I had the pleasure to go down and drive the car at Sebring, Johnson said. To learn that racetrack and to learn a new car was certainly a challenge and Andy [Pilgrim] and Lawson [Aschenbach] have been great working with me. Working with Pratt & Miller has been a pleasure too.
Its been a great experience, and Im definitely learning the limits of the car today. I spun out and took out one of those [temporary] barriers on the back stretch, so Ive learned the limit of the brakes.
Despite one being a tube frame, carbureted car on slicks and the other being a heavily-modified street car on DOT-approved Toyo tires, Johnson said the SPEED GT Cadillac is remarkably similar to his more familiar Nextel Cup car.
It out-performs the Cup car in the braking zone, Johnson said. But when you turn in, the power down side of it and the way the car maneuvers through the corners is very similar. That was the thing that shocked me the most the first time I drove it at Sebring is that it drives a lot like a Cup car.
The test, which ran off and on for some eight hours Monday until 9 p. m., was not only an opportunity for teams to work on setups for the single-day event in May, but for series officials to sample several different configurations of the back stretch chicane.
The track configuration that will be utilized, rain or shine, in May saw the most use, with nearly five hours of running time, including the final one hour, 15 minute session under the full Lowes Motor Speedway lights.
Unofficially, Andy Pilgrim turned the fastest lap in that configuration in his No. 8 XM/Mobil 1/Motorola/Bose Cadillac CTS-V at 112.978 mph (47.797 seconds). Lou Gigliotti was just a tick behind in his No. 28 LG Pro Long Tube Headers Chevrolet Corvette at 112.879 mph (47.839 seconds).
Johnson, who won his second-straight Nextel Cup race in Atlanta on Sunday, was third in his No. 48 Cadillac at 111.783 mph (48.308 seconds), followed by K-PAX Racing Porsche 911 GT-3 teammates Randy Pobst (111.575 mph) and Michael Galati (111.423 mph).
SCCA Pro Racings SPEED World Challenge GT Championship next visits the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach April 13-15. Before returning the Lowes Motor Speedway on May 24, the series will also travel to Miller Motorsports Park, in Tooele, Utah, May 17-19.
The series began its 2007 season last Friday as part of the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.
Unofficial combined session times from Mondays SCCA Pro Racing SPEED World Challenge GT Championship test day at Lowes Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile modified oval, with position, car number in parenthesis, driver, car, fastest time and speed in miles-per-hour.
1, (8), Andy Pilgrim, Cadillac CTS-V, 47.797, 112.978 mph.
2, (28), Lou Gigliotti, Chevrolet Corvette, 47.839, 112.879.
3, (48), Jimmie Johnson, Cadillac CTS-V, 48.308, 111.783.
4, (22), Randy Pobst, Porsche 911 GT-3, 48.398, 111.575.
5, (23), Michael Galati, Porsche 911 GT-3, 48.464, 111.423.
6, (30), Eric Curran, Chevrolet Corvette, 48.479, 111.388.
7, (21), Stu Hayner, Pontiac GTO, 48.766, 110.733.
8, (1), Lawson Aschenbach, Cadillac CTS-V, 49.030, 110.137.
9, (05), Jason Daskalos (R), Dodge Viper, 49.272, 109.596.
10, (5), Tommy Archer, Dodge Viper, 49.337, 109.451.
11, (87), Doug Peterson, Chevrolet Corvette, 49.598, 108.875.
12, (99), Jeff Courtney, Dodge Viper, 49.674, 108.709.
13, (13), Brian Smith, Dodge Viper, 49.798, 108.438.
14, (6), Jeffrey Robbins (R), Dodge Viper, 49.931, 108.149.
15, (20), Dane Moxlow (R), Pontiac GTO, 50.041, 107.912.
16, (34), Tony Kester, Chevrolet Corvette, 50.074, 107.840.
17, (12), Brian Kubinski (R), Chevrolet Corvette, no time on this configuration.
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