Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma – Sonoma Raceway
IZOD IndyCar Series
PRACTICE NOTES/QUOTES – Friday, August 24, 2012
SATO COMPLETED 19 LAPS IN PRACTICE FOR THE GOPRO INDY GRAND PRIX OF SONOMA
FASTEST: Will Power 1:18.6887 / 109.114 mph
23rd: Takuma Sato 1:20.8900 / 106.144 mph
TAKUMA SATO, No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “It was a difficult day for us. The session went well in terms of being able to go through the items we carried over from the test last week that we weren’t able to try. Overall we need to improve the balance and grip; I wasn’t particularly happy with that. Performance wise, we need to find more speed. We ran out of time in the end. We wanted to do a little bit more but hopefully tomorrow the weather will give us another consistent session and we can improve.”
5TH INDYCAR RACE AT SONOMA FOR RAHAL LETTERMAN LANIGAN RACING: The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma will mark the fifth Indy car event for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) here and first since 2008 when Ryan Hunter-Reay started 8th and finished 18th for the team. The highest start and finish for the team here is by Buddy Rice in 2005 when he started sixth and finished second. Prior to the 2012 event, the team prepared a total of 9 Indy car entries for drivers Buddy Rice (2005-2006), Vitor Meira (2005), Danica Patrick (2005-2006), Jeff Simmons (2006), Scott Sharp (2007) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (2007-2008). The team has earned one podiums (2rd – Rice 2005), 1 top-five’s and four top-10 finishes at the track. The No. 15 entry for Takuma Sato will bring the Indy car total to 10 entries in 2012.
NEXT UP: Practice will take place tomorrow from 10:50-11:50 a.m. ET and qualifying will take place from 2:30 – 3:45 p.m. Timing and Scoring information is available for all sessions from www.indycar.com. The GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma will be televised live on NBC Sports Network at 4:00 p.m. ET Sunday, August 26.