Testing well underway for CART teams.

With 50 days remaining before the first practice session of the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series at Fundidora Park in Monterrey, Mexico, virtually every team is now focused on testing their 2002 machinery.

Sebring International Raceway in central Florida remains the popular testing destination for many teams, but Herdez Competition packed up its game and headed out west for a few days in "The Valley of the Sun" this week. The team's rookie driver, Mario Dominguez, continues to get acquainted with his 2002 Ford-Cosworth/Lola, and has posted competitive times in early testing at Sebring.

This week in Phoenix, however, was the Indy Lights grad's first chance to try out his new ride on an oval, as the team unloaded the car at Phoenix International Raceway on Wednesday. While the Mexican was initially surprised by the differences between the Champ Car and his previous Indy Lights machine, he quickly got more comfortable in his new surroundings.

"Things happen a lot quicker in a Champ Car than in Indy Lights," said Dominguez. "It's been two months since I've been on an oval, but this is much different. We were hitting 200 miles per hour around the Phoenix oval yesterday, compared to 180 or so at Fontana in the Lights car. Believe it or not, once you get used to the difference in speed, the Lola Champ Car is a lot easier to drive. It's a much better balanced car from a technical standpoint. I think that Herdez Competition's engineers really know the ovals. I don't think I've ever driven an oval car that was set up this well. It seems that I have made a good connection with the car, we're having a lot of fun together!"

While the oval test was a one day affair, the fun continues for Dominguez on Friday and Saturday when the team is scheduled to run on the Firebird East course.

Dominguez was also one of several drivers to get some seat time at Sebring at the end of last week. Also at Sebring were Team KOOL Green with driver Dario Franchitti, Team Rahal with Jimmy Vasser, Fernandez Racing with Shinji Nakano, Tony Kanaan and Mo Nunn Racing, and Christian Fittipaldi with Newman/Haas Racing.

Team Rahal and Vasser claimed the unofficial fastest lap time of the test, and the 1996 CART FedEx Championship Series champion put almost 300 miles on his new Ford-Cosworth/Lola. Perhaps most importantly, Vasser's first impression with the team was a good one.

"Things went real good for our first time out," Vasser said. "We didn't really try to go fast, but we went quick the first day and were able to run a lot of miles over the two days. This is a very strong group of people and I think we are well positioned to contend for the championship."

Likewise, Franchitti was glad to be back in the cockpit after some time off. The team reported turning a best lap of 51.62 seconds, and logged a total of 191 laps around the 1.6-mile circuit.

"I can't believe how much we got done here at our first test," Franchitti said. "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. I think we learned a lot. I sure know we ran a bunch of laps."

The Sebring test also represented the first testing laps of the off-season for Fittipaldi and Newman/Haas Racing. Like Franchitti, Fittipaldi was also working with a new engineer for the first time, as Craig Hampson has been promoted to Fittipaldi's race engineer after working as assistant race engineer for Newman/Haas' #6 machine driven by Cristiano da Matta in 2001.

"We had the usual first test problems, but overall we are happy with the fact that we learned some areas that we can work on before our next test," said the seven-year CART FedEx Championship Series veteran. "We ran over 200 trouble free miles today and have started to work on 2002, which is always a good time because there is so much optimism when the entire season is ahead of you. Our quickest time was a 51.7 (second lap), but I think there was more speed in the car if we would have put more laps together in a row. I spent some time relaxing with my family and friends since the season ended and I am completely focused and ready to start the 2002 season."

While the others were running at Sebring, 2001 FedEx Championship Series runner-up Kenny Brack was at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca getting more acquainted with his 2002 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Toyota Lola. He was a bit disappointed to miss one day of testing due to dense fog, but he still managed a day-and-a-half in the new car.

"It was a little frustrating to have to sit around all day on Wednesday waiting for the fog to clear," Brack said. "But it was a great time to sit and chat with the guys. We weren't able to run as much as we had hoped for, but we continue to learn about this car and where we need to improve on it.

We'll get another chance here next month during Sneak Preview, hopefully without the fog. That should show us where we're at in comparison to the other teams. We have a very busy off-season testing program, and it feels good to have completed three tests already. I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far from this team."

While Brack didn't test the Champ Car this week, he did get some seat time of a different kind when he spent some time behind the wheel of the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Dodge Intrepid that the team fields in the NASCAR Winston Cup series.