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Written by:
David Phillips
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
07/25/2008 - 07:46 AM
Edmonton, Canada
Tracy's day wasn't without incident but the Canadian was happy with his performance. (LAT Photo) ยป More Photos
PT’s PRACTICE I
IndyCar Series “rookie” Paul Tracy was afforded his very own practice session this morning in consideration of the fact that he and his Vision Racing crew – which looked a whole lot like Walker Racing (see below) – hadn’t run for as much as a moment in the Subway Dallara-Honda. It’s not that PT was given much of a break. After all the session was only 15 minutes long and the team and PT devoted the entire time to ensuring the car’s basic systems were functioning properly rather than doing any “testing.”
“We just wanted to make sure the car shifted right, the brakes worked and the ride height was right and we didn’t have any fluid leaks,” said Tracy. “We wanted to make sure when practice started we weren’t chasing car problems and could focus on me learning how to make the car go fast.”
Although Tracy spent the entire session on rain tires, he said that was the team’s choice rather than (as speculated) the IndyCar Series had mandated that no “testing” be done on slick tires.
“That was our choice,” Tracy said. “It’s just like the first few laps on any temporary circuit, you do on rain tires rather than wasting a set of slicks on a dirty track.”
The only issue that cropped-up during the practice was with the radio, which turned out to be nothing more than a connection that had pulled loose in the car.
PT’s PRACTICE II
Tracy finished a somewhat
The biggest fright came early in the afternoon session when the Subway Dallara-Honda swapped ends under braking for Turn 10, barely grazing its nose on the concrete retaining wall before coming to a stop.
“The crew is learning the car, too,” said Tracy. “They adjusted the ride height for the second session and raised the front but lowered the rear. The car got away from me the first time I got on the brakes hard but luckily all we did was knock off the nose.”
Tracy returned to action with the nose cone replaced and the correct ride height – at both ends of the car – and proceeded to lap within 0.35sec of the fastest time of the day. He was justifiably pleased with his performance and that of the team.
“It went as well as you could hope for,” he said. “We hoped to come in and have the car run all and, and we did that. Derrick Walker and his group did a great job. I haven’t driven since Long Beach . . . hopefully thing will come back a little easier tomorrow and we can work on race setup. But it’s going to be tough. These guys have been driving all year.”
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