INDY RACING: Cheever turns 224 mph lap in private testing at Indianapolis

    INDIANAPOLIS, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001 - Eddie Cheever Jr.
completed 102 laps in the first of a two-day private test Oct. 30 at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, turning in a fast lap of 224.032 mph as the
team worked on a lengthy checklist of projects.
    "The last time we were here, we were doing some tests for
Dallara, for their wind tunnel," 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Cheever
said. "This time we came out and tried some things on the setup and did
some work on the Infiniti engine, and tomorrow or the day after we will
do our second and last 500 (mile) simulation. We had one successful one
about two months ago, so this is a progression of that.
    "In the racing season, it's very hard to test something in a
cold and logical manner because you've got competition going on. You've
got to go to the next practice session, and I'm not in the mood to try
bizarre setups, whereas here we've tried a few things."
    In contrast to the plan for day two of the test, most of
Cheever's test runs in the #51 Cheever Indy Racing
Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone were very short, focused on improving the
rev-limiter performance in the Infiniti engine. Cheever cited Kelley
Racing and engine builder Ilmor's success with their rev limiter program
in the Oldsmobile engine in 2001 and said Infiniti plans to emulate that
success in 2002.
    "Our rev limiter was very bad all year," he said. "So we changed
systems. We're trying to use the Magneti Marelli, and this is the first
time we did that. We were behind them (Oldsmobile) a lot on how we ran
the rev limiter, so hopefully we'll be able to get that extra 50 or 60
revs, and they seem to be working."
    Cheever confirmed that Cheever Indy Racing likely will field a
second car in the 2002 Indy Racing Northern Light Series season. The
team recently announced that Red Bull energy drink will be a major
sponsor for Cheever Indy Racing in 2002.
    "We will run a second car," Cheever said, "we're 99 percent
sure. We will start testing some drivers probably 10 days from now. We
have a list of eight, and we will narrow it down to five."