source:
redbullcheeverracing.com
Standing in pit lane, under sunny skies and with views of the bay, the Red Bull
Cheever Racing crew watched Alex Barron turn the tenth fastest lap of the day in
practice for the inaugural Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Completing a total of 44 laps on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn course in the No. 51 Red
Bull Cheever Racing Toyota, Barron's fastest lap clocked in at 1 minute, 4.2151
seconds (100.911 mph.)
"I am super excited to be here in St. Pete," Barron said. "Driving the streets
of St. Petersburg has been a blast all day. The engineers and crew made some big
changes right before the second session that really paid off. You will see some
faster times out of us tomorrow. When we were on route for one of our fastest
laps today we got held up in traffic. We are going to do everything we can to
run in the front and go for the podium."
Patrick Carpentier and crew didn't have as good of a day in the No. 83 car camp.
In the morning practice session Carpentier only drove 14 laps before an engine
problem ended his session early. The crew worked to get a new engine installed
for the second practice session only to run into a throttle problem that kept
Carpentier off track for all of the second practice session. Carpentier ended
the day ranked 19th in the combined daily results.
"We had some bad luck that kept me off track all day," Carpentier said. "I
wasn't able to get in any serious laps. It was unfortunate, but I am still
hopeful for the race. I've always done my best under race conditions so I think
we can pull things together for the race. Since I wasn't driving I went out to
turns one, two and three today and was able to watch what everyone was doing
through there. That was about all I was able to learn today."
The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, April 3 will air at 3:30 p.m.
(EDT) on ESPN. The race is the first non-oval event in the history of the IRL
IndyCar Series.