Pippa Mann took the high road during a manufacturer test Sept. 24 at Auto Club Speedway in preparation for the season-ending MAVTV 500 INDYCAR World Championships on Oct. 19.
Mann will make her fourth start of the season in the No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing car with primary sponsorship from Cyclops Gear. It will be her first race at the 2-mile D-shaped oval with 14 degrees of banking in the turns.
“I think we made quite a deal of progress during the test day from when we unloaded with the car, and also with me as a driver,” said Mann, who has driven this season in races on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Pocono Raceway plus the 1.5-mile, high-banked Texas Motor Speedway.
“Typically, whenever I’ve raced on big D-shaped tracks you’re always trying to get the car down low, toward the white line. At Auto Club Speedway, I was having to get a little more comfortable with the cushion (SAFER Barrier). It was a learning experience, and I think I got a lot better as the day went on.”
In last year’s season finale at the track, the high line was preferred by race winner Ed Carpenter and a few others. During the test, all 23 cars were experimenting with running high and low.
“It’s definitely going to be a very long and interesting race,” Mann continued. “Everybody wants the same piece real estate and everybody wants the real estate at the top of the track. So now it’s when your car gets up there it’s making your car work underneath that lane so you can pass people. We had good handling at the test, and now our challenge will be to make the car work in lane three as well on race day.”
The test was a first outside of the extended practice sessions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race for Mann, who appreciated the opportunity to get in laps before the race weekend. She’ll join Justin Wilson, who sits fourth in the championship standings, at Dale Coyne Racing for the event.
“I don’t expect us to qualify right up front as we spent all of our time focusing on having really good race cars,” said Mann, a former Firestone Indy Lights race winner who posted her best IZOD IndyCar Series finish (15th) at Pocono in July. “When the sun goes down and the race starts heating up, that’s when you’ll see our cars start to come into their own.”
Newgarden reunited with 'good luck' charm
Before the Grand Prix of Baltimore on Labor Day weekend, Josef Newgarden participated in a photo shoot with a kitten to support "Show Your Soft Side" -- a Baltimore-based anti-animal abuse campaign.
Newgarden, 22, went on to record his first IZOD IndyCar Series podium finish in the No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car. He credited the kitten as the good luck charm behind his second-place finish, and a few weeks later submitted an adoption application to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter.
He took delivery of the kitten, renamed Simba, in his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., this week.
Mazda Road to Indy to host Griffis Memorial Test at Barber
The third Chris Griffis Memorial Mazda Road to Indy Open Test will take place Dec. 9-10 at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.
The outing, which attracted more than 50 drivers last year, offers teams in the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Indy Lights the opportunity to audition drivers and gain a head start on their 2014 campaigns.
The event is named in honor of Chris Griffis, a longtime member of the open-wheel racing community who was an accomplished mechanic turned team manager and led the Sam Schmidt Motorsports Indy Lights organization before passing away in September 2011.
Of note
IZOD IndyCar Series race winner Mike Conway will compete in the Scirocco R China Masters Challenge on Nov. 14-17 -- a special race to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Macau Grand Prix. Conway won the race in 2006.