Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio FAZZT Race Team Qualifying Report

FAZZT Race Team Pleased with Progress During Qualifying at Mid-Ohio.

Lexington, Ohio (August 7, 2010) – FAZZT Race Team driver Alex Tagliani was happy with the progress the team has made so far this weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as the gap between them and the leading teams seems to be shrinking every time they go on track.

 

 

Driver: ALEX TAGLIANI

Entry:   No. 77 CV Logistics FAZZT Race Team Dallara/Honda/Firestone

Event:  Honda Indy 200 presented by Westfield Insurance – 85 laps/ 308.890 kilometers

4th IRL sanctioned race at Mid-Ohio

Track:  Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; Lexington, OH; 3.634-kilometer road course

Event Dates: Race Sunday, August 8 at 2:30 PM on TSN2

Live Timing & Scoring and Video is available at www.indycar.com

Race: 12 of 17

TAGLIANI QUALIFYING RESULTS AT THE HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

TAGLIANI POSITION: 14th on the grid (7th in group 2 qualifying)

TAGLIANI BEST TIME & SPEED: 1 m 07.1997 s – Average speed of 193.010 km/h

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO FRONT ROW LINE-UP

1st Will Power, Team Penske; 1 m 07.1997 s (194.674 km/h)

2nd Dario Franchitti, Chip Ganassi Racing; 1 m 07.2846 s (194.428 km/h)

In Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, Tagliani miss moving onto round 2 of qualifying by a mere two hundredths of a second. Still, the Canadian driver was pleased on how the No 77 CV Logistics car was handling. He will start round 12 of the IZOD IndyCar Series from row seven on the grid after qualifying 14th. Tagliani paced the 3.634-kilometer Mid-Ohio road course in 1 minute 07.1997 seconds for an average speed of 193.010 km/h.

 “We are quite pleased with the way the team has improved the car this weekend, Tagliani said. “Unlike the other teams, we did not come to the series test session. So we had a tall order when we arrived at Mid-Ohio this weekend as our engineers brought different packages to test during practice on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Let’s be frank, we have had our share of problems lately on road course, but the radical changes to our suspension packages improved the car. We did step up our program and it is paying off so far. We finally got back to the point where we only have to make minor adjustments rather than go from one extreme to the other. The whole team is happy about the way the car is responding positively to these changes.

“We did not make it to the second round of qualifying today, but we were very close, only two hundredths of a second from sixth place in our qualifying group, and only five tenths from Dario Franchitti, the fastest driver in group two. The team made changes between practice and qualifying, but we were a bit too aggressive. For the race, we are looking for a results in the top ten.”

Penske Racing driver Will Power, who crashed during morning practice, came back strong to win his seventh pole of the season during Saturday’s qualifying session. The Australian edged Dario Franchitti by only eighth hundredths of a second on the last lap of the final Firestone Fast 6 session. Power earned the top spot for the 85-laps race with a best lap of 1 minute 07.1997 for an average speed of 194.674 km/h. Takuma Sato posted his best-ever IndyCar qualifying results with a third place on the grid. He will start next to Ryan Hunter-Reay. Scott Dixon, the race defending champion and winner of two of the three IndyCar races at Mid-Ohio, will start on the inside of row three next to Helio Castroneves.

Drivers will return on track Sunday morning for the final 30-minute warm-up session beginning at 9:15 a.m. Round 12 of 17 of the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule, an 85-lap – 308.890 km race – will be broadcast live on TSN2 starting with the pre-race show at 2:30 p.m. ET. Live Timing and Scoring as well as video coverage of all practice sessions, qualifying, and the race are available at www.indycar.com.

Rob Edwards, FAZZT Team COO on Saturday’s Qualifying

“We are much happier with today’s results than the last few road course races. We missed the fast 12 by two hundredths of a second and at the end of the day, we’re on the wrong side of the line but we’re a lot closer with the balance of the car. I think we’ve learned a lot this weekend and have made quality progress. We are a one-car team in our first season and we’re bound to have a few trials along the way. I’m very proud of the job Allen (McDonald) and the engineers did, they came back after Edmonton and did a lot of thinking and came up with some new ideas to try. I think our being closer to the pace and more competitive this weekend is a credit to the engineers we’ve got, their hard work and dedication, and to Alex for working with them very diligently to answer some of the questions we had coming in.”

Previous Mid-Ohio Race Winners

Coming off his win at Edmonton 15 days ago, Scott Dixon comes to one of his most successful tracks. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver is the defending race winner having earned victories in two of the three races at Mid-Ohio and placing third in 2008. In 2008, Ryan Briscoe won the event and achieved second in 2009.

The image is courtesy of IndyCar Series / Ron McQueeney

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