Bathgate’s Dario Franchitti immediately showed his intentions of adding a second Indy500 win when he topped the timesheets for much of the opening day of practice at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Superspeedway.
The 36-year-old Scot, who won America’s Blue Riband event in 2007, set the early pace in his Target Ganassi car. Franchitti clocked a series of laps in excess of 226mph, almost 2mph above the 2009 pole speed.
“It was really encouraging to produce times and speeds like that straight out of the box,” the Scot, admitted today. “We’ve a got time now to make sure we can improve even further ahead of qualifying this weekend.”
Franchitti though was edged off the top slot late in the day when Helio Castroneves averaged 226.603mph on a late lap in his Penske, setting a fastest time of 39.7170secs, just 0.0120s ahead of the Scot.
While Franchitti had to content himself with second place, his Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon was third, 0.0643s behind last year’s winner Castroneves, with England’s Dan Wheldon fourth. Qualifying for the May 30 race is scheduled for this Saturday.
JM