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IndyCar rookies, Richmond newcomers get first taste of the bullring

IndyCar Series rookies, as well as drivers that haven’t yet competed at Richmond International Raceway, had a two-hour afternoon practice all to themselves today at the 3/4-mile bullring.

It didn’t take nearly as long for Oriol Servia to realize that Saturday’s SunTrust Indy Challenge is going to be one of the more unique obstacles he’ll have to face in his inaugural IndyCar season:

“I can see that the race must be really tough in traffic, because on your own already, everything is narrow, and you already have issues getting your marks. I can only imagine how it’s going to be like with 26 cars and dirty air and this and that.

“I can see that this is a place where you can make mistakes easily, so we’re going to have to keep our brain on top of the game.”

One day after he and teammate Will Power tested at Watkins Glen International, Servia topped the charts in today’s 90-minute rookie practice with a fast lap of 16.1392 seconds at 167.295 m.p.h. in the No. 5 KV Racing Technology car. Power was right behind him in second place with a time of 16.3453 seconds at 165.185 m.p.h. in the No. 8 Aussie Vineyards machine.

Four other drivers that haven’t raced at RIR before in an IndyCar — John Andretti (who has 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup starts at the track), Ryan Hunter-Reay, Townsend Bell and Marty Roth — opened the afternoon with a 30-minute block. Bell was the fastest of the foursome with a quick time of 16.6655 seconds at 162.011 m.p.h. in the No. 23 Dreyer and Reinbold Racing special.

Two afternoon practice sessions (12 - 1:45 p.m. ET, 3:15 - 5:15 p.m. ET) and qualifying (7:30 p.m. ET) will make up tomorrow’s preparation for Saturday’s 300-lap event (8 p.m. ET on ESPN, IMS Radio, XM Channels 144/145 and IndyCar.com).

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All quotes used in this article were taken from today’s trackside report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2008 at 8:40 pm 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.