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VISION RACING FRIDAY PRACTICE REPORT - April 3, 2009
(Streets of St. Petersburg)
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.(April 3, 2009) - Vision Racing drivers Ed Carpenter and Ryan Hunter-Reay completed their first official day of practice for the 2009 IndyCar Series season on the tightly configured twists and turns of the Streets of St. Petersburg temporary race circuit. The all-American duo worked together to complete a total of 71 laps, 34 and 37 respectively, in preparation for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Piloting a Vision Racing machine for the first time after being officially announced as a team driver on Tuesday, Hunter-Reay was able to put together a solid day of practice. For much of the practice sessions, Hunter-Reay ran in the top-ten, but was unable to put together a solid lap on new tires at the end of the day which dropped him on the time charts.
Hunter-Reay drove on the streets of St. Petersburg in the city's Honda Grand Prix for the first time last year where he started sixth and finished in the 17th spot
Like his teammate, Carpenter was unable to put together clean laps at the end of the day's practice session and record a good lap time. Carpenter was able to get the sticker tires he needed, but traffic kept him from completing practice as planned.
Carpenter's first drive on the streets of St. Petersburg was in 2005 when he finished 19th when he and the team made their street/road course debut. The following year, Carpenter missed the event due to injury sustained in the morning warm-up in the previous race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Roberto Moreno served as Carpenter's substitute along side Tomas Scheckter. In 2007, Carpenter retired early in 18th after a 16th place start due to contact initiated by teammate A.J. Foyt IV while running in 13th place. Just last season Carpenter started from the 21st spot, drove as high as seventh and finished the race running in the 18th spot.
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In four prior trips to the Streets of St. Petersburg, the team's best team's best finish on the Streets of St. Pete came in 2007 when Scheckter finished sixth. Scheckter also has the team's best start there when he started eighth in both 2006 and 2007.
IndyCar Series practice resumes tomorrow morning at 8:05 a.m. (ET) with qualifying set to commence at 10:50 a.m. local time.
Sunday's 100 lap/180 mile Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will air live on Sunday, April 5 at 2:30 p.m. ET on VERSUS, as well as IMS Radio Network, XM IndyCar Series Racing Channel 145, XM Sports Nation Channel 144 and on the web at www.IndyCar.com.
Qualifying/Practice Results and Quotes: (April 3, 2009)
Ed Carpenter - No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Top Time in Practice: 1:06.0942
Top Speed in Practice: 98.042 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 21st on speed chart
No. of Laps: 34
On practice:
""I could have done a lot better than what I did. I was hoping to be closer to the lead than what we are. We put on sticker tires there at the end of the session and got caught in traffic, so we would have been a little quicker, but I didn't get a good lap on those sticker tires. All in all, we've got some work to do on the car because it isn't driving quite as nice as it should be. So, we'll work on it over night and it should be better for tomorrow."
Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 21 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Top Time in Practice: 1:04.9882
Top Speed in Practice: 99.710 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 20th on speed chart
No. of Laps: 37
On practice:
"The guys did an amazing job. The fact that we got right to work and didn't have to waste any time going back to the garage for anything or trying to make big adjustments is a testament to what these guys have done in such a short amount of time. With that said, we've still got to do a lot of things to the car to make it better for my driving style and we'll do a lot of those over night. We were 10th and 11th for the most part of that session, but then we did not get to go out and run on sticker tires at all so in spite of what the times show, it was still a good day."
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