Will PowerThe morning fog at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma delayed the morning warmup for the IZOD IndyCar series. The fog had lifted sufficiently for the Historic Grand Prix Formula One cars to get their warm-up, but the fog settled back in, causing the schedule to flex. The IndyCar two-seater cars swapped their scheduled track time with the IndyCars and took to the track. The drivers were MARIO ANDRETTI, DAVEY HAMILTON and LOGAN GOMEZ. Andretti drives the Izod car, Hamilton drives the HP car, and Gomez was in the National Guard car. The latter is a happy coincidence for local driver, J.R. HILDEBRAND of nearby Sausalito. National Guard has had an ongoing involvement in the IndyCar two-seater program, and it also sponsors JR.
WILL POWER/No.12 Verizon Team Penske was fastest of all 28 drivers in the half-hour session, which got started more than an hour later. But, no harm no foul. The sun came out, the fog lifted, and the clouds went south.
Scott Dixon & Dario FranchittiOther leaders during the session were teammate HELIO CASTRONEVES/No.3 Guidepoint Systems Team Penske, and Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, SCOTT DIXON/No.9 and DARIO FRANCHITTI/No.10.
Ana BeatrizJAMES JAKES/No.18 Acorn Stairlifts was the fastest Rookie in P4; Rookie ANA BEATRIZ/No.24 Team Ipiranga/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing was the top female driver in P10; and Rookie Hildebrand was P16. JR
Interestingly enough, in the combine practice results of all three track sessions, Rookie MARTIN PLOWMAN/No.17 Snowball Express AFS/SSM Racing had the fastest time Saturday. All the Saturday practice times were the fastest for all drivers.
During the long delay, there was plenty of time to stroll through the pits and see drivers and teams finding ways to keep occupied while waiting out the weather. Good people watching.
