Justin Wilson (#9 CDW Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) was the man to beat last year when the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford visited Portland, as the RuSPORT driver had everyone covered until an oil pump failure ended his race day. source: champcarworldseries.com Wilson literally picked up where he left off Wednesday at Portland International Raceway, leading an 17-driver field on a full day of testing on the 1.964-mile PIR road course. Wilson started the day with the same setup he had on the car last June and built on it from there, eventually posting a best time of 57.680 seconds (122.580 mph). "Yeah last year things went really well for us here but obviously we had a couple of problems on race day," lamented Wilson. "But today things have been really good. The track was a little greasy when we first went out but we were able to go pretty quick later. I think there's still a good bit left in the car if we trim it out for qualifying. It's nice to be quick here, but they don't give any prizes away for it, we just want to keep working and get the car right for the race." Wilson, series points leader Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) and Wilson's RuSPORT teammate A.J. Allmendinger (#10 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) were the only drivers to get under 58 seconds on the first day of testing, with Wilson holding more than a quarter-second on his two closest pursuers. Bourdais carded the second-best time of the day despite a very tough day that saw the Newman/Haas Racing team go through a pair of powerplants. Officially, the Long Beach winner stopped the clocks at 57.962 seconds (121.983 mph), although a problem with an antenna saw a number of his morning laps go uncounted. Bourdais ran only 19 laps in the afternoon session as two engine failures meant the team spent more time in the garage than it did on the track.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |