TRACY QUICK ON THURSDAY IN INDY 500 PRACTICE RUNS; GEICO DRIVER RECORDS 2ND FASTEST SPEED
Viso Returns To Action For First Time Since Tuesday’s Crash
KV Racing Technology Press Release
SPEEDWAY, Ind. (May 20, 2010) — Paul Tracy showed his speed Thursday in the No. 15 GEICO — KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone entry with a sensational 226.322 miles per hour lap, the second fastest of the day, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Tracy, a six-time Indianapolis 500 starter, has continued to work on the team’s race setup, and the Canadian star was pleased with his car’s handling during Indy 500 practice runs on the legendary 2.5-mile oval west of Indianapolis.
Only Tony Kanaan’s 226.775 m.p.h. clocking bettered than the GEICO driver’s lap with Hideki Mutoh third at 226.230 followed by Marco Andretti at 226.108 and Dan Wheldon at 226.106.
Tracy, who only ran seven laps on Wednesday due to the cooler conditions, made 43 circuits Thursday in posting his fastest speed of the week.
E.J. Viso, whose No. 8 PDVSA — KVRT Honda/Dallara/Firestone car slammed the turn one wall on Tuesday afternoon, returned to the track in his backup’s machine and was able to record 27 laps before a late afternoon rain shower halted track activities.
Viso, still a little sore from the 123G impact, felt much better today than Wednesday when his crew rebuilt his car. Unfortunately, Viso was disappointed he didn’t as much track time due to the rain. Viso’s best speed was 220.617 m.p.h.
Rookie Takuma Sato has continued his progress with the No. 5 Lotus - KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car, as the Japanese star topped the 225 m.p.h. mark for the first time this week at 225.047, the 12th fastest of the day. Sato also ran the most laps for KVRT at 76.
Mario Moraes, who has been the team’s fastest driver this week until Thursday, was 17th fastest at 224.315 m.p.h. in the No. 32 KV Racing Technology Honda/Dallara/Firestone car
Popular “Fast Friday” practice is set for May 21st from noon to 6 p.m.
The first round of qualifications will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 22, with Top Nine qualifying beginning at 4:30 p.m. EDT. The pole speed will be determined in the final 90 minutes in Saturday’s time trials.
Versus will telecast the qualifying runs on Saturday.
DRIVER QUOTES:
PAUL TRACY, #15 GEICO - KVRT HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “It was a pretty good day for the GEICO – KV Racing Technology team today. We really wanted to work more on the race setup and were able to achieve that in the first part of the day. We found some really good balance, ran a lot in traffic with the quick cars in the series. I was able to get a really good tow and put in a good lap. The plan for the second part of the day was to focus on our qualifying setup but that’s when the rain started. This has put us slightly behind in our plans in terms of what we need to do for qualifying. We haven’t had an opportunity for a qualifying simulation yet, but the most important thing is the race car. I feel we have a pretty good balance on that. We will wait and see what happens with the weather tomorrow and hopefully get some more running in.”
MARIO MORAES, #32 KV RACING TECHNOLOGY HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: “I think today was a good day for the KV Racing Technology team. We made some progress running without traffic and focusing on our qualifying setup, but still need to work on finding some more speed. We will see how the next couple of days go but I think we have a good chance in qualifying.”
TAKUMA SATO, #5 LOTUS - KVRT HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE:“It was another good day for the Lotus – KV Racing Technology team despite the weather turning unstable. We ran most of the day in traffic to evaluate race setup. I now feel more comfortable and have a greater understanding which is nice. I was able to do one run in qualifying setup which was a great feeling to be going fast. I think it was a productive day and I hope we can do some more runs in traffic and qualifying simulation before Saturday.”
E.J. VISO, #8 PDVSA-KVRT HONDA/DALLARA/FIRESTONE: ““I want to thank the PDVSA – KV Racing Technology team for working so hard to get my backup car ready for today. After having such a big shunt a couple of days ago and having a day off to recover, I’m still not a 100% but was able to put a few runs together. Unfortunately it wasn’t as many as we would have liked. We decided to have a very conservative downforce level so I could get comfortable again and every time we tried to trim the rain would come! I am looking forward to qualifying, every little detail is worth a lot so hopefully tomorrow we can run more laps and improve the car for Saturday.”