Indy Lights Friday notebook

American Spirit backs Naval Squadron: During the 2008 season, the American Spirit Racing car driven by Cyndie Allemann will carry a decal of the Navy's VP-47 Squadron.

The squadron, known as the Golden Swordsmen, flies P3-Orions and is based in Hawaii. In exchange for the logos, the squadron recently received an autographed poster of Allemann.

"American Spirit Racing is proud to support our service men and women around the world in their duty to their country," said American Spirit Racing team owner Jon Lewis. “I recently received a few photos from the VP-47 squadron in Iraq holding Cyndie’s poster. They were extremely excited that they will be on our car and felt that it couldn’t be with a better team than one called American Spirit."

Going the wrong way?: James Davison is new to the famed oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but he is not a stranger to the facility.

Davison, who drives the No. 11 Lifelock car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, raced on the IMS road course in a Formula BMW USA race during the 2005 United States Grand Prix.

"It's different, for sure," Davison said. "It was a really, really incredible experience driving on the oval at Indianapolis."

Trading places: Firestone Indy Lights veteran Travis Gregg tested for a pair of teams at Indianapolis. Gregg began the day driving the #34 car usually driven by Jon Brownson and then switched to the Team Moore Racing entry. Gregg hopes to compete in the Firestone Freedom 100 in a second Team Moore Racing entry.

"I got a call from Tim Neff at Sam Schmidt Motorsports, who asked me to get in one of the cars and evaluate what they have," Gregg said. "I took advantage to get the track time. For the race on Carb Day, I plan on racing with Team Moore Racing, so the plan is to jump in that car when Jeff (Simmons) is done. From one car to another is pretty busy day for me."

Tschops tests at Indy: South African driver Tschops Sipuka got his first taste of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway sharing the No. 3 Brian Stewart Racing car with Juan Manuel Polar.

Sipuka spun off of Turn 2 at approximately 2:49 p.m. but did not make contact with the wall.

"The place on its own is quite mind-boggling, but the friendly atmosphere is quite astonishing," Sipuka said. "It really makes you feel at home. It’s my first time out in the car at Indy, so I think the speed will come. I think we're a second off the pace, but it’s an area we can work on."