The two drivers allowed in as interlopers to the second and final 'transition test' for those teams coming over to the IndyCar Series from Champ Car scooped the pool when it came to fastest times at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Roth Racing owner/driver Marty Roth and team-mate Jay Howard showed their familiarity with both the venue and the type of car as they recorded the two fastest times of the session, leading the best of the converts by a couple of tenths on the 1.5-mile oval that will host the season-opener this weekend.
Roth and Howard were granted track time because they did not participate in the full IndyCar Series test at Homestead in February, and joined nine drivers - Oriol Servia, Will Power, Enrique Bernoldi, Franck Perera, Bruno Junqueira, Mario Moraes, Graham Rahal, Justin Wilson and Ernesto Viso - attempting to bridge the gap between America's two open-wheel disciplines in time for Saturday's curtain-raiser.
Servia topped the migrating drivers with a lap timed at 25.4360secs, but trailed Roth's 25.1200secs effort. The Canadian, regarded by many as a backmarker in the IndyCar Series after only sporadic appearances over the last few years, got closer than many expected to Homestead specialist Dan Wheldon's 25.0619secs best from the February group test, providing a little extra confidence for the transitioning teams.
“It would be tough even if we would have made the move in October,” KV Racing Technology's Servia said of the steep learning curve faced by the converts, “There's nothing really to compare with the old Homestead [
which had six degrees of banking]. In my head, [the current 18-20-degree variably-banked version] feels more like Fontana and Michigan – high banking, lot of speed, full throttle when you have new tyres. We're learning so much with the car, but the race weekend is here soon. We don't have much time.”
![Marty Roth - Roth Racing [pic credit: IRL/McQueeney]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/291070.jpg)
