2007 Indy Racing League Testing Thread......

[mlittle]

IRL officials announced this week that several teams will be returning to Iowa Speedway for a 2-day test on October 3-4, 2007 in an effort to tweak the current aero package the series used this year(and IMO possibly avoid what happened this year when everyone hugged the white line and you could go 100% throttle....which shouldn't occur on a short-track)......

Clarifying the above..........three teams will be testing at Iowa Speedway(Andretti-Green Racing, Team Penske and Target/Ganassi Racing)........in addition, IRL officials confirmed that there will be a full-field open test at Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama in mid-October(11-12 October 2007)

The Iowa test, according to series officials, was successful as different front/rear wing packages were tested; drivers participating in the Iowa test were:
--Andretti-Green Racing: Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick
--Team Penske: Helio Castroneves
--Target/Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon

Teams/drivers to test at Barber Motorsports Park............
--Andretti-Green Racing: Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick
--Target/Ganassi Racing: Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon
--Team Penske: Helio Castroneves
--Vision Racing: Ed Carpenter
--Aguri-Panther Racing: Vitor Meira

[mlittle]

In an effort to give IndyCar Series teams extra testing chances, series officials have announced that, in addition to any official open tests prior to the 2008 season, teams will receive 4 extra testing days to be divided into 2-day blocks within the following periods..............

--2 days between 22 Oct. and 19 Dec. 2007
--2 days between 11 Jan. and 20 Feb. 2008

[mlittle]

IndyCar Series officials and Infineon Raceway officials have confirmed that there will be an acclimation test at Infineon on 6-7 December(the reason for the acclimation test is that track officials want input from series officials on proposed changes to the racetrack, notably in the section between turn 6 and turns 7-7a and turn 11.......Drivers to participate in the test include Target/Ganassi Racing's Dan Wheldon and Scott Dixon and Rahal-Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay.

[mlittle]

After having to endure one rainout day at Infineon Raceway late last week, IndyCar Series drivers Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon and Ryan Hunter-Reay got in a full day's testing on proposed changes to the Sonoma, Ca.-area raceway. The test, conducted by series and track officials, was to see whether two proposed changes to the track(explained below) would add more passing opportunities for when they return in 2008........

~~The changes were:[1]Instead of making the long loop through the Carousel(turn 6) down to turns 7-7a, drivers head through the Carousel then blast straight down the dragstrip to turn 7, making turn 7 an actual hairpin turn rather than a double-apex hairpin, and [2]rather than use the short hairpin at turn 11(which is also used by the AMA Pro Riding series for the Superbike and SuperSport races there), drivers used the long hairpin at 11(used by NASCAR Sprint Cup for their June race at Infineon)
~~Times were unofficial; sources report, though, that.......
Scott Dixon, Target/Ganassi--1:18.232 sec
Dan Wheldon, Target/Ganassi--1:19.002 sec
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Rahal-Letterman Racing--1:18.874 sec
(current track record held by Ryan Briscoe, 1:16.491 sec from 2005)

[Julian Mayo]

Scotty likes the changes then?

[mlittle]

Scotty likes the changes then?

From what I can gather, he did.....by having them run down the long dragstrip rather than continue along the Carousel, it makes for both a longer braking area and a bigger area for passing through 7 and 7a