Ed Jones and Carlin Racing Shine at Soggy Barber Test
Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires made the prudent decision to postpone the test scheduled for last week, given the impending frigid and wintry weather moving into the area surrounding Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. The hope was that with a date this week, the teams would be able to complete more meaningful running than would have been accomplished otherwise. Of course, the weather is never predictable and the teams were greeted today by cloudy, rainy conditions throughout the day. The rather British weather suited Carlin Racing, who felt quite at home and propelled their two cars to the top of the timesheets. Ed Jones used 47 soggy laps to set an impressive lap time of 1:26.253, a full 1.61 seconds quicker than Max Chilton.
Belardi Auto Racing were, as they have been numerous times throughout winter testing with the new Dallara IL-15, the first team out on track with Juan Piedrahita. The rain didn’t dampen their testing plans, as over the course of the day Piedrahita turned an impressive 94 laps—more than 200 miles (and as many laps as both Carlin drivers combined). Carlin joined Belardi next on-track, before a host of other drivers eventually made their way out later in the morning.
The running was halted briefly in the middle of the session when the rain really began to pour down over Barber, resulting in standing water that brought out the red flag. When the session resumed, the Carlin duo stormed to the top of the charts and turned in some impressive laps. Max Chilton’s day ended early when he had to catch a flight (presumably back to Florida to re-join the Nissan GTR-LM test at Sebring with his newly announced WEC effort) and the rest of the field continued to turn laps. None, however, were able to beat the boys in Carlin blue. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Scott Anderson managed to turn the third quickest lap of the day, followed by teammate RC Enerson and Andretti Autosport’s Shelby Blackstock.
Belardi Auto Racing’s Felix Serralles did not make an appearance during the test, and 8Star Motorsports and Scott Hargrove did not attend the test despite initially planning to skip the NOLA test and appear only at Barber.
This was the last series test prior to the season opener March 27-29 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida. However, teams will be testing in earnest in advance of the first race with their new cars.
Indy Lights Barber Test Results
1. Ed Jones (1:26.253)
2. Max Chilton (1:27.863)
3. Scott Anderson (1:28.100)
4. RC Enerson (1:28.392)
5. Shelby Blackstock (1:28.635)
6. Juan Piedrahita (1:28.825)
7. Jack Harvey (1:29.114)
8. Spencer Pigot (1:30.060)
9. Ethan Ringel (1:30.575)
10. Kyle Kaiser (1:30.613)
FotografieIMS Photography
Ga naar de loginpagina om in te loggen of creëer een nieuw account!