham. Sato's best lap time of 1:07.3314 came on lap 25 of the 57 laps he ran today. He improved his lap time from the first day by just over half a second. Yesterday he posted the quickest time for Honda-powered cars-1:07.8619–which was fifth overall.

Will Power topped the charts both days, posting a time of 1:07.0608 today which was six tenths quicker than yesterday's time of 1:07.6492. Old faces in new places and their respective placings: Ryan Briscoe/Chip Ganassi Racing (5th), Juan Pablo Montoya/Team Penske (9th), Tony Kanaan/Chip Ganassi Racing (11th), Sebastien Bourdais/KV Technology (14th), Sebastian Saavedra/KV Technology (17th), Mike Conway/Ed Carpenter Racing (21st) and Oriol Servia/Rahal-Letterman Racing (22nd). Rookie Jack Hawksworth/Bryan Herta Autosport was an impressive 12th quickest while Mikhail Aleshin/Sam Schmidt Motorsports was 20th.

The Verizon IndyCar Series opens with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 30. It will be televised live by ABC-TV starting at 3:30 p.m.