Team Australia has ended the final day of Champ Car Spring Training preseason testing with both its Aussie Vineyards Champ Cars in the top five on the timesheets at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California today. source: bammedia.com.au Australian sensation Will Power was second fastest for the day and lapped only 0.115 seconds slower than Laguna Seca's Formula One track record of 1:06.309 set by Ricardo Zonta in a Toyota TF106 last year. Power ran strong all morning in the #5 Aussie Vineyards Panoz, clocking the second fastest lap time of 1:06.424. Unfortunately when the team headed back out in the afternoon session red flags and traffic prevented the Queenslander from getting a clear lap in and matching rival and three-time Champ Car Champion Sebastien Bourdais in beating the F1 mark in the new Panoz DP01 Champ Cars. Power's team-mate Simon Pagenaud also had a strong run at the famous track as the Frenchman comes to grips with his new Team Australia Champ Car after winning last year's Atlantic title. Brake trouble meant that Pagenaud could only manage 10th in the morning session. During lunch the Team Australia crew fine-tuned the #15 Aussie Vineyards car, allowing the 22-year-old to post the fifth fastest time of 1:06.699 in the afternoon session. The green and gold Aussie Vineyards Panoz DP01s turned 171 laps around the 2.238-mile (3.602km) road course today totaling 382 miles (614.77km). Over the two day test Team Australia logged 368 laps equaling 823 miles (1324.5km). Team Australia will head back to its Indianapolis-based headquarters to fine tune the cars for the opening event of the 2007 Champ Car World Series, the Grand Prix of Las Vegas on April 6-8. Sebastien Bourdais set the fastest time of this weekend's testing this afternoon, breaking the Laguna Seca outright lap record in the process. Power was second fastest ahead of Neel Jani, Graham Rahal and Pagenaud.
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