2005 Testing Begins

The Indy cars make their inaugural resting runs today on the 2.21 mile Homestead/Miami road course. The road course uses the front and back stretches of the 1.5 mile oval track with several right and left turns on the road course which wends its way around the infield lake.

This is the day that 20 drivers anxiously get acclimated to their rides for the upcoming 17 event 2005 season. This year the IRL will take to the track on two road courses and a temporary street course, along with 14 oval track events. The Homestead/Miami and Watkins Glen tracks are on the schedule for the road course events, with St. Petersburg, Florida offering up its streets for the Formula 1 style street course event. Teams will test on the road course today and tomorrow, switching over to the oval track Friday in preparation for the season opener in March. If you live in the Miami, Florida area, observing the testing at the track is free, stop in and watch these speed demons do their thing!

Recent news that Tomas Enge will pilot Panther racing's second entry in the #2 Dallera/Chevy brings the total of new drivers up to three for the new season. Enge will join veteran open wheel racer Patrick Carpentier and former Toyota Atlantic star Danica Patrick as series rookies in 2005. Carpentier, who has been a top name in open wheel racing news for many years, will pilot the #83 Red Bull Cheever Racing's Dallera/Toyota while the female star Patrick will pilot the #16 Panoz G-Force/Honda.

I've decided to shut this article down on the news side and get technical for a bit. I need to get the IRL fans that are new to this game a little information to help them understand some of the abbreviations in the IndyCar stats. Okay, we see this listed on our stats page: #3 Helio Castroneves - D/T/F - Marlboro Team Penske.

The "D" means Dallera, as in Dallera chassies. You may also see a "P" or a "G" listed there too, as an abbreviation for the Panoz G-Force chassis.

The "T" represents the Toyota engine, as the "C" is for the Chevy engine and the "H" stands for the Honda powerplant. As far as I know from previous news reports, this will be the last season for the Chevy.

The "F" stands for Firestone tires. Firestone is the sole tire supplier for the IndyCar Series, most of us know that, but they are always listed in the stats information listings.