CHAMPCAR/CART: Mid-Ohio Friday Morning Report

Lexington, OH (August 7, 1998) - Brian Herta set set the fastest lap in this morning's practice session at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. His lap of 1:07.081 and 121.179 mph was just a mile and a half slower than his pole speed from last year.

All American Racers have debuted their 1998 Eagle 987 chassis this morning. Alex Barron set the 28th fastest time with the new chassis this morning recording a lap at 1:09.777, almost a full second faster than his teammate in the Reynard. After preliminary shake downs at Elkhart Lake and Putnam Park, the Eagle gave promising indications that it is ready to fly. "Our very first tests, at which Alex Barron established an unofficial track record at Putnam Park, are very encouraging," said team owner Dan Gurney.

"We feel that our best bet right now, ready or not, is to run it at Mid-Ohio and see how it compares in combat."

Payton Coyne Racing will run Gualter Salles in the SmithKline Beecham-sponsored Reynard Ford for this weekend. Salles was 31st fastest out of the 36 cars that practiced this morning.

Qualifying for the CART teams gets underway at 2:30 this afternoon with the field broken down into two groups. The fastest qualifiers from the last road course event, at Toronto, will qualify in the first group. The fastest qualifiers from Friday will qua lify in the second group on Saturday.

In the Atlantic division, Memo Gidley set fastest time while David Besnard was fastest in the US-FF2000 cars in their morning sessions.