DETROIT - Big-league auto racing returned to Detroit on Friday as the IndyCar Series brought open-wheel racing back to the temporary road course on Detroit’s Belle Isle, where many of the legends of the sport had competed throughout the 1990s.
 
Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) had only been to Belle Isle’s 2.125-mile course once in his racing career, but he wasted no time today in getting up to speed, carding the sixth-best time of the day in his maiden voyage in the Indy Cars.
 
Hunter-Reay posted a top time of 1:14.6862 (99.777 mph) in the second of today’s two practice sessions to finish sixth on the board - a spot that would put him in the Firestone Fast Six if he can duplicate the result in tomorrow’s IndyCar Series qualifying session.
 
“It was another good first day for the Ethanol team,” said Hunter-Reay after his afternoon session. “We’re sticking to our pattern of being faster every session. This is a fun track. It’s a big risk/reward track. You put yourself at risk on a couple of these corners here, but if you don’t, you aren’t going to be running with the frontrunners.”
 
The IndyCar pilots will have an early day tomorrow, with one 30-minute session leading into the battle for the Aamco Transmissions Pole Award. The single-car session will begin at 11:45 a.m. Eastern Time, with the top-six cars then entering into the Firestone Fast Six, which sets the starting order for Sunday’s race. The morning practice gets underway at 8:45 a.m. Eastern Time.