Gugelmin quickest in Friday Practice
Mauricio Gugelmin was something of a surprise Friday, outrunning a group of more heralded drivers to post the fastest speed on the first day of practice for the season-opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami.
The Brazilian racer, driving a Mercedes-powered Reynard, turned a fast lap of 192.941 mph on the 1.517-mile Metro-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex oval.
Gugelmin, looking trim after losing 40 pounds during the off-season, said, ``Today does not really mean a lot. Everybody was trying different fuel loads and other things, so we don't know who's going to be up there (in Saturday's qualifying).
``One thing, though, is that lap times tomorrow, if you want to be on the front row for Sunday, and provided the weather is pretty much the same, are going to have to be maybe a second faster.''
Alex Zanardi, last year's CART Rookie of the Year, was close behind at 191.399 in a Reynard-Honda, followed by the Reynard-Ford of three-time PPG Cup champion Bobby Rahal at 191.191.
Gil de Ferran was next at 191.051 in a Reynard-Honda, while rookie Patrick Carpentier, at 190.897 in a Reynard-Mercedes, was just ahead of the 190.604 turned by defending PPG Cup champion Jimmy Vasser's Reynard-Honda.
There have been some big changes since the Indy-car series ran its inaugural Homestead race a year ago.
For one thing, the four squared turns on the slightly-banked oval, have been widened in the interest of safety.
Also, CART has changed its rules since last year in an effort to slow down the cars, reducing the air pressure to the turbocharger by five inches - an estimated 50-100 horsepower - and requiring smaller rear wings, meaning the cars have less stability in the turns.
``Any time the track's wider, it's better,'' Rahal said. ``But, passing is still very tough here.''
As for slowing down the cars, he said, ``Even with less downforce on the cars and the speedway wings, we're running just as fast as last year. The engine manufacturers have done their homework. They've found almost as much, if not more horsepower. And the tire wars (between Goodyear and Firestone) keep making the tires stickier and improving the handling, and that covers up for some of the aero loss.
``It's a never-ending battle (between the rules-makers and the teams),'' Rahal noted. ``Especially on the ovals, these are very fast cars. A lot of my competitors disagree with me, but I think that if they had not made the changes, there's no question we'd be flat out all the way around.''
Instead, the drivers are forced to at least touch the brakes in the turns this year.
``I'm using the brakes, I can tell you that,'' Gugelmin said. ``But I think we all expected to have to really use the brakes hard. Instead, you just have to touch them. Since everybody is keeping up their speed, it's making passing very difficult.''
Vasser, who began his run to his first championship by winning the Homestead race, was fast in winter testing at the track. But he said he was not disappointed by his sixth-place showing in Friday's practice.
``We're just working with the chassis,'' Vasser explained. ``Everything else is fine. There's still some fine tuning to be done.''
Michael Andretti, a former series champion who finished second in the points last year, was disappointed by the first official day of work for his new Swift-Ford race car.
An oil leak limited Andretti to five laps in the morning practice and seven in the afternoon as he wound up 14th overall at 188.844.
``That's pretty frustrating,'' he said. ``I think we'd be right up there without the problem. But the guys will get it solved tonight and we'll be quick tomorrow.''
