SONOMA, Calif. - Helio Castroneves doesn't appear to be bothered by the fact that his primary car was damaged in a fire Aug. 20 on the way to Infineon Raceway.
Castroneves jumped in his backup car Aug. 22 on the first day of practice for the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County and proceeded to turn the fastest lap of the day.
Castroneves, who finished second at Infineon last year, lapped the 12-turn, 2.303-mile circuit in 1 minute, 17.1703 seconds, 107.435 mph in the afternoon session, bettering Tony Kanaan's effort of 1:17.3920, 107.127 mph from the morning.
KV Racing Technology teammates Oriol Servia and Will Power were third and fourth, respectively. Scott Dixon, who leads Castroneves by 78 points in the championship, was seventh.
Castroneves' teammate Ryan Briscoe, who also had his primary car damaged in the fire, was sixth.
Also on Friday, Franck Perera won the pole for the Carneros 100 Firestone Indy Lights race. Raphael Matos, who trails points leader Richard Antinucci by four points, qualified second, while Antinucci claimed the third starting position.
***
The IndyCar Series brings its unique road course qualifying format to Infineon this weekend. After two practice session featuring all cars on Friday, the field is randomly divided into two groups for Saturday's practice and Segment One of qualifying. The random draw occurred Friday morning prior to the driver's meeting when the drivers drew either a red chip or a blue chip out of a bag. Drivers with a blue chip will be in Group One. Drivers with a red chip will be in Group Two.
In Segment One of qualifying, each group receives 20 minutes of track time. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Segment Two, while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13-26. Group One drivers will occupy the odd-numbered positions (13, 15, 17...) while Group Two drivers will occupy the even-numbered positions (14, 16, 18...) based on their fastest lap times.
During Segment Two, the 12 advancing cars receive 15 minutes of track time. The fastest six advance to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout while the remaining six cars are ranked in positions 7-12 based on their fastest laps.
During the Firestone Fast Six, the six cars receive 10 minutes of track time, with a guarantee of five minutes of green flag time. Each car receives one additional set of Firestone Firehawk tires for use during this final segment. At the end of the session, the cars are ranked 1-6 based on their fastest laps.
***
The No. 26 Andretti Green Racing car driven by Marco Andretti features sponsorship from STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, the second time this season the car has featured links to a movie. During the Indianapolis 500, Andretti's car promoted Indiana Jones Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Andretti's firesuit was modeled after the Indiana Jones character.
***
Ryan Frisselle (AIM Autosport) captured the pole for the Armed Forces 250 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series with a lap of 1:25.659 (1:03.807). He was followed by Michael Valiente at 1:25.957 (1:03:447 mph, Sun Trust Racing) and David Donohoue at 1:26.344 (1:02.983 mph, Brumos Racing). The Armed Forces 250 is set for 3:15 p.m. on Saturday.
IndyCar Practice Results
SONOMA, Calif. - Practice Friday for the PEAK Antifreeze & Motor Oil Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County IndyCar Series event on the 2.303-mile Infineon Raceway, with position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine and speed:
1. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 107.435
2. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 107.127
3. (5) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 107.018
4. (8) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 106.861
5. (4) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 106.670
6. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 106.657
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 106.452
8. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 106.449
9. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 106.426
10. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 106.318
11. (02) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 106.231
12. (18) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 106.049
13. (17) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 106.049
14. (96) Mario Dominguez, Dallara-Honda, 105.862
15. (36) Enrique Bernoldi, Dallara-Honda, 105.799
16. (33) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Honda, 105.797
17. (15) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 105.735
18. (19) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 105.709
19. (10) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 105.404
20. (12) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 105.359
21. (06) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 105.345
22. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 105.330
23. (23) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 104.837
24. (2) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 104.382
25. (34) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Honda, 103.848
26. (14) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 103.515
27. (25) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 103.317
Indy Lights Qualifying
SONOMA, Calif. - Qualifying Friday for the Carneros 100 Firestone Indy Lights event on the 2.303-mile Infineon Raceway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver and speed:
1. (55) Franck Perera, Dallara-Honda, 99.547
2. (27) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 99.545
3. (7) Richard Antinucci, Dallara-Honda, 99.269
4. (23) Logan Gomez, Dallara-Honda, 98.942
5. (20) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 98.827
6. (25) J.R. Hildebrand, Dallara-Honda, 98.682
7. (5) Daniel Herrington, Dallara-Honda, 98.551
8. (33) Mitch Cunningham, Dallara-Honda, 98.514
9. (77) Jonny Reid, Dallara-Honda, 98.440
10. (22) Pablo Donoso, Dallara-Honda, 98.436
11. (44) Robbie Pecorari, Dallara-Honda, 98.249
12. (43) Mike Potekhen, Dallara-Honda, 98.236
13. (26) Arie Luyendyk Jr., Dallara-Honda, 98.141
14. (6) Tom Dyer, Dallara-Honda, 98.134
15. (18) Cyndie Allemann, Dallara-Honda, 98.069
16. (2) Jonathan Klein, Dallara-Honda, 98.000
17. (11) James Davison, Dallara-Honda, 97.995
18. (15) Dillon Battistini, Dallara-Honda, 97.851
19. (4) Sean Guthrie, Dallara-Honda, 97.602
20. (54) Juan Manuel Polar, Dallara-Honda, 97.193
21. (16) Brent Sherman, Dallara-Honda, 96.521
22. (24) Christina Orr, Dallara-Honda, 95.621
23. (8) Mark Olson, Dallara-Honda, 90.368
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
