Phoenix, Arizona - A two-day testing session at the
Arizona Motorsports Park road course left Team Player's driver Patrick
Carpentier impressed with the track and the productive outcome of running laps
on the new 2.2-mile road-course layout.
source: Team Player's News Bureau
"It's one of the smoothest tracks that I've ever run on," said
Carpentier, who shared the facilities with a half-dozen other Champ Car World
Series drivers and clocked fast laps in the 1 minute, 13.27-second range, the
quickest along with Adrian Fernandez. "The smoothness of the track
might not simulate the facilities at Long Beach for our next race, but the
testing sessions we had over the last two days will help us on other tracks that
we'll be racing on during the season."
Carpentier put in about 65 laps each day, returning to the pits frequently so
that the Team Player's crew could work on such aspects as aerodynamics and
brake-related components. Team Player's took possession of a brand new Lola for
the session and conducted a shakedown of the car during testing. The new Lola
will likely be used as the backup car for the race in Long Beach this Sunday.
"Monday was a really good day of testing," remarked Carpentier, who
was on the track for the first time since March 23 in Mexico, site of the second
race of the season in the Champ Car World Series. Carpentier was ill with a
viral infection for most of that weekend, but he has since fully recovered.
"It had been a while since we'd had a totally problem-free day of testing,
so that was a lot of fun. Also, it was good to have the engineering crews of
both cars (Carpentier's and his teammate Paul Tracy) at the same session. The
more brainpower you have, the more things you can find with the car, and that
might help to give us an edge on race weekend."