Conquest Racing heads to this week's second 'transition' test at Homestead-Miami Speedway in confident mood, having completed a satisfying first IndyCar Series session at Sebring last week.
Despite having only just committed to purchasing a second Panoz DP01, the team is one of six expected to make the conversion from Champ Car to IndyCar this season and enjoyed a productive first outing with the IRL's mandatory Dallara-Honda package on Sebring's road course with rookies Franck Perera and Enrique Bernoldi at the wheel.
After a gruelling few weeks, in which there were plenty of long days and short nights as they worked to prepare both cars for the hastily-arranged test, the initial mission was accomplished when Perera and Bernoldi rolled out on-track.
The opening day of two may not have gone quite as expected for the Indianapolis-based squad, but the end result was nonetheless satisfying, as Atlantic Series graduate Perera recorded the third-quickest time of the day, just half a second off of the absolute pace. Bernoldi didn't turn as many laps, but was still able to shake his car down before getting more mileage under his belt on day two.
“I'm happy to say that we've accomplished our first goal, which was to be at Sebring," team owner Eric Bachelart admitted. "We were a little bit behind on day one but, as of now, we are right on-schedule with everything and have met our self-imposed deadline.
“We had a really good test, ran many miles without any problems and gained a lot of knowledge that will help us with our preparation for St Petersburg in a couple of weeks.
“I want to give credit to the group of guys working in this team who have done an outstanding job to get us here. Unfortunately, the first day was a little short for us because we received some last-minute, defective parts that serve to attach the dampers to the car, so we spent time resolving that issue but, once we took to the track, Franck was quickly up-to-speed in only a few laps.
"Enrique wasn't as fortunate and didn't get as much track time, but I'm pleased with his performance as it was his first test with us. He just fit right in with everyone and was very easy to work with. More importantly, though, both our drivers ran competitive times and were very closely-matched. Now we can focus on our oval preparation.”
Bernoldi, who was making his first appearance aboard the #36 Opes Prime machine following his defection from Rocketsports, eventually proved to be the faster of the two Conquest drivers.
![Enrique Bernoldi will race for Rocketsports Racing in the Champ Car World Series in 2008 [Pic credit: Fernanda Freixosa]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/404271.jpg)
