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Team Australia Begins 2007 Season With First Test Of New Champ Car At Sebring |
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Wednesday, 24 January 2007 |
Team Australia has begun its 2007 Champ Car World Series campaign with a successful day of testing with the new Panoz DP01 Champ Car at Sebring International Raceway in Florida today.
Australian star Will Power will have his first drive of the new car tomorrow, while today driving duties were allocated to 2006 Champ Car Atlantic Champion Simon Pagenaud.
The 22-year-old drove for Team Australia last season on his way to the
prestigious Atlantic Championship title. The Frenchman completed a
total of 56 laps today, totaling 94.2 miles (151.6 kilometres) around
the 1.65-mile (2.66 km) road course.
Both sessions went exceptionally well for Pagenaud, who clocked the
third fastest time in the morning session with a 52.5-second lap time.
Pagenaud was then eighth fastest in the second session with 51.9-second
time, finishing the day with a combined eighth fastest time.
2006 Roshfrans Rookie of the Year and 2006 Lexmark Indy 300 polesitter
Power will take over driving duties tomorrow as Champ Car shares the
Sebring circuit with American Le Mans Series testing. A full day of
testing will then conclude the first open test of the 2007 Champ Car
season on Thursday January 25.
WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY
Simon Pagenaud
“It was great testing with Team Australia today,” said Pagenaud.
“The Champ Car is a lot different from the Atlantic car, a lot more power, which is a lot of fun.
“Overall the Aussie Vineyards car felt good and downshifting is much better now, we had some trouble with it this morning.
“We also solved all of the brake issues that we had this morning as
well. It was a good day and a very good morning. This afternoon was a
bit of a rush because we only ran one hour, we still need to improve,
but we have a great baseline set-up now that the team can work from.”
Derrick Walker – Team Australia Co-Owner
“We had a really positive day,” said Walker.
“The team put a lot of effort in getting the first car together, they
spent a lot of time in making sure it was assembled correctly and the
car ran really well with the normal synchronising of the gear changes
and getting the brakes at the right temperature and set-up and more
set-up changes.
“Basically we just ran a lot of miles. The car ran really well. Simon,
with it being his first day in the car, did an excellent job. We are
really happy, we had a good start.”
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