Chevy shakes down new IndyCar engine
09/29/11 Chevrolet, with support from its anchor team, Team Penske, its engine builder, Ilmor Engineering, its competition partners at Pratt & Miller and championship leader Will Power behind the wheel, used the 1.78 mile, 10-turn road course at Putnam Park to do a shakedown of its Chevy-powered Dallara chassis Thursday.
"I was not there, but the feedback I got was that it was a good test," GM Racing Director Mark Kent told SPEED.com on Thursday. "It was really just a test to make sure the car was ready to go to do its first proper test at Mid-Ohio. The intent was not to run a lot of laps, which we didn't, but we learned a few things and now we'll get ready for the next test. It was a positive outing for our first time on track."
"We have to be somewhat cautious at this point because we only have one car, so we're going to be cautious but somewhat aggressive. We need to learn as much as possible between now and December 15th (when the window for open testing for engine manufacturers comes to a close) and we're continuing to develop a test plan that allows us to ramp up our performance in the amount of time we have to work with."
"We didn't do many laps and it was half-wet; we were on rain tires, but it was really cool climbing into the new car and getting a chance to use the new Chevrolet engine," he said. "We just made sure all the systems worked on the new car and I got to steer it around a little bit. I have to say it was pretty cool having so many people around one car. Engine people, chassis people, all the mechanics and just a lot of people with their full emphasis placed on one car. They all wanted precise feedback and we came away with a good direction."
"I'm going to do both days at Mid-Ohio, and each Chevy team has nominated one driver to share the testing duties. I don't know the whole schedule, but I look forward to pushing the car and getting a feel for the full power of the Chevrolet and all the Dallara's downforce."
"We're excited to be back, for sure. It was really rewarding. all of our members of the Chevy IndyCar team showed up to support our Putnam test. Everyone was proudly wearing the Chevrolet Bowtie and worked and acted like a single team. We're looking forward to that continued teamwork across all of our teams and what the future holds for our brand in the IZOD IndyCar Series." Speedtv.com