As the 2006 season approaches, Champ Car World Series and Atlantic Championship teams have been flat-out testing their cars at Sebring and Fontana in preparation for the April 9 opener at Long Beach. But they are not the only ones with new machinery to shake down source: champcarworldseries.com - John Oreovicz Just prior to a springtime snowstorm that swept across central Indiana, the Champ Car Pace Car Team spent a day at the Putnam Park Road Course outside of Indianapolis putting their new fleet through its paces, so to speak. Drivers Gail Truess and Linda Pobst were on hand to sample two of the Pace Car Team's three new Ford Mustang GTs and a pair of Factory Five Cobra replicas. Joel Butland, Manager of the Champ Car Pace Car program, supervised the modifications to the standard Mustang GTs, including the installation of roll bars, racing seats and five-point harnesses, upgraded suspension and wheels, and a free-flow exhaust. The cars were then treated to jazzy and eye-catching Sherwin-Williams paint jobs. "We don't really have to do a lot to the Mustangs, which shows what a solid high-performance car it is straight from the factory," said Butland. "All in all, the modifications are relatively minor." As an additional bonus for the ladies, Ford brought along the Mustang that Sebastien Bourdais and his father, Patrick, drove to a fourth place finish in the Grand Am Cup support race at Daytona International Speedway in February. That was a bonus for me as well, because I got treated to a 12-lap run at speed in the passenger seat of what Ford Racing executives call the "boy racer." With Pobst at the wheel, the Mustang's Pi dash indicated just over 120 mph at the end of Putnam Park's pit straight. The fact that the race-prepped Mustang was running slick Hoosier tires rather than the treaded Bridgestones of the Pace Cars meant that it cornered significantly quicker as well.
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