The teams from the IndyCar series are enjoying a break in the action this weekend, but next week it is off to Sonoma for the last road course of the year. This past week saw the teams test at Sonoma in preparation and Mike Conway was the man to beat.
Conway who drives for Dreyer & Reinbold set a lap of 1m17.48s. This time was 0.2s quicker than that of Ryan Briscoe. Conway has shown he can be fast on road and street circuits, however a number of accidents have seen him little success this year. For young Conway’s sake let’s hope this acts as a confidence booster for the young Conway. As we have said on the podcast before, he has talent…he just needs to stop hitting things.
Viso, Wheldon and Dixon round out the top 5. A good result for Wheldon who has not had a great time on the road courses this year. While the entire field did not perform the test, there were some getting their first taste of an IndyCar this year. Frank Motagny, who is known for his great driving in the Le Mans series, was 1.5s off of Conway’s pace. Motagny will pilot a 5th AGR machine at Sonoma in a one off event for the Frenchman this year. This may be Frank’s chance at getting back into an IndyCar as there are a number of drivers that could get the boot in favor of the sportscar driver. He is going to need a bit more speed if he wishes to come back permanently. Sebastian Saavedra also drove an Andretti Green Machine for the test. Saavedra drives for AGR in the Firestone Indy Lights Series and will certainly at one point get a ride with the team. Ryan Philippe also got to run his Conquest machine for the first time during the test. This will be Philippe’s first run since Indy when he ran with HVM racing.
Coverage of the IndyCar series at Sonoma will be next weekend on VS. and we will be covering events all weekend beginning with a preview of the race this week on Podcast 05.