ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Vision Racing drivers Ed Carpenter and A.J. Foyt IV have qualified 21st and 24th, respectively for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
The team took to the 1.8-mile temporary street course in downtown St. Petersburg for practice again this morning as well as for the new road/street course, three-round qualifying format.
Vision Racing Qualifies for Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg April 5, 2008
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vision racing qualifies for honda indy grand prix of st. petersburg
APRIL 5, 2008
Carpenter and the No. 20 Menards Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone machine started things off in group one for the first round of qualifying. He was able to improve upon his practice times, but was only 10th quick amongst the group. Only the top six cars advance.
Driving the Vision Racing No. 2 Honda powered Dallara, Foyt made his round one qualifying effort amongst the group two competitors where he was 12th quick.
Carpenter and Foyt are coming off fifth and ninth place finishes, respectively, at Homestead-Miami Speedway just last weekend. The Vision Racing duo actually started that event from the back of the field after failing post-qualifying technical inspection. Thus, driving through the field come race day is something both pilots know well.
Carpenter’s first drive on the streets of St. Petersburg was in 2005 when he finished 19th with the team making their street/road course debut. The following year, Carpenter missed the event due to injury sustained in the morning warm-up in the previous race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Roberto Moreno served as Carpenter’s substitute along side Tomas Scheckter. Just last season, Carpenter retired early in 18th after a 16th place start due to contact with Foyt while in 13th place.
Foyt has made two starts at St. Petersburg. Last season he finished in the 13th spot and was running at the end of the race after qualifying in 17th. In 2005 he started and finished 21st due to an accident.
IndyCar Series action continues tomorrow as Vision Racing will participate in the 30 minute warm up session at 8:30 a.m.
The 100-lap, 180-mile event will air live and in HD on Sunday, April 6th, at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN, as well as IMS Radio Network, XM IndyCar Series Racing Channel 145, XM Sports Nation Channel 144 and on the web at www.IndyCar.com.
Qualifying/Practice Results and Quotes: (April 5, 2008)
Ed Carpenter – No. 20 Menards/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Qualifying Position: 21st
Qualifying Time: 1:03.8007
Qualifying Speed: 101.566 mph
Top Time in Practice: 1:04.8832
Top Speed in Practice: 99.872 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 24th on speed chart
On qualifying:
“I was hoping to do better than 10th, but at least we picked up the pace with everybody from practice on into qualifying. We are starting to get there and one of the promising things that we found was that I was able to get up to speed quicker. We definitely made some gains, but we still aren’t near where we’d like to be. It was tough to find space out there to turn a good lap, but I like this qualifying format a lot better. Tomorrow we just need to run a clean race and be ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way.”
A.J. Foyt IV – No. 2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone
Qualifying Position: 24th
Qualifying Time: 1:04.4996
Qualifying Speed: 100.466 mph
Top Time in Practice: 1:04.6632
Top Speed in Practice: 100.212 mph
Overall Rank in Practice: 21st on speed chart
On qualifying:
“I would have liked to have made a much bigger gain in qualifying than what we did. We are still getting better, but we aren’t up on the speed chart like we would want to be this weekend. The guys have done a good job with working on the car, so we’ll just keep after it and get a solid car ready for the race and do our best to be around for the finish.”
