Test In The West at Phoenix

[Tim Northcutt]

The early results from the morning session were:

1. Tomas Enge 172.297
2. Scott Sharp 172.278
3. Sam Hornish 172.208
4. Helio Castroneves 172.179
5. Bryan Herta 172.038
6. Vitor Meira 172.013
7. Dan Wheldon 171.990
8. Tony Kanaan 171.963
9. Dario Franchitti 171.322
10. Scott Dixon 171.003

all were over 171 mph...

Next session starts at 3 p.m. EST.

[GP Racer]

A nice mix of manufacturers in the top 10, Toyotas, Hondas, and, holy cow, a Chevy in the lead! Be still my beating heart!

Scott Sharp must be happy to be running with the big dogs again. He had the second best time in the Homestead tests, and now a solid first run in Phoenix. Way to go Scott!

[Tim Northcutt]

Franchitti just ran a 172.8 to take the top spot....

Yellow light for a track inspection....

[Refutation]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

A nice mix of manufacturers in the top 10, Toyotas, Hondas, and, holy cow, a Chevy in the lead! Be still my beating heart!

Scott Sharp must be happy to be running with the big dogs again. He had the second best time in the Homestead tests, and now a solid first run in Phoenix. Way to go Scott!

Don't worry it was a false alarm,things have returned to normal

1 11 Tony Kanaan 20.6994 173.918 112 155
2 26 Dan Wheldon 20.7183 173.759 84 92
3 8 Scott Sharp 20.7703 173.324 101 143
4 6 Sam Hornish Jr. 20.7806 173.239 147 157
5 27 Dario Franchitti 20.8257 172.863 47 156
6 33 Ryan Briscoe 20.8353 172.784 167 242
7 4 Tomas Scheckter 20.8482 172.677 96 107
8 3 Helio Castroneves 20.8722 172.478 154 156
9 9 Scott Dixon 20.8816 172.401 170 210
10 83 Patrick Carpentier 20.8854 172.369 132 157
11 2 Tomas Enge 20.8941 172.297 59 131
12 51 Alex Barron 20.9250 172.043 140 168
13 7 Bryan Herta 20.9256 172.038 66 174
14 17 Vitor Meira 20.9287 172.013 44 93
15 10 Darren Manning 20.9460 171.871 167 213
16 15 Buddy Rice 21.0332 171.158 112 160
17 55 Kosuke Matsuura 21.1310 170.366 109 132
18 24 Roger Yasukawa 21.1944 169.856 158 235
19 16 Danica Patrick 21.3226 168.835 68 247
20 14 A.J. Foyt IV 21.3445 168.662 110 120

[mac]

Briscoe quick again - and quicker than the other TCGR guys. He also appears to have done the most laps, trying to acclimatise to the oval.

Even though it is a short track, all drivers comfortably within a second is good news for '05.

[climb]

I'm frankly astonished by Buddy Rice's abysmal performance; will it change today?

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by climb

I'm frankly astonished by Buddy Rice's abysmal performance; will it change today?

Bit extreme that!

A) It's testing

B) All the Rahal cars are at a similar pace

C) It's such a short circuit that tiny margins will vault you up the order

Basically everyone's competitive!

[climb]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

...
Basically everyone's competitive!

Bit extreme that, too!

[Kicking-back]

No, I stand by it.

If the circumstances are right, everyone in the IRL this year is capable of a good result.

[climb]

Under the right circumstances even I could win Indy500, not only is your point extreme, but also a bit undefined!

[Tim Northcutt]

Franchitti & Kanaan paced the morning session and both topped last year's pole speed of 174.7

Yith a Yellow out for moisture on the track, here are the Top Ten thus far today:

1. Franchitti 175.574
2. Wheldon 175.096
3. Kanaan 175.035
4. Helio 174.394
5. Sharp 174.271
6. Herta 174.072
7. Rice 173.973
8. Hornish 173.890
9. Dixon 173.836
10. Enge 173.476

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

Franchitti & Kanaan paced the morning session and both topped last year's pole speed of 174.7

Thats pretty astonishing, considering at this point last year, they were still using the 3.5 L. engines.

[BootsOntheSide]

Any chance of Dana and Carpenter joining in the fun soon?

Still, good to see such a variety of resutls in the sessions, although AGR definitely look like the team to beat again. Individual lap times don't mean a huge amount though - does anyone know which teams have been doing long runs at a consistant pace?

[Tim Northcutt]

Hemelgarn was waiting on some parts to come in that had not arrived, so they will not be in Phoenix for testing, and the Carpenter deal, just being announced, means that there has been virtually zero prep done to the cars.....

I'm wondering why AJ IV wasn't on the track yesterday....but was there on Wednesday....

[N I Tram]

Those guys will be at a big disadvantage initially, so hopefully nobody will criticise them if things don't go well in the first few races. I suspect certain people are waiting for Carpenter to fail.

It's great to see such a close field, and there are easily 10-12 drivers who could, under the right circumstances, win a race - although I'd imagine Honda will have the most consistant success, especially on the longer tracks.

[Team Owner]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

Hemelgarn was waiting on some parts to come in that had not arrived, so they will not be in Phoenix for testing, and the Carpenter deal, just being announced, means that there has been virtually zero prep done to the cars.....

I'm wondering why AJ IV wasn't on the track yesterday....but was there on Wednesday....

The Hemmelgarn operation had not recieved the 2005 Dallara update kits nor had they recieved Toyota engines in time to run this test. Hemmelgarn is supposed to be testing this week.
Ed Carpenter is in much the same situation as the cars they got form Kelley had not been updated and they didn't start hiring crew untill they got back from Phoenix.
AJ Foyt decided that all he wanted to do was get a baseline on the car at the Phoenix test so they then went home instead of running the second day, besides with AJ paying the bills that was prudent to do instead of having a wrecked car.
3 engines were lost during this test, one each from Chevy,Toyota and Honda.
Sharp looked very good but this is only a test.
Danica was not allowed to trim the car out and go for speed as the RHL team just wanted her to get as many laps as possible.
Rick Long of Speedway Engines is now doing the rebuilds on the Cosworths/Chevys as Cosworth is now completely out of the picture.
The Toyota engines have a new head on them that is reported to be 3 mph slower down the straightaway at Homestead than last years engine, plus so far it isn't reliable with Team Penske losing 4 at Homestead and Ganassi losing 1 at Phoenix.
Many rumors about the new engine package that will be announced during the month of May but Toyota and Honda already do not like it.
More later as I remember it.

[Sparky05]

Originally Posted by Team Owner

Many rumors about the new engine package that will be announced during the month of May but Toyota and Honda already do not like it.

Let's hear it for stock blocks.

[GP Racer]

Thanks for the inside scoop Team Owner!

These small teams are at a real disadvantage when it comes to teasting time. That will make them look even worse when the season starts. But hey, I'm just glad there out there trying.

Personally, I would rather see stock block engines, because its cheaper. My question though would have to be, will the big teams stick around without manufacturer money?

[Tim Northcutt]

Glad to hear that Rick Long is doing the Chevy rebuilds....thier shops are excellent, and they will get everything out of that engine that can be gotten...

On the new package...

If it gets back to the 'Buy the engines and take them to your reputable builder (like Brayton, Rick Long, Roush, Comptec, etc.) I say "DO IT!!"

The leases have driven up the cost of the Series dramatically.....

[macdaddy]

From Team Owner:

...Cosworth is now completely out of the picture.

I'm somewhat surprised by this... KK clearly stated that Cosworth had full intentions of meeting their 2005 IRL commitments.

[Kicking-back]

Maybe Chevrolet made the decision?

[Team Owner]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Maybe Chevrolet made the decision?

Yes they did. As part of the deal with Cosworth they had purchased the engines and all the support pieces. The only thing they were paying for was rebuilds and tech support. After announcing that they were going to pull out of the series at the end of this year they decided to let Rick do the rebuilds and do the tech support themselves. They saw no benefit in paying large sums of money to Cosworth this year when they could do it themselves. Cosworth had no commitment to honor.

[Snrub]

Originally Posted by Team Owner

The Toyota engines have a new head on them that is reported to be 3 mph slower down the straightaway at Homestead than last years engine, plus so far it isn't reliable with Team Penske losing 4 at Homestead and Ganassi losing 1 at Phoenix.
Many rumors about the new engine package that will be announced during the month of May but Toyota and Honda already do not like it.
More later as I remember it.

So do you think the tests are an accurate reflection of where the engines are at?

Are you able to give us any ideas on why Toyota and Honda don't like the new forumula and why/how it could be decided upon if they didn't like it?

Thanks.

[Team Owner]

Originally Posted by Snrub

So do you think the tests are an accurate reflection of where the engines are at?

Are you able to give us any ideas on why Toyota and Honda don't like the new forumula and why/how it could be decided upon if they didn't like it?

Thanks.

I think the test were a good indication to Toyota and Chevy just how far Honda was ahead of them.

My impression of Toyota and Hondas feelings about the impending engine rules changes is the fact it may be based on a small block Chevy ( reduced in cubic inches of course ). If you take an alum. purpose built small block, strenghten it to be a stressed member of the drive train, provide for a dry sump exterior oil tank, put a flat front cover on it and keep the cubic inches at around 255 to 270 it would make around 650 to 700 hp. If you make the competitors purchase a basic "kit" with block, crank, rods, heads and pistons for a set sum of money then you can allow them to have different builders build the engine for them but at the same time allow creative engineering in the valve train. I would assume that if they did this Toyota and Honda may not care for this spec.

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by Snrub

So do you think the tests are an accurate reflection of where the engines are at?

Here's some comments from the manufacturers -

Do Toyota, Chevy Still Lag Behind Honda Heading into the IRL Indy Car Season Opener ?


If Honda gets their way this year, they'll be aiming for a perfect season. Despite just losing twice, the first and last race of the 2004 season, Robert Clarke told espn.com, "I guess we could win 17 races instead of 14, which is what our chairman wants us to do. He figures if we can win 14, winning three more can't be that difficult!"

So can Toyota step up, and challenge the Honda teams this season?

It may be hard to say.... Here's what Lee White of Toyota had to say, "Realistically, we won't know where we stand until the checkered flag falls at Homestead on March 6. At this point, it's impossible to judge anything on early testing."

As for Chevy.... We believe anyone would be hard pressed to make a case for a revival.

Kind of goes along with what Team Owner said...