Scheckter, Bell and Carpenter all in the top ten Wednesday source: irl.racing-live.com - ORS / CAPSIS International A day does not make a trend but it does offer a good measuring stick against one's competition. In the case of Vision Racing, they have to be feeling pretty good about where they measured up in the first day of practice at Indianapolis. As a one car team most of last year and even as a two car team at Indy, Vision struggled mightily at times with the combination of underperforming Toyota powerplants and a relatively brand new team. At Indy last season, the two car effort of Ed Carpenter and Jeff Ward could only muster 26th and 31st place qualifying efforts. Carpenter did manage an impressive eleventh place finish although Ward dropped out of the race in 27th. The 2006 season came with higher hopes as the team brought in several new faces such as proven IndyCar winner Tomas Scheckter and former Panther engineer David Cripps. Vision showed some promise with a best ever finish for the team of ninth courtesy of Scheckter at Homestead-Miami Speedway to open the season. That fact was lost in the moment however as Carpenter was involved in an accident that took the life of fellow driver Paul Dana. Injuries from that accident, although minor, sidelined Carpenter for the following race at St. Petersburg and the race at Motegi was just as easily forgettable with a 20th place finish due to an accident. Scheckter fared somewhat better leading in to Indy, leading the Motegi race and running as high as second in St. Petersburg. However, the final results showed Scheckter with 12th and 13th place finishes at the respective races. Heading in to Indy, the team announced that they were expanding to a three car effort with the addition of Townsend Bell in the #90 entry. Bell has had eleven series starts but has never raced at the Brickyard.
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