Callum Ilott doesn’t have a full-time ride in the NTT IndyCar Series for 2024. He is making the most of his opportunity filling in for the injured David Malukas at Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team by showing his pure speed.
Ilott was the fastest driver in Saturday morning’s test session at The Thermal Club with a lap time of 1:38.7784 in the No. 6 Chevrolet. Two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing was second in the No. 10 Honda at 1:38.8308.
Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was third in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda at 1:39.0659 followed by Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin’s 1:39.0716 in the No. 3 Chevrolet.
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five at 1:39.1191 in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
It was the third IndyCar Series test session on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course at The Thermal Club in Thermal, California. The 2-hour-15-minute session ran from 9 p.m. to 11:15 a.m. Pacific Time (12 noon to 2 p.m. ET).
It was the second of two days of testing before IndyCar’s first All-Star event since the Marlboro Challenge at Nazareth Raceway in Pennsylvania on Oct. 3, 1992. It is also the first non-points race on the IndyCar schedule since the Nikon Indy 300 at Surfer’s Paradise, Queensland, Australia on Oct. 26, 2008.
The Thermal Club is a private community for the ultra-rich near Palm Springs, Calif. Many of its members are motorsports enthusiasts and was the home to last year’s IndyCar Preseason Open Test.
The session included three red flags, which extended the session by an additional 15 minutes.
The first was when part of the pavement in the exit of turn five began to break loose with 1 hour, 45 minutes left in the first test session. Josef Newgarden of Team Penske ran over it with his Chevrolet. Colton Herta’s Honda also hit the crumbling pavement before IndyCar officials halted the session to tend to the area.
IndyCar and the AMR Safety Crew arrived at the area while Andretti Global crew members assessed the damage on Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda.
“I’m not sure what that was,” Herta said. “I’d like to get back out there. They might have a little piece to repair (on the car), but it shouldn’t be too bad.
“We haven’t gotten to do much yet, today. We will see some big lap times once people put new tires on. It should be fast this morning, so we are looking forward to that.”
The session was halted until 10:05 a.m. Pacific Time (1:05 p.m. ET). The test session was extended an additional 15 minutes.
Key Quotes From Drivers
During the downtime, several drivers talked about the importance of the two-day test culminating with Sunday’s $1 Million Challenge.
“This is a cool weekend for us, a different look for the fans,” Newgarden said. “It’s more of a two-day test and a race shootout at the finish. We get to work on things that typically we work on with more track time that people don’t get to see. I hope people enjoy the insight. We want to be fast so we can race well on Sunday.
“It’s hugely important. Whenever you get this kind of track time, you want to utilize it as much as possible. It’s precious when you get it. For us, we want to be outside the box of a normal race weekend. On a weekend like this with more track time, you can take the risk and try some new things or confirm some of the things that you got right or didn’t get right from previous seasons.”
In addition to winning the season-opening race at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 10, Newgarden is also the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner.
Newgarden and the other drivers in the $1 Million Challenge don’t have to worry about points because this is a race for cash that doesn’t pay points.
First place pays $500,000.
“This weekend, it’s full-on,” Newgarden said. “There’s no points, but still a lot of pride. How you do this weekend still counts for later in the year.
“We want to get it done.
“Enjoy the show.”
Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing has been the fastest all weekend as the two-time and reigning IndyCar Series champion attempts to maintain his advantage.
“We had lots of information Friday and take all the opportunities we had to test to make big changes and we’ll do the same today,” Palou said. “It’s still a road course and you can get some big ideas from Barber Motorsports and other places.
“Now, we are focusing on Thermal and trying to get the best we can here. Qualifying will be important, but the All-Star race will be important with tire deg. We have to keep the same tire for 20 laps so it will depend on where you are, how aggressive you have to be or not.
“I’ll race hard, for sure. It’s a lot of money, but more the feeling you have when you win a race. That’s the feeling I’m looking for.”
Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing can benefit from additional seat time as a rookie driver in IndyCar. He completed 99 laps out of 100 at St. Petersburg after he had a car issue that kept him on pit lane when the race was started. He was able to continue in the race, but one lap down.
“I’m used to winning all through my career, so this is a change of pace, but I’m confident we are going to get there in IndyCar,” Rasmussen said. “It will be a work in progress, but I think we can get there.
“Once we get better, we will be racing Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and all of those guys.”
Rasmussen credited his relationship with teammate Rinus VeeKay as well as owner/driver Ed Carpenter for helping him adapt from the Indy NXT Championship to becoming an IndyCar rookie.
Nolan Siegel is a 19-year-old Indy NXT driver from Palo Alto, Calif. making his first IndyCar start with Dale Coyne Racing.
“It’s high pressure in the sense it’s my first IndyCar race and a lot on the line, but there are no expectations either,” Siegel said. “I had one day in the car and my goal is to learn as much as I can. The result will go with that, and I will learn as much as we can going into Long Beach.
“The testing is huge for me. On Friday, I doubled my time in an Indy car. It’s helpful to have so much track time for me to learn going into my first race. Through the Road to Indy, I have gotten to know so many IndyCar drivers. People have given me advice. It’s tough to set a results-based expectation, but right now I have no idea where I’m at.”
After the pavement was repaired, the test resumed at 10:05 a.m. local time.
The second Red Flag was for Romain Grosjean, who went off course in Turn 15. The Juncos Hollinger Racing driver complained of a brake issue.
The track went back to green at 10:23 a.m. PT.
“People are trying to be quick right now, but in our next session we are going to have push-to-pass and that will really give us an idea of what to expect on Sunday,” Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin said.
At 10:31 a.m., the third red flag waved for Andretti Global driver Kyle Kirkwood, who went off course in turn eight, making some hard contact in turn eight briefly launching off the ground.
“I’ve been losing time to my teammates the past day and a half through Turn 8 and haven’t figured out why,” Kirkwood said. “I decided to send it the and the car snapped on me. I could have gone back out, but better to be safe than sorry.
“Unfortunate end to a good new tire run, but it’s OK. We are faster than we were yesterday and making improvements.”
The track was green flagged nine minutes later and the test continued. Herta complained that parts of the track surface were coming up in other areas of the track. IndyCar officials will tend to those areas during the two-hour break between test sessions.
Another two-hour session is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Qualifications for the $1 Million Challenge are set for 8 p.m. ET.