CCWS Feature - Power On Pole
15/02/2007
Team Australia’s Will Power set the fastest time in the Champ Car World Series official test at MSR Houston. As the teams and drivers continued to work on the all-new Panoz DP01 chassis, Power was quickest of the 15 car/driver combinations to set times in a two-day test blighted by rain.
The first day started off wet, and got wetter. While it gave teams experience with running the new car on the Bridgestone Potenza rain tyres, it again limited dry weather running, which has been in short supply as the series gets closer to its opening race at Las Vegas on April 11.
Power, about to start his second season in the Champ Car World Series with Team Australia, took advantage of the dry track on the second day to end up just a fraction faster than rookie Graham Rahal in a Newman/Haas Racing entry.
“We seem to understand the car,” said Power, “and knowing how to make the car fast is the most important thing we got out of today. I knew what I wanted out of the car, and the crew did a great job in getting it done.”
Rahal, who while not yet confirmed in stone, is expected to line up alongside triple champion Sebastien Bourdais at Newman/Haas, and he already feels confident in the car. “Even in the wet conditions I knew that we had a car that was going to be quick in the dry,” said the 18-year-old son of former Champ Car Champion and Indy 500 winner, Bobby Rahal.
Third fastest was former Formula 1 Friday test driver Neel Jani, who will take on the full season of Champ Car with backing from Red Bull at PKV Racing. The rookie was a 0.1s off of the ultimate pace, but was nevertheless happy with his speed.
“I’m impressed at how high the talent level is here in Champ Car,” the Swiss driver said. “It’s good to know that we can run with the top guys and that we’re not too far off of the pace. But the team and myself haven’t come out here to finish third, we’ve come here to win. So, we have some work still to do.”
Reigning champion Sebastien Bourdais ended the test fourth quickest, while his erstwhile rival, Paul Tracy, had what he described as “the worst test session of my career”.
Tracy, now in his seventh season at Forsythe Racing, ended up 11th on the lists having sat out most of the rainy track time and then having little problems in the dry that cost him valuable lap time. “Everybody here is pretty frustrated,” said Tracy. “But they don’t give us any points for testing, so we have to go and work on being ready for Las Vegas.”
One final official test remains on the Champ Car World Series schedule – Laguna Seca from March 7-10.