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CART: Team KOOL Green Hits the Road at Portland (Test Report)

28 April 1999

Team KOOL Green's drivers Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy travelled to Portland International Raceway for two days of road course testing last Wednesday and Thursday, where the duo covered more than 480 miles.

The only difficulties they experienced came in the form of the rain showers that brought activities to an early conclusion on Wednesday afternoon.

The test focused on developing baseline chassis set-ups for the permanent road courses on the FedEx Championship Series schedule. Working closely with Team KOOL Green director of research Tino Belli on a long list of development items, Tracy was among the fastest of about a dozen drivers participating in the test.

After turning a lap at 58.28 seconds on Wednesday, he got down to a 57.5 seconds on Thursday, a time more than eight-tenths under the track record and believed to be the fastest of the test on control tires.

Franchitti also had a productive test, bettering the track record and lapping more than two-tenths faster than his previous best at Portland with a lap at 58.2 seconds during a full tank fuel run on Thursday.

Following the test, Team KOOL Green returned to its Indianapolis headquarters to continue preparations for Round 4 of the FedEx Championship Series at Nazareth Speedway on the weekend of April 30 - May 2.

Quotes from the Portland Test:

PAUL TRACY, #26 Team KOOL Green Honda/Reynard/Firestone:

"We didn't get a lot of running on Wednesday, but our car was quick right off the truck so we were looking forward to Thursday. It turned out to be a good day. Like I said, the car was good to start with and we kept making it better. The whole team communicated real well, and we came away with a good starting set-up for the road courses. Last year we kind of struggled on the road courses, but now I think we have what we need for Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake, Portland and even Rio as the result of this test. I'm happy and the Team KOOL Green crew is happy."

DON HALLIDAY, Team KOOL Green technical director

"It was a very productive test. With the work we did with Paul and Dario, we gained quite a bit of useful information about our mechanical and aerodynamic set-ups both in qualifying and in race trim for the permanent road courses."

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