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Indy Lights: Mears Recovers in St. Louis PM Practice

16 September 2000

        ST. LOUIS, Mo. (June 15, 2000) - - Casey Mears showed how to make a
proverbial mountain into a mole hill when he claimed the fourth fastest
time in Friday afternoon's Indy Lights practice session at Gateway
International Raceway. Friday afternoon's practice was the second practice
of the Motorola 300 race weekend in preparation for round 10 of the 12-race
Dayton Indy Lights Championship on Sunday.

        Mears, of Bakersfield, Calif., turned a fast lap around Gateway's
1.27-mile oval in 0.29:858 = 152.125 mph. Scott Dixon, of New Zealand, was
fastest at 0.29:252 = 156.297 mph.

        Mears' lap was distinguished because of the team’s ability to
completely repair severe front left wheel, suspension, and an assortment of
other damages suffered by Mears' Dorricott Racing/Sooner Trailer Lola in a
practice session crash during the morning session.

        "We returned to the springs we had in testing and the results were
obvious," said Mears. "We loosened the car too much in the morning
practice. We're where we should be after missing a practice. We're behind
but not by much. It's more a factor of track time at the moment. We'll have
tomorrow morning's practice to catch up to the rest. Now we can begin fine
tuning the car for the race."

        Jason Bright, of Gold Coast, Australia, stepped up his pace with
the sixth quickest lap in 0.29:951 = 152.649 mph. Townsend Bell, of Costa
Mesa, Calif., and his DirecPC Lola was close behind in eighth place at
0.30:199 = 151.396 mph.

        "We still have a lot of understeer in the car but we did turn it on
for one lap," said Bright. "I think I'm still easing into the oval
techniques but the times are going to be there for our car. We should make
up a lot of time between now and tomorrow's qualifying."

        The 30-minute session began on schedule at 2:00 p.m. (CT) under
partly cloudy but sunny skies and 76 degrees. Dixon was the fastest river
throughout the practice. There was one yellow flag issued with 10 minutes
remaining in the session for debris on the back straight-away.