Plowman tops Indy Lights practice
Plowman, driving the No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers/KEP Printing car for AFS Racing Andretti Autosport, jumped to the top of the chart with two minutes remaining in the hour-long session with a lap of 1 minute, 7.1508 seconds (105.774 mph).
James Hinchcliffe, who has started on the front row of all three street circuits this season, transferring the pole start at Long Beach into his first Firestone Indy Lights victory, was second quick (1:07.3366; 105.482 mph) in the No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car.
Charlie Kimball (1:07.3765), series points leader J.K. Vernay (1:07.8383) and Adrian Campos Jr. (1:07.8491) filled out the top five.
QUOTES:
MARTIN PLOWMAN (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers/KEP Printing, fastest of the day): "We rolled out of the truck pretty much where we needed to be. I was confident with the guys in the setup here. We've tested at circuits similar to this and the car was on rails. This circuit was very green to begin with, so I don't think it's representative of where we need to be in qualifying. We were constantly in the top two or three with the used tires. We tried a set (of sticker tires) at the end, but we didn't get up to speed with the new tires. We still have time to get on the new tires. We still have some work to do but I think we can be challenging for the podium, if not the win."
JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 2 Xtreme Coil Drilling -TMR, second fastest): "It's always great to come back here. I like the circuit, since the first time I came here. It's fast flowing. I have to thank the (IZOD) IndyCar (Series) drivers for going out first this morning, it was really kind of them. The track had a good amount of grip for a Friday first practice. The cars are pretty close. We are still having some of the same issues we had at the beginning of the weekend in Toronto. We saw what happened to us in the race there, so we are going to try and fix those in a hurry. But this really isn't a bad place to start the weekend.
CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 26 Levemir FlexPen, third fastest): "I forgot how fun this place is to fun to drive. It's a blast for sure. The No. 26 Levemir® car was quick right out of the box. We ended up P3, but we have a few more adjustments to make. I know exactly what we want to do. The team did a great job getting it ready right after Toronto last weekend. We're going to have a lot of fun this weekend."