Saavedra Continues to Make Progress

Topics:  Sebastian Saavedra, Indianapolis 500

Andrew Herta
Bryan Herta Autosport
May 20, 2010

Practice Summary: Saavedra turned a total of 26 laps today with a best lap of 221.849 mph.

Weather: At the start of practice at 12:00 pm, 69° F with southeast winds at 11 mph under cloudy skies. Light rain at 2:00 pm. At 3:30 pm, yellow for moisture. Intermittent rain the remainder of the afternoon.

Media Note: Bruno Junqueira turned 14 laps in the #29 car to provide feedback to the team. He turned a best lap of 222.278 mph.

Fastest Speeds of the Day:
1. Tony Kanaan 226.775 mph
2. Paul Tracy 226.322 mph
3. Hideki Mutoh 226.230 mph

Sebastian Saavedra, #29 William Rast Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “With the weather, we didn’t get to do as much as we were expecting today but there were positive things. One was Bruno [Junqueira] actually getting into the car. Not having a teammate, we wanted someone who had experience and who knows his way around here to bring this knowledge not only to me but to the team as well. What we learned is that we are going in the right direction. He felt that the setup of the car is what you want to have here and that we are in a good position to keep working for the speed as we have been doing.”

Bryan Herta, Team Co-Owner: “It was another positive day. It was a shame we didn’t get to run as much as we wanted to in the afternoon because of the on and off weather. Overall, we were able to fine tune the car a little more and find some more speed. We also want to thank Bruno [Junqueira] for hopping in and running a few laps to give us some ‘teammate’ feedback for Sebastian, which he hasn’t had. It was good to have some data to overlay. Every day we feel more encouraged.”

Roberto Guerrero [Mentoring Saavedra]: “The rain hurt us a little bit today, but I think we made a lot of progress. Putting Bruno [Junqueira] in the car was very good. He took a lot of the doubts away. The speeds that Bruno ran were in the ballpark of Sebastian’s and that is good and puts everyone at ease. We now know that the car has a good base and we can focus on making it better. We were all a little nervous about taking downforce away from the car. We are running out of time but I think we can get another two or three miles per hour and be safely in for the race.”