Full Throttle

Scott Dixon showed no sign of relinquishing his grip on the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen, the winner of all three previous IndyCar Series events at Watkins Glen International topping the timesheets as 26 drivers participated in two-and-a-half hours of practice on Friday.

The Kiwi, who has won at The Glen from second and fourth on the grid, recorded a best lap of 1m 30.1947secs in the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry to head his closet rival from twelve months ago, Helio Castroneves, by just under a tenth of a second. However, despite his front-running pace, Dixon remained wary of shooting for top spot in qualifying.

“I don’t know if I want to sit on the pole - I’ve never sat on the pole [at Watkins Glen], and Helio has had some pretty bad luck sitting out there,” he reasoned, “But, we’re going to go as fast as we can and see if we can. I’d like to think we have a car that could be on the pole, and I’d like to think we’ve got a pretty set race car”.

Penske’s Castroneves has started from the pole in all three previous races at the Glen, but has never finished better than seventh. The Brazilian, who is tipped to sign an extension to his current deal, was second fastest with a best lap at 134.368mph.

Dan Wheldon ended the day third quickest overall based on his morning practice time - one of the few not to improve in the afternoon - and was followed by Vitor Meira and former Champ Car driver Will Power.

Like the other teams and drivers making their first visit to the Glen since switching from the Champ Car series, Power’s day was not without problems, but the Australian was satisfied with progress by the end of the sessions.

“Overall, it was a good day for KVRT Aussie Vineyards team,” he noted, “We got a lot more out of the second session than the first in terms of track time. We had a lot fewer problems in the afternoon. We have some things to think about overnight, but I think the biggest thing for me is getting track time so I can learn the limits of the car on this circuit. We have another practice session tomorrow to fine tune the car, and hopefully we can qualify in the Firestone Fast Six and go on from there.”

Tony Kanaan, Justin Wilson, Ryan Briscoe, Bruno Junqueira and Marco Andretti completed the top ten, but last weekend’s Richmond winner was disappointed to only be sixth quickest.

“We’re not very happy right now,” Kanaan admitted, “The good thing is that we’ve been able to put up good times in the Team 7-Eleven car even though we get into traffic every time we go out. We’ll work on it tonight and hopefully be better tomorrow.”

Groups for Saturday’s practice session and qualifying will be determined by a random draw, with drivers having drawn either a red or a blue chip from a bag prior to practice. The randomly assigned groups will take effect for Saturday morning’s practice session as well as segment one of the road course qualifying procedure. The fastest six cars from each group will advance to a second phase, before the fastest six cars in that segment advance to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout in an attempt to win the PEAK Motor Oil pole.

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