It was not a very productive day for the KV Racing Technology Aussie Vineyards-Team Australia guys," he sighed, "There were a lot of yellows this afternoon, and then the rain came, so we didn't get the track time we needed. That put us back a bit. There were also a lot of cars running around in tows today, so it is really hard to get a feel for what speeds people are actually running. It is going to be very interesting tomorrow.
Rookie Alex Lloyd, making his first IndyCar appearance, was one place behind Power, but was involved in one of two on-track incidents that interrupted the day. The #16 car run by Rahal Letterman Racing on behalf of the Ganassi team spun in Turn One and made heavy contact with the SAFER Barrier. Lloyd was taken to, and remained at, Methodist Hospital for observation until the early evening, but X-rays of his neck showed no fractures.
Fellow debutant Mario Dominguez joined Lloyd on the sidelines after spinning the #96 Pacific Coast Motorsports cars exiting pit-lane. The Mexican made light contact with the inside wall, but was uninjured.
I am really disappointed," he admitted, "I was returning to the track for our second full run, and exited too fast coming out of the pits. I lost the rear of the car and crashed into the inside wall. I got a few laps at speed, and this is so unfortunate as we were on the way to making our car better. Everyone is telling me to keep my patience, but we are already behind, and I guess I was trying to rush it back out there.
Some 33 cars racked up 1033 laps on a day sliced in half by further rain for the third consecutive day.
I guess Mother Nature is just not co-operating with us this week," two-time winner Castroneves commented, "It's too bad we couldn't run more today. I would have liked to have done a few more things out there, but I still think we're in good shape for tomorrow. I'm not concerned with the other drivers' speeds today, because I think a lot of them were getting tows. It'll be interesting to see who has what during qualifying tomorrow."
For others, however, the rain break came at just the wrong time.
We were really unlucky," rookie Ernesto Viso sighed, "We just went out there for a couple of laps, came to the garage to do a couple of trimmings to go out and look for a reasonable time, and then the water came down....
