Sunday 4 January 2009

RLB - AGR set initial pace in Indy practice

It is known to many people that when it comes to the Indianapolis 500, anything can happen. It is such a prestigious race that every single driver on the grid is fighting for one thing, which is the chance to get their name on the Borg-Warner Trophy. And judging by practice results alone, right now it seems this season the next face to be cast upon it might just be the face of an Andretti Green Racing driver.

Daniel Quick, who on occasions like to live up to his name, decided that this was one of those times to do so. The team he drives for is based just up the road from the famed Brickyard and with home support he knew it was his chance to make every second count around the 2 mile oval. That he did as he ended the practice session fastest of everyone with teammate Scott Woodwiss managing 6th best time to make sure both AGR Lolas were firmly inside the top 10. Both drivers posted average speeds of over 225mph with Quick even managing just over 230! But practice can only tell the teams so much. It is merely an experimentation session. To see who can find the perfect setup for what they hope will be the perfect weekend. Can both Andretti Green pilots keep this turn of pace up with the 4-lap aggregate qualifying imminent?

Scott Woodwiss:
"Daniel did an awesome job today to manage fastest around here. To be fair though, we did some private testing here and he actually did more laps than me so it's no wonder he's higher up the sheets than I am. Still, we see it as a team result, not a personal one, and I'm sure we can both make a substantial impact in qualifying later on. It's quite different than what we'd normally prepare for at any oval.

Here at Indy you run 4 consecutive laps and the thing which matters the most is keeping a constant and consistent pace throughout all 4 in order to achieve the highest average speed possible with the setup you have. Our work today has given us quite a solid setup on mine and Daniel's cars so I think that on paper we're both in the hunt for pole. But whether it's just all talk and no actions remains to be seen. I'm confident we can pull something out of the bag but just making the front row is going to a challenge, let alone securing P1."

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