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Homestead,
Florida, March 27, 2002 - Testing on an oval for the first
time this year, Team Player's and driver Alex Tagliani set a
pace as torrid as the 47° C (118°F) track temperature on the
Homestead surface on Wednesday in completing a successful
two-day session. Tagliani clocked a fast lap of 26.3 seconds -
the top speed of the day under those track conditions
(compared to Franchitti's 27.0 sec.).
Tagliani had also
put in the best time of 26.28 seconds during the Tuesday
testing session on the 1.5-mile oval. In all, Team Player's
ran 256 laps - about 384 miles - at the testing sessions,
which had 10-15 other teams from the CART series on the track
during the two days.
Team Player's main
objective at the sessions was to work on set-ups with the new
wing package that will be used on all ovals, with the likely
exception of Fontana, in the 2002 FedEx CART championship. The
two most immediate races in which the wing package will come
into play are the ones in Motegi, Japan, and on the Milwaukee
Mile.
"The results were
very encouraging," said Team Player's technical director Bruce
Ashmore of the sessions, for which both of the team's
engineers - Kelly Loewen and Michael Cannon, who oversee
Tagliani's and Patrick Carpentier's cars respectively - were
on hand. "While the Homestead oval isn't identical to the one
at Motegi, we were able to learn a great deal over the last
two days. We tried out everything we had planned to do. We
know where we're going as we prepare for the Japan race."
Team Player's is the only Reynard-chassis/Ford-engine package
on the CART circuit this season, and Tagliani was eager to see
how the new Reynard oval-specific undertray and body work
would stack up, especially against the Lolas.
"I've come away from these two days very confident about our
competitiveness," remarked Tagliani, who produced a strong
fifth-place finish in the opening race of the CART season on
the Monterrey, Mexico road course earlier this month. "Every
track that we've been on so far, either for testing or for the
race, we've been extremely competitive. We've been in the top
5, and that's our goal. The fast pace that we were able to set
in the last two days means that we'll be going to Japan with
lots of confidence. I expect that Team Player's will do well
there."
Prior to the first oval race of the season - April 27 at
Motegi - the Team Player's drivers will be on the streets of
Long Beach for Round 2 of the series, on April 13. They will
have another testing session on an oval following the Motegi
event as they run laps on the Milwaukee Mile, site of the
third race of the season, June 2nd.
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Ricardo
González
News and Commentary
