Leading the field in pre-season Sebring running With the results of the first two days of testing at Sebring International Raceway, most people expected to see the name Franck atop the timing sheets at the conclusion of the first pre-season open test for the Champ Car World
Series. What they may not have expected is that his last name would be Perera.
Driving the #24 Conquest Racing entry, Franck Perera posted a lap of 49.806 seconds, topping the time charts over the three days of testing and showing Conquest Racing’s speed and intention for the season ahead.
“I think we did a good job,” Perera said. “It was a crescendo - each session we were faster and we tested many things for all the phases of a race weekend and we did well in each. So, it’s good that we can already fight with the top guys.”
Perera, who many say is the 'real deal,' outpaced NHL Racing’s Graham Rahal, by 144-thousandths of a second. The two Atlantic runner-ups of the past two seasons were the only drivers to post a time below the 50-second mark.
Finishing the test in third was Alex Tagliani driving for PKV Racing. Tagliani hopes that his performance at the test with a quick lap of 50.173 seconds will speak for itself and that it will allow him to join PKV Racing for the season.
“I’m very satisfied with my test at PKV Racing,” expressed Tagliani.
“It’s a dream for all drivers to work with such a professional team. I said it before and I will say it again, this team can and will be competing for the championship. I loved the experience, and working with Oriol was fantastic. We’re quick and the team is happy. We didn’t have any problems throughout the test. All we need now is to move forward and hopefully make the line-up and if it does happen I think it would be a turning point in my career.”
PKV Racing’s Servia completed his test fourth fastest overall with a time of 50.178 seconds. “I’m very, very happy and very impressed with the team,” Servia said. “We did the last race in Mexico and we obviously had a good car. They have been working hard all winter and all the new things they did, they were better. So I’m really happy. The conditions today were nothing like you are going to find this season so we didn’t really want to focus too much on the set-up. We just wanted to test and try things and that’s what we did. It was also good to have Alex here to compare notes.”
Justin Wilson of NHL Racing was fifth with a lap of 50.207 seconds, only two-thousandths quicker than Forsythe/Pettit’s Franck Montagny who sat atop the leader board the two previous days. Montagny was the only driver not to improve his time in the final session.
Final combined times from Sebring open test
1- Franck Perera, #24 Conquest Racing, 49.806s, 205 laps
2- Graham Rahal, #2 NHL Racing, 49.950s, 238 laps
3- Alex Tagliani, #21 PKV Racing, 50.173s, 281 laps
4- Oriol Servia, #22 PKV Racing, 50.178s, 288 laps
5- Justin Wilson, #1 NHL Racing, 50.207s, 269 laps
6- Franck Montagny, #7 Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 50.209 s, 207 laps
7- Bruno Junqueira, #19 Dale Coyne Racing, 50.507s, 247 laps
8- Alex Figge, #29 Pacific Coast Motorsports, 50.521s, 247 laps
9- Simon Pagenaud, #34 Conquest Racing, 50.702s, 186 laps
10- Enrique Bernoldi, #8 Rocketsports Racing, 50.714s, 255 laps
11- Paul Tracy, #3 Forsythe/Pettit Racing, 50.732s, 179 laps
12- David Martinez, #28 Pacific Coast Motorsports, 50.736s, 255 laps
13- Ernesto Viso, #4 Minardi Team USA, 50.800s, 164 laps
14- Mario Moraes, #11 Dale Coyne Racing, 50.930s, 241 laps.
Source CCWS
