CART: Team Gordon Practice Notes, Japan
9 April 1999
Robby Gordon#22 Johns Manville/Panasonic/Menards Toyota-Reynard
Practice Notes/Quotes - Thursday, April 8, 1999
FIRESTONE FIREHAWK 500
Round 2 of 20 in the CART FedEx Championship Series
At Twin Ring Motegi - Motegi, Japan
Opening day in Motegi, Japan, started with a fast morning session. He was in eighth position overall, with a time of 26.026 second (an average of 214.263 mph around the Twin Ring Motegi oval). He followed with the 14 th-quickest time of the afternoon practice in his Firestone-shod Toyota-Reynard at 26.140 seconds 213.328 mph). Running with the fast group of cars from the morning practice, Gordon's afternoon session was cut short with five minutes remaining due to a water leak. The leak was especially unfortunate because it was discovered just as the team put a set of sticker tires on for a late-session speed run. Conditions were cool (54 degrees F). Gordon's morning-session time was the 13th-fastest overall for the day and less than three-tenths of a second behind defending-race winner Adrian Fernandez, who had the fastest time of the day at 24.732 (216.711 mph). Practice resumes Friday morning at 10 a.m. local time (9 p.m. EDT Thursday), with qualifying slated for 2:15 p.m. local time (1:15 a.m. EDT Friday). Race time is 1 p.m. local time Saturday (12 a.m. EDT Saturday).
ROBBY GORDON - "Very nice surprise to come out of the gate this quick and find speed immediately. We had a little push in turn four this morning due to the changing winds, but I think we did a good job of making the car better this afternoon. It's very consistent right now, which I like. It's responding to small changes and it's acting like a race car. Kenny Anderson, our new engineer, is a big part of that. He brings a ton of great input to this team, and since we've worked together in the past, things just tend to click."
MIKE HELD (Co-Owner) - "This is exactly where we want to be, Rob says the car has more to be seen, and I'm inclined to believe him! I like it when he jumps out of the car with that sly smile on his face. Things are starting to smooth out here. Hopefully qualifying holds true to practice - it's all about pac-manning forward, a little here and a little there."
KENNY ANDERSON (Race Engineer) - "What can I say, it's good to be back with Robby! We've the got the car working well just about all the way around this track and I think there is definitely more that we might have found in the last minutes of the session had the water not leak not occurred."
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