A Day of Testing in Sonoma for IICS

Hosted by Northern California’s

 

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The IZOD IndyCar Series held a full day of testing Thursday at Infineon Raceway in anticipation of next weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Fans were invited to come out and take part in this exciting event.

After a full morning of testing, Infineon held a press conference in its Panasonic Technologies Media Center. Drivers were available for questions and photos for fans and media.

The following IndyCar Series teams and drivers were there:

• Andretti Autosport- Marco Andretti, Mike Conway
• Conquest Racing- Sebastian Saavedra
• Dreyer & Reinhold Racing- Ana Beatriz, Tomas Scheckter
• HVM Racing- Simona de Silvestro
• Newman/Haas Racing - Oriol Servia
• KV Racing Technology- Takuma Sato
• Panther Racing – JR Hildebrand
• Sam Schmidt Motorsports-Martin Plowman
• Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing-Graham Rahal
• Target Chip Ganassi Racing-Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti
• Team Penske – Will Power

Pictured below are just a few of the drivers who were in attendance

All photos courtesy of Lindi Bess

Dario Franchitti and rival Will Power    

Takuma Sato and EJ Viso

Graham Rahal, Oriol Servia and Simona de Silvestro

 
Will Power (shown above), who was fastest in Thursday's session, is the defending pole sitter and race winner at Infineon. During the press conference, Power was asked about his show of emotion during last weekend's MoveThatBlock.com Indy 225 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Power stated that he is waiting for the fine as we speak. Another driver spoke up and asked Will if he would repeat the performance and Power replied, “I can’t afford it!"

What the reporter was referring to was the two-handed gesture Power made when he found out that Brian Barnhart, IndyCar president of competition and race director, made a decision to restart the race with the track's obvious wet conditions. It was also decided by Barnhart to revert the order, giving Ryan Hunter-Reay the lead when Newman/Haas driver Oriol Servia should have been at the top of the starting order.

The decision is currently under protest by several teams. It is strongly felt that the Target Chip Ganassi and Newman/Haas Racing teams do have a legitimate case and could very well win at the Aug. 23 hearing. Servia will be trying to prove that he should be declared the winner of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway race.

In the history of IndyCar protests, teams more often lose. It was in 2002 that IndyCar heard its last protest from Team Green. The team lost their hearing, and the fight to give Paul Tracy the win instead of Helio Castroneves.

Tickets are still available for the Sonoma race, set for Sunday, Aug. 28. Don’t miss it!