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The three-hour Wednesday evening session of the Indy Racing League’s Indy Car test was punctuated with cautions for debris. More cut/flat tires. The Firestone engineers said it was the first test of the season and the track had debris. “Firestone is careful about what we run out there.” Despite the numerous cautions for debris and cut tires, no one whitewalled it and there were no incidents.

The track and ambient temperature were the same for the evening test – 68F/20C. No mention of the wind chill factor, which no doubt caused the layering up in the pit lane.

RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske continued as the fastest overall driver, at 00:25.1978/212.161 mph – turned in the first session of the day.

Second through fifth were SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing; MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing; TONY KANAAN/No.11 Andretti Green Racing; and MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology.

The majority of the drivers turned their fastest times on Wednesday.

Dixon was the busiest driver, turning 182 laps on Wednesday and 282 overall. EJ VISO/No.13 HVM Racing ran  the fewest laps – 82/130. He is not the least bit superstitious about running the number 13 and in Venezuela it doesn’t have the same cache as it does in the USA. Good thing. He finished in thirteenth place Wednesday evening.

While the 21 drivers testing were on track, several other drivers were putting in laps up and down pit lane and in the garages. In addition to RYAN HUNTER-REAY, BRUNO JUNQUEIRA and ORIOL SERVIA, there were TOMAS SCHECKTER and JEFF SIMMONS, and NELSON PHILLIPPE was also spotted. SARAH FISHER has four races on her schedule this season, and she and her group spent both test days in the pit lane with one of the teams.

Only four of the 21 drivers on track are from the US – Andretti, STANTON BARRETT/No.98 Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G, ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing; and GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing.

Preceding the afternoon test session was another hour of production shooting – the Versus TV promotions using several Indy Cars.

The mix of the 2009 Indy Car season is three road courses, four street courses and ten ovals. The season starts out with two street courses, a change from years past. The fifth annual Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will be the season’s opener, followed two weeks later by the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. The season will have a new finale, at Homestead Miami Speedway. There has been a lot of Florida buzz about the bookending of the two Florida races. Andretti Green Promotions, one of the companies in the Andretti Green family, is the St. Pete Promoter. KIM GREEN, CEO of Andretti Green Racing, is “quietly pleased at how ticket sales are going and if the weather holds, we’ll be fine”.

HMS is spreading the word that it is the Championship track.  It will host six season finale races in 2009, all from North American-based series: two  IRL races – Indy Car and Firestone Indy Lights, as well as the Grand American finale on one weekend called Speedjam 2009 – 9-10 October 2009; and the three top tier NASCAR races in one weekend – Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Camping World Trucks – 20-22 November 2009.

Several of the IRL drivers live in South Florida, especially the Miami area, and are pleased to be ending the season “at home.”

The next IRL pre-season test will be three days on the road course at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham AL 20-22 March. It will again be for the Indy Cars and the Firestone Indy Lights.

PRACTICE 2 – WEDNESDAY EVENING

1. RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske
2. SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
3. MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing
4. TONY KANAAN/No.11 Andretti Green Racing
5. MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology
6. WILL POWER/No.3 Team Penske
7. DAN WHELDON/No.4 Panther Racing
8. MIKE CONWAY*/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
9. GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
10. HIDEKI MUTOH/No.27 Andretti Green Racing
11. DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
12. VITOR MEIRA/No.14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
13. EJ VISO/No.13 HVM Racing
14. DANICA PATRICK/No7 Andretti Green Racing
15. MILKA DUNO/Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
16. ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing
17. ROBERT DOORNBOS*/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
18. RAFAEL MATOS*/No.12 Luczo Dragon Racing
19. JUSTIN WILSON/No.18 Dale Coyne Racing
20. JAIME CAMARA/No.34 Conquest Racing
21. STANTON BARRETT*/No.98 Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G

*-ROOKIE

RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske pipped SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing near the end of the first Wednesday afternoon test session for the Indy Racing League’s Indy Cars at Homestead Miami Speedway. Briscoe pulled a fast lap near the end of his run – 00:25.1984/212.156 mph – fastest time of the weekend. Dixon, who had led most of the Tuesday test sessions and for more than 90 minutes of the Wednesday session, was second. While he was leading, Dixon’s Wednesday time was slower than Tuesday’s fast lap.

MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing passed DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing near the end of the session, and MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology rounded out the top five.

Moraes,  who Tuesday had said he was trying to meet and remember everyone on his team, had help Wednesday from his new boss – JIMMY VASSER. The driver turned owner, with his new 2009 shorter hair cut, had the whole team wearing name tags to help Moraes.

JUSTIN WILSON is hopeful that DALE COYNE will be able to put something together in the next ten days or so which would enable Wilson to run the 2009 season. Wilson was nineteenth in the first Wednesday test session. His race engineer is BILL PAPPAS, who joined Dale Coyne Racing in January, coming from the Ganassi team.

Twenty-one drivers were on course Wednesday. Andretti worked the hardest, turning 89 laps.

There were several cautions for “checking the track for debris.” There were reports of problems in Turns One and Three, and of cut tires.

Firestone reported that the ambient temperature was 70 degrees F/21C the entire first session. However, the track temperature dropped from 90 F to 74F/24C. The wind was stiff and the skies were partly cloudy, making it feel a lot cooler than 70 degrees.

PRACTICE 2 – WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

1. RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske
2. SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
3. MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing
4. DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
5. MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology
6. TONY KANAAN/No.11 Andretti Green Racing
7. GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
8. WILL POWER/No.3 Team Penske
9. DAN WHELDON/No.4 Panther Racing
10. MIKE CONWAY*/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
11. DANICA PATRICK/No7 Andretti Green Racing
12. ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing
13. HIDEKI MUTOH/No.27 Andretti Green Racing
14. ROBERT DOORNBOS*/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
15. RAFAEL MATOS*/No.12 Luczo Dragon Racing
16. EJ VISO/No.13 HVM Racing
17. VITOR MEIRA/No.14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
18. MILKA DUNO/Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
19. JUSTIN WILSON/No.18 Dale Coyne Racing
20. JAIME CAMARA/No.34 Conquest Racing
21. STANTON BARRETT*/No.98 Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G

*-ROOKIE

IXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing was still the fastest driver Tuesday evening in th e second of two long Indy Racing League Indy Car test sessions. His late afternoon time of 00:25.2919/211.372 mph held. All in all he ran 100 laps. The top three drivers held their earlier positions.

MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology was fourth overall in the evening. He is  the only driver for the team at the moment. Moraes is spending a lot of time with his new team, trying to meet and remember everyone, putting things together, and getting ready to go. He said “It’s important to have a teammate, to push me forward. Everything works better. I spoke with Jimmy yesterday (team co-owner, JIMMY VASSER) and he’s putting things together. Maybe we’ll have a second car for the Indianapolis 500 and the rest of the season.”

Moraes is a good friend with BRUNO JUNQUEIRA. Both hail from Brazil. Junqueira is here this weekend, looking for a ride. Moraes said “I try to learn with him. He knows the car very well, and has good experience. I try to soak up his knowledge and experience. My goals for this year – not sure about the ovals. It’s more about the aerodynamics. I think on road courses I have a good chance.”

The only incident in the evening session was the caution to tow in ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing after he stopped on course. The evening session ended fifteen minutes early so TV partner, Versus, could do a production shoot. The Versus car was all tricked out in Versus livery and passed on the high and low side five or six Indy Cars, including three Andretti Green drivers, MARCO ANDRETTI, TONY KANAAN, and DANICA PATRICK.

Tuesday’s common thread was that all drivers seemed to agree that 2009 would be a very competitive season. All the transition teams have had a year to get their equipment in order and learn the new cars and circuits. The series would be more competitive this season and there will be less disparity among the drivers. All single-car team drivers felt that having a teammate would be better for the usual reasons – having additional data and others to test against. Rookie MIKE CONWAY/No.24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing said it will be more difficult for him being on a one-car team, it would be better to have a teammate, but it’s something “I gotta deal with.”

Conway was taking full advantage of the test session, turning 157 laps in less than four hours including the dinner break. He was fifteenth overall. Conway’s personal manager is former F1 driver, MARK BLUNDELL, who is at HMS with his young charge.

GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing said the pressure was on him when he was the only driver lined up for the NHLR team. “It’s exciting we have cars now with good financial backing. I think all new drivers should ask questions. I’m of the opinion if a driver asks me, I’ll give an honest answer. But I won’t go out and share. Robert (ROBERT DOORNBOS, Rahal’s new teammate) will be quick. Rahal said this at 11 am Tuesday. By evening Doornbos had worked himself up to fourth fastest overall, before finishing seventh.

PRACTICE TWO

1. SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
2. RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske
3. DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
4. MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology
5. WILL POWER/No.3 Team Penske
6. MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing
7. ROBERT DOORNBOS*/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
8. RYAN BRISCOE/No.3 Team Penske
9. TONY KANAAN/No.11 Andretti Green Racing
10. GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
11. DANICA PATRICK/No7 Andretti Green Racing
12. RAFAEL MATOS*/No.12 Luczo Dragon Racing
13. ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing
14. EJ VISO/No.13 HVM Racing
15. MIKE CONWAY*/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
16. HIDEKI MUTOH/No.27 Andretti Green Racing
17. MILKA DUNO/Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
18. JAIME CAMARA/No.34 Conquest Racing
19. VITOR MEIRA/No.14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
20. JUSTIN WILSON/No.18 Dale Coyne Racing
21. STANTON BARRETT*/No.98 Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G

*-ROOKIE

The weather was sunny but windy at Homestead Miami Speedway Tuesday for the second day of Indy Racing League’s annual Spring Training. The Firestone Indy Lights cars were on track from 9 am to 3:45 PM. Panther Racing’s PIPPA MANN/No.16 was the fastest, overall and Rookie. There were 17 cars on track, ten of which were Rookies. Mann’s fastest time was 00.28.4776/187.726 mph. She ran 144 laps. The most laps were run by her Panther teammate,  Rookie MARTIN PLOWMAN/No.15, with 190 laps. Twenty Indy Lights drivers were on track over the two-day test.

While the junior IRL series was on track, the Indy Car drivers were having their official photos taken for a variety of assignments, and then rotated through the Interview Lounge to chat up the media.

The Indy Car drivers, 20 in all, were on track from 4 to 10 PM, in two sessions.  The order didn’t change much. SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing was the fastest in the first session at 25.2519/211.372 mph. Returning 2007 Indy Car Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing proved the rust had fallen off over the year, as he was third behind Aussie, RYAN BRISCOE/No.6. Rookie ROBERT DOORNBOS/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing was fourth overall and top Rookie. Fifth overall was Briscoe again in the second Team Penske car, which was also tested by WILL POWER, who was fifteenth quickest in the car.

The top four drivers were from New Zealand, Australia, Scotland and Holland. The top Yankee driver was DANICA PATRICK/No.7 Andretti Green Racing in seventh place, and one of two female drivers. The other was MILKA DUNO of Venezuela, who was testing the NHLR No.23 all tricked out in CITGO and Arctic Ice livery. Duno was sixteenth fastest.

Duno said, after being posed the question several different ways, that she was running the full season, although the details weren’t finalized. She spoke verbosely, but didn’t answer who approached whom regarding the ride – the team, she or one/both of her sponsors. However, an official NHLR spokesperson said that Duno was only testing and nothing had been signed regarding a full-time ride. The emissary said that the team assumed that Duno would be remaining with Dreyer & Reinbold again this season and NHLR had not made the approach.

Two other drivers are so far just here for the test: JUSTIN WILSON/No.18 Dale Coyne Racing, and JAIME CAMARA/No.34 Conquest Racing. Both are in hopes of the test becoming a full ride. Once Conquest team owner, ERIC BACHELART, finalizes Driver number one, he can work on getting a second car on track, but not before.

On the outside looking in Tuesday were: RYAN HUNTER-REAY, hanging out with ORIOL SERVIA, who was sporting a devilish new goatee; and BRUNO JUNQUEIRA. All three had been talking with teams, but said they had nothing lined up so far.

DALE COYNE wasn’t to be found, but he still has one car which could take a driver. Four more drivers are scheduled for photo shoot/media interviews on Wednesday – DAN WHELDON/No.4 Panther Racing, SARAH FISHER in her own car; and two drivers for Dale Coyne Racing – Driver A and Driver B. Junqueira, who raced for Coyne the past two seasons, said he wouldn’t be in the Coyne car nor taking the photo shoot as a Coyne driver. Fisher was in the pits Tuesday, and said she’s only announced three races plus the Indianapolis 500 – Chicago, Kansas and Kentucky.

Wheldon wasn’t on track Tuesday, as he was off gallivanting in Washington DC with other celebrities for the fourth annual Challenge Champions Gala. Other drivers included DALE EARNHARDT Jr and JEFF GORDON.

The temperature was at a high of 69 degrees F at HMS, and the wind said to be 24 mph, but felt even stiffer. At least one Indy Car driver remarked that driving had to factor in the wind. One Firestone Indy Lights driver found out the hard way, literally and figuratively. DANIEL HARRINGTON/No.28 Bryan Herta Autosport got caught out by the wind and ran into the Turn Two SAFER barrier. He was unhurt, but the car ran no more Tuesday. Team owner, BRYAN HERTA, has something else to add to his plate as team owner and road racing consultant to Vision Racing – journalist. Herta is working for RACER magazine, and was at Auto Club Speedway last weekend for the NASCAR races, so he could interview The King – RICHARD PETTY, for a feature.

PRACTICE ONE

1. SCOTT DIXON/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
2. RYAN BRISCOE/No.6 Team Penske
3. DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing
4. ROBERT DOORNBOS*/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
5. RYAN BRISCOE/No.3 Team Penske
6. MARIO MORAES/No.5 KV Racing Technology
7. DANICA PATRICK/No7 Andretti Green Racing
8. TONY KANAAN/No.11 Andretti Green Racing
9. RAFAEL MATOS*/No.12 Luczo Dragon Racing
10. GRAHAM RAHAL/No.02 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
11. MARCO ANDRETTI/No.26 Andretti Green Racing
12. HIDEKI MUTOH/No.27 Andretti Green Racing
13. MIKE CONWAY*/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
14. ED CARPENTER/No.20 Vision Racing
15. WILL POWER/No.3 Team Penske
16. MILKA DUNO/Newman Haas Lanigan Racing
17. VITOR MEIRA/No.14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises
18. EJ VISO/No.13 HVM Racing
19. JAIME CAMARA/No.34 Conquest Racing
20. STANTON BARRETT*/No.98 Curb/Agajanian/Team 3G
21. JUSTIN WILSON/No.18 Dale Coyne Racing

*-ROOKIE

Four Indy Racing League IndyCar series champions met Monday at the Fountainbleau Hotel in Miami to play in the sand and be informally chatty with the media. A sand sculptor crafted a large IndyCar championship trophy flanked by logos for the two Florida races – season’s opener at St. Petersburg and finale race at Homestead Miami Speedway.

The four champions were Target Chip Ganassi teammates SCOTT DIXON (2008) and DARIO FRANCHITTI (2007); Andretti Green Racing’s TONY KANAAN (2004) and DAN WHELDON (2005), returning to Panther Racing.

Monday through Wednesday this week is IRL’s Spring Training at Homestead Miami Speedway for its two series, Indy Cars and Firestone Indy Lights.

While the four champions were playing in the sand, four 2009 IndyCar rookies had their own test session at Homestead Miami Speedway in the afternoon and evening. ROBERT DOORNBOS/No.06 Newman Haas Lanigan Racing ran 111 laps. He is running the number run last year by his NHLR teammate, GRAHAM RAHAL, who will now run No.02 – the number used last season by JUSTIN WILSON, who is out of a ride at this point. The other rookies were STANTON BARRETT/No.98 Team 3G, MIKE CONWAY/Dreyer & Reinbold and RAPHAEL MATOS. Last weekend Barrett was at Auto Club Speedway for the NASCAR Nationwide race,  where he started last and finished twenty-eighth. Barrett has considerable NASCAR oval experience dating back to 1992, but is a rookie in the Indy Car series. Conway and especially Doornbos have a lot of open wheel experience, but not on ovals. Matos has one leg up on the other three in that as the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights champion, he ran all the Indy Car circuits.

Wheldon’s Panther Racing Firestone Indy Lights teammate, PIPPA MANN, was the fastest of 12 rookie Indy Lights drivers Monday at Homestead Miami Speedway for the first day of the series testing. Her fastest lap on the 1.5-mile oval was 28.4996/187.592 mph in No.16 Panther Racing.

All sixteen IRL rookies passed their test.

All four of the Indy Car champion drivers touched on the economy and had the same take on the IRL situation – that IRL wouldn’t be as affected by the economic downturn as other series. Their reasoning was that IRL had been cutting costs and becoming leaner for the past few years.  Testing had become more restricted each year, so the drivers didn’t feel they would be as affected by the new 2009 testing restrictions.

The common thread was leaner and meaner.

Dixon’s comments: “The teams are better prepared this year. It’s going to be an interesting season. There will be a lot of different winners on the road courses. It will be an exciting year.” He admitted “It will be tougher on the younger drivers with no testing. There are a lot of changes in the teams.”

Franchitti’s comments: “Now everyone has the same equipment and most everything is the same this season. We have good simulations and wind tunnel.”

“I was never one to do a lot of practice laps during the Indy 500 weeks, so I won’t miss the fewer Indy 500 practice sessions”. He did admit coming back to IRL after being with NASCAR last year, would be different without winter testing, so he was looking forward to Spring Training this week at Homestead Miami Speedway.

Franchitti said the “IndyCar teams spend less now than they did when I started in 1998. NASCAR just kept growing. I was surprised at the size of its organization.”

Kanaan’s comments: “IndyCar is really trying to cut costs. There are shorter race weekends. We were already cutting costs.

“The car count is a little down, but there are bigger problems out there. If we can bring joy to some people having financial problems, that’s what we’re going to do. The series is as strong as it was before, and we have loyal fans who stick with us.

“We have 22 cars now, down from 26 last season. That’s not much of a drop.

“The sport of racing is growing every day. It’s a show.”

Wheldon’s comments: “Economy forces teams to trim and look at the spending. IndyCar is controlling testing and it’s much more restricted now. In the last few years IndyCar has leaned out already. We look stronger. We have to make as much use as possible with our testing.”