Day one is over and the majority of the 2008 Rookie Class have passed the orientation phase.
The day not only allowed many of the ex Champ Car racers to gain full entry to the event, but its also gave some of the front runners invaluable additional track time over the established veterans. The top three drivers on Sunday averaged over 220 mph which sounds phenomenal but is really only just a solid start to the week. Will Power topped the timing charts with a lap that was the culmination of a very deliberate and precise day of driving. Power has stated that he now feels like he can run flat out with confidence but in front of him is the difficult task of dialling out the wing while maintaining speed and grip in order to reach 225mph, a speed that will put him towards the front end of the grid next Saturday (pole day).
Danica's BFF, Ernesto Viso, showed more of the outright speed he showed in spells in Kansas, while hitting the 220mph mark in only 64 laps. It took Oriol Servia a little longer to get into the 220's but he did so towards the end of the day and no doubt he has a car that can make it into the field on Saturday.
It is also worth noting that Alex Lloyd ran a 219.964 over the course of a limited 55 lap run, he was also up to speed very quickly and it is safe to say that there is a lot more to come from the Rahal Letterman/Chip Ganassi joint entry.
1 - Will Power, 220.694 (93 laps)
2 - EJ Viso, 220.445 (64 laps)
3 - Oriol Servia, 220.102 (94 laps)
4 - Alex Lloyd, 219.964 (55 laps)
5 - Hideki Mutoh, 219.824 (43 laps)
6 - Ryan Hunter, Reay, 219.797 (44 laps)
7 - Jaime Camara, 219.175 (47 laps)
8 - Graham Rahal, 218.619 (51 laps)
9 - Justin Wilson, 218.142 (43 laps)
10 - Enrique Bernoldi, 217.338 (44 laps)
11 - Jay Howard, 217.247 (61 laps)
12 - Max Papis, 214.068 (19 laps)
13 - Mario Moraes, 186.445 (3 laps)
.....more to come during the week. Don't forget that your final team selections have to be in by Friday night at 7pm EST or Midnight GMT.
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