After a long off-season, Champ Car Atlantic Series stalwart Genoa Racing started the new year with a successful two-day test at Sebring with Tom Sutherland, JR Hildebrand and long-time racer Larry Connor.
Running alongside Forsythe Championship Racing and Jensen Motorsports, the team quickly got acquainted with its drivers and the conditions, working on the set-up of all three cars to prepare for the forthcoming test and race schedule. Following a productive first day, but with rain in the forecast for the following afternoon, the team got down to business early, making big gains right away and unofficially setting the fastest lap of the test with Hildebrand.
“Everything went really smoothly from the beginning,” Hildebrand noted, “I was able to work with [team manager] Thomas [Knapp] to make some big changes to the way the car handled on Sunday and our pace was quite fast for the remainder of the afternoon. It was great for me to get back in the car, so I want to thank Angelo Ferro and the Genoa team for giving me that opportunity as I work on my plans for the upcoming year.”
Sutherland finished the test just tenths behind his rival as the team continued to make improvements even as the conditions got worse.
“All the drivers did a superb job,” Knapp reported, “We were able to quickly establish communication and used our track time to excellent effect. We also wanted to use this test as a proper warm-up for the upcoming season in regards to our crew and team, so we got a lot of value out of that as well.”
![JR Hildebrand - Newman Wachs Racing [pic courtesy Champ Car Atlantic Championship]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/286212.jpg)
