source: Max d'Orsonnens
Patrick
Carpentier today completed his final testing session prior to the start of the
2005 Indy Racing League Series season, which is scheduled for March 6. The Red
Bull Cheever Racing driver did not obtain the result he was expecting.
Carpentier was 0.3409 seconds slower than Dario Franchitti of Scotland who set
the day's mark at 20.5042 seconds for an average speed of 282.558 km/h.
Carpentier drove his Dallara Toyota to 14th place overall, posting his best lap
around the one-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) in 20.8451
seconds for an average speed of 277.936 km/h. The driver from Joliette, Quebec
improved his time from Wednesday by only four one-hundredths of a second while
Franchitti was almost two tenths of a second quicker than Kanaan was on
Wednesday. The afternoon track session time was cut short by 90 minutes because
of rain. Carpentier completed 92 laps.
As for Carpentier's teammate Alex Barron, he finished 15th overall, setting his
best lap of 20.8667 seconds for an average speed of 277.650 km/h.
Franchitti's two Andretti Green teammates finished second and third with British
driver Dan Wheldon in second place with a best lap of 20.5601 seconds, followed
by Brazilian Tony Kanaan. The defending series champion posted a quick lap of
20.5673 seconds
The Red Bull Cheever Racing team now returns to its headquarters in Indianapolis
where its engineers and those from Mecachrome will analyze all the data gathered
during the Homestead-Miami and Phoenix tests to prepare for the 2005 season
opener.
The IRL IndyCar® Series opens its 10th season of competition with the Toyota
Indy 300 on March 6, 2005 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The race will be
televised live on TSN at 2 p.m. (EST).