FRANCHITTI, DIXON LEAD OPENING PRACTICES AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
LOUDON, N.H. (Thursday, August 11, 2011) – Dario Franchitti and other IZOD IndyCar Series drivers have set their sights on the Indy car track record at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He had a quick lap of 21.5665 seconds (171.099 mph) on the 1.025-mile oval to top practice Aug. 11 for the MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225.
The Indy car lap record is 21.466 seconds by Andre Ribeiro (Ana Beatriz’s manager) in qualifying on Aug. 19, 1995. The IZOD IndyCar Series track record is 21.719 seconds by Richie Hearn in 1996 – the first of three times the series raced at then-New Hampshire International Speedway.
“My first order of business today was to learn the track and the first run felt good,” Franchitti said. “It is definitely a lot easier to learn a place when the car is doing what you want it to. I think we are in good shape now and we will be chasing the track a little bit. We’ll see if we can continue this form into the weekend.”
The top 10 in the 27-car lineup were separated by less than four-tenths of a second.
Scott Dixon (21.6204; 170.672) was second and Graham Rahal (21.6644) was third. KV Racing Technology-Lotus teammates Tony Kanaan (21.7368), Takuma Sato (21.7713) and E.J. Viso (21.7743) were fourth through sixth.
There are two practice sessions Aug. 13 (the series yields to Whelen Modifieds on Aug. 12) prior to two-lap qualifications.
Also on Aug. 11, Gustavo Yacaman topped the two 45-minute practice sessions on Aug. 11 as teams began preparations for the 100-lap race on Aug. 14.
Yacaman recorded a lap of 25.0034 seconds in the No. 2 TMR/Tuvacol/Xtreme Coil Drilling car, ahead of the Sam Schmidt Motorsports trio of Josef Newgarden (25.0242), Bryan Clauson (25.3175) and Esteban Guerrieri (25.4634). Anders Krohn rounded out the top five.
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