Moreno fastest in Milwaukee test.
Roberto Moreno has been CART's Mr Consistency so far this year finishing all four races held this year in the points. Podium finishes at Homestead, Rio and Motegi have helped the Team Patrick Reynard Ford driver to climb into joint second place in the Champ Car standings with 1996 champion Jimmy Vasser.
The ex-Benetton Formula One pilot, who has finally been given a full time ride in the Champ Car series after several years of substitute driving, threw down the gauntlet to his championship rivals when he lapped the famous one mile oval in a time of 21.424 seconds on Sunday.
Roberto Moreno has been CART's Mr Consistency so far this year finishing all four races held this year in the points. Podium finishes at Homestead, Rio and Motegi have helped the Team Patrick Reynard Ford driver to climb into joint second place in the Champ Car standings with 1996 champion Jimmy Vasser.
The ex-Benetton Formula One pilot, who has finally been given a full time ride in the Champ Car series after several years of substitute driving, threw down the gauntlet to his championship rivals when he lapped the famous one mile oval in a time of 21.424 seconds on Sunday.
Moreno was one of nine Champ Car regulars in attendance at the revered 'Milwaukee Mile' as their respective teams prepared for the upcoming back to back short oval races, firstly at Nazereth on Saturday and then Milwaukee on June 4th. The Brazilian's lap time was a shade over half a second quicker than Helio Castro Neves' 1999 pole position mark of 21.931 seconds. This season the CART teams have the benefit of running the newly developed high downforce Hanford rear wing package as opposed to the older low downforce Hanford set-up they used last year which was more suited to Superspeedway running.
Second fastest on Sunday was Michael Andretti's Newman-Haas Lola Ford, the Motegi winner finishing the day just five hundredths of a second behind Moreno. Andretti ran strongly at Milwaukee last year in the Swift he was then driving only to run over one of his pit crew during a mid race stop.
Mauricio Gugelmin caused a slight surprise when he placed his PacWest Reynard Mercedes third on the timesheets with a time of 21.822 seconds. Gugelmin and his PacWest team-mate Mark Blundell, who was not present at the test, have been struggling to put their cars in a competitive position and so third fastest gave the team a vital boost in the arm.
For Paul Tracy however the track which, last year brought the current championship leader his first victory since 1997, was not kind. During the morning session the Team KOOL Green Reynard Honda snapped sideways as Tracy braked into turn three and clouted the wall causing sufficient damage to reduce the Canadian to the role of a spectator for the rest of the day.
Tracy would eventually wind up sixth fastest directly ahead of his team-mate Dario Franchitti who endured a tough day on the slippery track.
The Champ Car teams now move to Nazereth for the rescheduled Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at the similar one mile oval in Pennsylvania.
Complete testing results from Milwaukee.
1. Roberto Moreno Reynard-Ford 21.424seconds.
2. Michael Andretti Lola-Ford 21.476seconds.
3. Mauricio Gugelmin Reynard-Mercedes 21.822seconds.
4. Adrian Fernandez Reynard-Ford 21.864seconds.
5. Kenny Brack Reynard-Ford 21.907seconds.
6. Paul Tracy Reynard-Honda 22.004seconds.
7. Dario Franchitti Reynard-Honda 22.143seconds.
8. Max Papis Reynard-Ford 22.212seconds.
9. Luiz Garcia Jr Reynard-Mercedes 23.359seconds.
