First Reynard 2002 Champ car takes to the track.

The first new Reynard 2002 Champ Car took to the track this week, with Paul Tracy driving the Team KOOL Green Reynard Honda at Sebring road course.

Tracy completed 233 laps of the track in the initial test session by the team in preparation for next season's FedEx Championship Series.

Reynard has been developing its new chassis for over six months and, although Series Organisers, CART, has mandated a 'chassis freeze' until 2003, the company has been able to make a number of subtle modifications for the new model, particularly in the areas of suspension and aerodynamics with all-new side pods and underfloor, in addition to the introduction of new safety features, such as the anti-intrusion panels required by the Series regulations and a strengthened chassis.

After the first day of running Reynard were pleased with the performance of the new car, with Head of Design, John Thompson, saying, "It was great to see the car running well at this early stage of testing for 2002. With the reduced boost, due to the new regulations we expected to have a comparative decrease in speed, but Tracy has been putting in some great lap times, especially as it is only the first day out on track."

KOOL Team Green Team Manager, Kyle Moyer, expressed his satisfaction with the new CART Series race car from Reynard, saying, "We really like the new Reynard 02i. One week after we took delivery of the car we had it on the track and didn't have a single failure. Reynard has paid a lot of attention to detail and made some minor changes in the aero and mechanical designs. Everything went so well mechanically on our first day of testing we were able to start adjusting the chassis a bit to make the car even faster."

Paul Tracy said after the two day test, "I like the reliability of the new car and I'm generally happy with the package. Reynard has made some improvements, and I think right off the truck this car is better than the '01 model. There are no big differences in the car, but I feel it's generally better. We still need to work hard this winter and there is still a lot of work to do, but I'm very encouraged after this test."