Champ Car teams prepare for Sebring test

UPDATE #3 This week marks the beginning of the 2007 Champ Car World Series season as the first of three Champ Car Open-Tests gets underway and Rocketsports Racing heads down to Sebring, Florida to participate in the three-day test with the new Champ Car Panoz DP01.

While the team took delivery just days before Christmas, the team had just about three weeks to get ready for the test with their new DP01 racecar. The truck left the East Lansing-based shop on Saturday, in preparations for running one car on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Sebring International Roadway. After being in the shop for seat fittings, Champ Car veteran Alex Tagliani will be climbing into the cockpit as the driver for the three-day test with Rocketsports.

On track activities begin on Tuesday morning at 10:45 a.m. CST, with a session lasting until 1:45 p.m. The Champ Cars, who will be sharing testing time with the ALMS series, will return out on track for another session from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday schedule will see the Champ Car's on track from 9:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. The ALMS cars will not be running on Thursday, giving the Champ Car's the entire day to run from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Rocketsports PR

01/21/07 Eric Bachelart's Mi-Jack Conquest Racing team will not test in Sebring with the Panoz this coming week. The car is finished and ready to go but they have not finalized their commercial partners yet. They are hoping to be in Houston in February. And Dale Coyne did confirm to us today that they will test Legge at Sebring this week and hope to add a 2nd driver before the end of the third day.

01/20/07 We hear Katherine Legge will test for Dale Coyne at Sebring, but it's more of a favor to get her seat time in the new car and it does not mean she will drive for Coyne.

01/20/07 Tuesday at Sebring begins the first of three allowed preseason tests for Champ Car teams prior to the season opener in Las Vegas Easter Sunday April 8th.

All teams are expected to test at least one car. Teams expected to also test their second car are Dale Coyne Racing, Newman/Haas Racing, PKV, and Pacific Coast.

We hear that RuSPORT may not test their second car. We also hear that Walker Racing will use the prototype DP01 that has only been driven by Roberto Moreno up to this point as their second car.

The Champ Cars test Tuesday through Thursday and then the Atlantic teams take over Friday through Sunday. We will have more updates as the test approaches.