Dan Wheldon set for Mid-Ohio

England's Dan Wheldon is all set for this weekend's eighth round of the 2001 CART Dayton Indy Lights Championship which is being held at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in support of the CART FedEx Champ Car World Series race.

On Tuesday this week PacWest Indy Lights drivers Dan Wheldon and Mario Dominguez ran a one-day test at the GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, Michigan. PacWest and Conquest Racing were the only Indy Lights teams testing on the 1.88-mile road course in preparation for Sunday's race at Mid-Ohio. 23-year old Wheldon completed about 200 miles in his Gemstar Communications PacWest Racing Lola-Buick, posting an overall quickest time of 1 minute 10.89 seconds. Wheldon's PacWest team-mate, Mexican Mario Dominguez, set a best time of 1 minute 11.80 seconds.

After the test session, Dan wheldon commented: "We had the Mid-Ohio race in mind all day, and really had a great test. Everything we worked on centred around this weekend's race and we made some changes to the car that we think we'll need in Ohio. It's good to get back in the seat after a three-week layoff but, because I've kept in great shape, I don't feel rusty at all. My car handled well all day and we were much quicker than everyone else out here - so I'm pleased with today's results. I've actually been the quickest in testing over the last few months - I just need to carry those results over to the remaining races so I can get back to winning." Back in June, Wheldon completed about 250 miles of testing at Mid-Ohio and posted the fastest time - 1 minute 15.7 seconds - around the 2.25 mile road course.

-DWR