After a busy morning of action on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile road course at The Thermal Club in Thermal, Calif., Alex Palou was the fastest driver during Friday’s two-hour test for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Palou’s No. 10 Honda completed a fast lap around the course at 1:39.5149 in the first session that will ultimately lead into The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge.
It was the first of two days of testing before IndyCar’s first All-Star event since the Marlboro Challenge at Nazareth (Pa.) Raceway 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, Australia on Oct. 26, 2008.
There were several minor incidents in the first multiple hours of testing, that includes another three-hour session later Friday.
Andretti Global driver Marcus Ericsson had the most visually spectacular incident when his rear brake caught on fire on his cooldown lap, giving his new crew some work to do in the break.
“We saw it on the lap, and it looks more dramatic than it is,” Ericsson explained. “We tried some different things, and we overdid it with the brake cooling. But that is why we are here. We are testing and trying out some new things.
“The transition to the team has been very good. I’m gelling with the team, and I think we have shown that with the car. We started off strong. We need to keep pushing. It’s a long season. We have two days of testing, then onto the Challenge. This track is very good for testing. With the high tire deg, it should make for some good racing.
“For testing purposes, the track is very good because it is high-speed, low speed with a lot of elevation.”
The second three-hour test session is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET.
Christian Lundgaard was the second fastest in the No. 45 Hy-Vee Honda at 1:39.6974. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver believes the tire limitation and the degradation on the track surface limits the amount of changes a team can try.
“It’s tough to learn from this because the tire deg is too high,” Lundgaard said. “The car is good. We started where we left off last year in second and we will try to find more.
“Ultimately, it all comes together. There are a lot of things that work for other tracks. If it sends us down a direction to work towards, we made progress here last year. We were fast and we are still fast.”
Chip Ganassi Racing driver Marcus Armstrong was third at 1:39.7313 in the No. 11 Honda followed by Arrow McLaren Racing’s Alexander Rossi at 1:39.7556 in the No. 7 Chevrolet. He was followed by Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward’s 1:39.9124 in the No. 5 Chevrolet.
The Thermal Club is a private community for the ultra-rich near Palm Springs, Calif.
Many of the members are automotive enthusiasts with exotic car collections and are amateur racers.