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IndyCar drivers watch the skies in Japan

With rain in forecast, teams focus on race mode

Speeds ticked up slightly in this morning’s second practice session for the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi, but don’t expect them to climb up too much farther.

The forecast for tonight’s final practice and qualifying sessions look pretty wet, and according to IndyCar.com’s Dave Lewandowski, that means the teams are trying to nail down a solid race set-up before Mother Nature comes a-knockin’.

The second practice was led by defending Motegi champion Tony Kanaan, who got off a lap at 27.2453 seconds — 200.842 m.p.h. — in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car. Following him was Homestead winner Scott Dixon (200.390), two-time Motegi winner Dan Wheldon (200.250), Helio Castroneves (200.032) and Ed Carpenter (199.737).

Kanaan said he and his team were focusing on getting the balance of the No. 11 car right for Turns 3 and 4, which are tighter than Turns 1 and 2. This area of the track has been home to numerous wrecks over the years and a bad run in 3 and 4 can ruin a good lap time and a passing attempt:

“I’m not quite happy with the balance of the car, but we still have two days to go and a lot of work to do. It’s Turn 4 where I’m having the problem, so we’re trying to make the car better there. Turns 3 and 4 are the key to have a balanced car for the race; that’s where you’re going to make the pass.”

Tonight’s practice session will go off at 9:30 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying for the Indy Japan 300 tomorrow morning at 12:30 a.m. ET.

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All quotes were taken from Thursday’s trackside report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 9:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.