First Day of Practice at Homestead
source: Max d'Orsonnens
Patrick Carpentier found the going pretty rough on his first day in the Indy
Racing League IndyCar® Series. Carpentier finished 19th overall after the first
two practice sessions for this weekend's Toyota Indy 300, which were held Friday
at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The day started out badly when morning sessions
were canceled due to inclement weather. It would turn out to be early afternoon
before the 22 drivers registered for the opening round of the 2005 season were
able to get on the track. Following the cancellation of morning practice, race
officials decided to add an extra late afternoon session, however the added
track time did nothing to improve Carpentier's situation.
The day's results did not meet the Canadian driver expectations. Eighteenth
overall following his first practice session, Carpentier dropped two spots on
the final tally sheet, even though he posted his best time in the late afternoon
session. He drove his Dallara Toyota around the 1.5-mile (2.414-km) oval track
in 25.5669 seconds for an average speed of 336.510 km/h. He finished the day a
little more than half a second behind the Panoz Honda driven by American driver
Buddy Rice who was quickest on the day with a lap time of 25.0382 seconds for an
average speed of 343.617 km/h. Californian Alex Barron, Carpentier's teammate at
Cheever Racing, finished the day 18th overall, posting his best lap of 25.4070
seconds.
''I guess that's what they call a learning process,'' Carpentier said.
''Obviously I'm disappointed to find myself at the back of the pack, but I'm
learning how things work with a new car and a new team. Unfortunately, I was
unable to draft a fast car and the results show that. We don't have the quickest
car in the field, but it's not the worse either. I know I can do better with
this car. At this point, all we can do is hope that we have a better day
tomorrow.''