Team KOOL Green finish first test of New Year.

Driver Dario Franchitti and the #27 Team KOOL Green crew opened their off-season testing program on January 10th-11th at Sebring International Raceway.

Paired with the 2002 Honda-Reynard for the first time, Franchitti completed 191 laps during the two-day test at the 1.6-mile facility and ran a quick time of 51.62s. Joining Team KOOL Green at the test were Tony Kanaan from Mo Nunn Racing, who ran a slightly quicker time of 51.445s, along with Jimmy Vasser (Team Rahal), Christian Fittipaldi (Newman-Haas), Shinji Nakano (Fernandez Racing) and Mario Dominguez (Herdez Bettenhausen).

"I can't believe how much we got done here at our first test," said Dario Franchitti. "I think this is the most I've run in one test at Sebring and it was great to get back in the KOOL car after a couple of months off. I really like the new car, especially the gearbox, which is a definite improvement from last year. Working with my new engineer Allen McDonald for the first time was also exciting and I think we learned a lot, I sure know we ran a bunch of laps."

McDonald was equally as positive after working with Franchitti. He and the Team KOOL Green crew concentrated on finding mechanical grip and how the car reacted to the many modifications they put it through.

"I really enjoyed working with Dario for the first time. He has a clear sense of how he would like the car to work, and he is able to give good feedback after each run. It's still early, but we got right to putting the car through the paces and it responded very well. We learned a lot in our first test but we still need to take advantage of the remaining tests to get the most out of the car."

Team KOOL Green returned to its Indianapolis shop to prepare for the CART Sneak Preview, a four-day media and testing event beginning February 7 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.