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photo: Stanton Barrett getting ready to head out onto the track

It has definitely been an interesting day at Homestead Miami Speedway.  As you saw in my previous postings.  Pippa Mann was the fastest rookie on the track during the Firestone Indy Lights session.  There has also been speculation amongst the blog community that Milka will not be testing Tuesday and Wednesday night.  I had the oppurtunity to talk to Milka Duno and she stated to me that she will be behind the wheel tommorrow and Wednesday night.  The Vs. livery car prepped by Vision Racing will not be running.   According to our fellow open wheel blogger furious wedge, the Vs. car will be used during a promo video shoot for the Versus network and will be piloted by AJ Foyt IV.  Stanton Barrett started his transition into an open wheel car this evening with the IRL giving the rookie oval drivers some seat time.  Although slow out the gate, team owner Steve Sudler has assured me that the team is very optimistic and positive that they will catch up with rest of field over the course of the 2009 season.

photo: Pippa Mann getting ready to take to the track

Yes…  You read the title correctly.  IRLblog is on site covering the IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights testing at Homestead Miami Speedway.  Today the rookies of the Firestone Indy Lights are on the track.  Teams did not waste any time this morning getting the ball rolling.  With more rookies than veterans scheduled to test over the course of today and tomorrow, I don’t see why they would have.  Drivers such as Brandon Wagner of Davey Hamilton Racing,  Martin Plowman and Pippa Mann of Panther Racing, Mario Romancini of RLR / Anderson Racing, and Junior Strous of ASR-Nelan Motorsports have been turning laps since 9 a.m.  Team PBIR, although a new team has put no stranger to American open wheel racing Jay Howard behind the wheel.  PBIR will not test today but will be on track tomorrow along with the rest of the Firestone Indy Lights teams.

Pippa Mann is the fastest rookie on the track thus far with a best speed of 187.582 mph around the 1.5 mile oval with the majority of the field just 1 mph slower.  You can watch live Firestone Indy Lights Scoring by following the link below.

Firestone Indy Lights live timing and scoring

photo: AP

Next week the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy lights return to Homestead Miami Speedway for open testing.  The Firestone Indy lights will run Monday and Tuesday during the day with the IndyCar Series running from the late afternoon into the early night Tuesday and Wednesday.  This test usually preceeds the season opener in Miami, but this year Miami will crown the 2009 IndyCar Series Champion on October 10 under the lights.  IRLblog will be on site covering the test sessions.

The testing schedule for Homestead is as follows:

Monday February 23

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. — Firestone Indy lights rookies

Tuesday February 24

9 a.m. – 3:45 p.m. — Firestone Indy lights

4 p.m. – 10 p.m. — IndyCar Series

Wednesday February 25

4 p.m. – 10 p.m. — IndyCar Series

For a complete entrant list you can click below
Firestone Indy lights participant list
IndyCar Series participant list

This test is open to the public and is free of charge to attend.  Viewing is from the club level seats of the grandstands only and free popcorn and hotdogs will be served.

Well, it would seem that my speculations on this recent posting were correct.  Firestone held a private test for the Firestone Indy lights on the 2.034 mile 11 turn road course at Palm Beach International Raceway on January 26th and 27th.  Among the teams that tested were Genoa Lights with Richard Phillipe, Sam Schmidt Motorsports with Charlie Kimball and Ana Beatriz, and Panther Racing with Pippa Mann and Martin Plowman.  The teams were turning in times around the 1 minute 7 second range on the new road course which was just recently completed in the later half of 2008.  Perhaps we will see the IndyCar Series here for testing sometime in the not so distant future.

These teams along with AFS/Andretti Green Racing drivers J.L. Hildebrand and Sebastian Saavedra will resume testing at Homestead Miami Speedway On January 28th and 29th.

It looks like the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights might have a new testing place in Southern Florida.  Palm Beach International Raceway, formerly known as Moroso Motorsports Park has completely renovated their facility.  Vision racing tested their Daytona Prototype on the old road course a week prior to the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona with John Andretti, Vitor Meira, AJ Foyt IV, and Ed Carpenter behind the wheel a year ago.  The new 2.034-mile, 11-turn, 6/10t -mile straightaway road course is boasting to have some of the fastest and most challenging corners, elevation changes and straightaways offered by any track in North America.  It makes sense since their are not many places in the country where the IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights can test in the winter.  I am thinking this will be the potential replacement for Sebring this off season.  The road course is still currently waiting FIA approval.  This might be the second test location other than Homestead Miami Speedway.  According to Homestead Miami Speedway’s web-site The IndyCar Series is set to test there February 23-26.

Video of Kyle Petty in Daytona Prototype at the new PBIR road course