Mutoh will make his debut in Super Aguri Panther’s No. 55 Indy Pro Car by starting in the third position with a top time of 28.7181 seconds, 186.154 mph. His effort means Panther’s IPS team will have started Top Five in 10 of its 13 career races in the series. During a dominant 2003 season, then-driver Mark Taylor won seven races and collected four pole positions.
The XM Satellite Radio Indy 300 will be broadcast live tomorrow at 8 p. m. on ESPN2, with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network. Coverage can also be heard on XM IndyCar Series Racing Channel 145 and XM Sports Nation Channel 144.
Vitor Meira:
“I’m excited for the race because the balance of our Delphi Panther car is so good. In qualifications, I think we missed a little bit on the gears. I had to shift and I know that hurt my time. I knew I would be close to the Top Ten, but we never take everything out of the car. I’m ready to start the season. This is going to be fun tomorrow. ”
Kosuke Matsuura:
“It’s the first race of the year and the car is improving everytime I run. I am not happy about my starting position but I am confident about our race setup so I am not worried. I am looking forward to the race tomorrow. “
Hideki Mutoh:
“Before qualifying session started, I was only thinking about following the qualifying procedures and getting used to the night time qualifying setting so when I got out of the car and saw #55 at the top of the timing list I got excited. I started to hope that I get to start from pole position so it’s little disappointing that I went down to 3rd but I think it is good for me since it makes me more motivated to do better tomorrow. My starting position is still good and I would like to continue learning the oval track. And if I could move up the position then that would be great. “
Panther Tracks: Both Panther Racing and primary sponsor Delphi are entering their 10th season in the IndyCar Series …. Panther Race Engineer Bill Pappas was an Engineer with Juan Pablo Montoya when he won the Indianapolis 500 in 2000. Pappas joined Panther after spending the past seven seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing. During his tenure there, Pappas engineers cars that led the Indy 500 in every race from 2000-2004, and also engineered 2002 pole winner Bruno Junqueira … Matsuura’s Race Engineer Brent “Woody” Harvey helped engineer former Panther driver Mark Taylor to the Indy Pro Series Championship in 2003, when the team won seven of the 11 races in which they competed … Panther has a total of 15 IndyCar Series victories and seven Indy Pro Series victories …. Panther Racing won back-to-back IRL Championships in 2001 & 2002 and the Indy Pro Series Championship in 2003 … A total of twelve drivers have started a race for Panther: Sam Hornish Jr. (44), Tomas Scheckter (33), Scott Goodyear (30), Vitor Meira (14), Tomas Enge (14), Townsend Bell (11), Buddy Lazier (6), Mark Taylor (6), Dave Steele (2), Dan Wheldon (2), Billy Boat (1) and Robby McGehee (1).
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