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Friday, August 10
De Ferran, Castroneves tops in practice
Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ohio -- The front row for Sunday's CART Miller
Lite 200 might have a familiar look.
| |  | | | De Ferran |
| |  | | | Castroneves |
Teammates Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves, who qualified
first and second for last year's race, had the top two times in
Friday's practice round at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
De Ferran, who shares the course record of 124.394 mph with
Dario Franchitti, had a fast lap of 122.882 mph around the 13-turn,
2.258-mile course in the hills of north central Ohio.
Castroneves, last year's race winner, was second at 122.729 mph,
with no one else within one mph of the Penske Racing teammates, who
finished 1-2 in 2000.
The PacWest cars of Mauricio Gugelmin and Scott Dixon, the top
rookie in the series, were kept off the track Friday because of a
dispute involving the team and Toyota, its engine supplier.
Both cars will be practicing and taking part in Saturday's
qualifying.
"The differences between PacWest and Toyota have been resolved and we will be back on track starting Saturday morning and for the rest of the 2001 season," said a statement read after practice by PacWest spokesman Tom Hollett.
He and Toyota spokesman Jon Procida had no additional comment.
Attempts to reach other officials from both companies were
unsuccessful.
De Ferran said he was uncertain whether his Reynard Honda had
enough untapped speed to break the track record.
"It's hard to say" whether the car can go much faster, he
said. "Typically, the track speeds up a lot as the weekend goes
on. But the straight-line speed was significantly down from last
year, though we're a little faster in the turns."
He also said he didn't know why the Penske cars appear to be
ready to continue the dominance they had last year at Mid-Ohio.
"I think, to be honest, we managed not to screw up," de Ferran said. "We had a good car here last year and we managed not to mess it up. We remembered what was good here last year and massaged it a little bit and got it a little bit better."
Castroneves said he enjoyed having his teammate as his top
challenger.
"It's great competition inside the team," he said. "I'm
really having a lot of fun. Since we started this morning, we tried
a lot of things and everything we tried made the car better and
better. If it's going to be nice (weather) tomorrow, let's go for
it."
Jimmy Vasser, in a Reynard Toyota, was third-fastest Friday at
121.710 mph, but said the Penske cars appeared to be too powerful.
"I guess it's better than not being third, but we're still not
as good as the Penskes," he said. "They're really hooked up and
they were hooked up here last year."
Kenny Brack, who leads the driver standings by 22 points over
second-place Castroneves, struggled all day in his Lola Ford and
finished with the 15th-fastest practice speed.
"I think we have a top five car but the time sheet doesn't show
it," he said.
"We had a brake problem this afternoon and we had to stop in
the middle of the practice to fix it. ... I can see us improving on
Saturday."
Brack and Max Papis of Team Rahal and Bryan Herta of Forsythe
Championship Racing all are based in the Columbus suburb of
Hilliard, about 60 miles from the track.
After Vasser, the remaining top 10 in practice, in order, were
Christian Fittipaldi, rookie Bruno Junqueira, Herta, Tony Kanaan,
Alex Zanardi, Cristiano da Matta and Patrick Carpentier.
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