Panther Racing drivers Vitor Meira and Kosuke Matsuura completed the first full day of practice Thursday for the upcoming Bombardier Learjet 550k, and the team is now prepared for Friday’s practice and qualifications. Meira led the team during practice, where he finished with the tenth quickest practice time of the day.
The race will be held Saturday evening at Texas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile oval where Panther Racing has been victorious on five occasions.
Meira ran a quick lap of 211.912 mph, 24.7178 seconds, while Matsuura’s fastest was 211.147 mph, 24.8074 seconds – good enough for 15th on the day.
The Bombardier Learjet 550k will be broadcast live Saturday evening at 10 p. m. (EST) on ESPN2, with additional coverage provided by the IMS Radio Network and XM Satellite Radio channels 144 and 145.
Vitor Meira:
“The car is good. We had a little bit of a push early in the first session but we had that sorted by the evening practice. It’s great to know that the Delphi car is going to be racy and Saturday night should be a lot of fun. We’ll see how we end up tomorrow in qualifications but I don’t think it will be a huge deal. At Texas, it’s all about your race setup and who is prepared for over 200 laps. I know Panther will be. ”
Kosuke Matsuura:
“The Panasonic team is still working on the car. The car is pushing quite a lot. We changed some of the springs, but it didn’t help so much. We went back on the setting and the car got a little better, but we didn’t have enough practice time today to try everything we wanted. We still have practice tomorrow to get it sorted. The guys are working hard and we’ll get it figured out before the race. ”
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