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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