Ed Carpenter Racing team-mates JR Hildebrand and Spencer Pigot completed a one-day test at Sonoma Raceway as the team continue to prepare themselves for the start of the new Verizon IndyCar Series season, which begins next month around the streets of St Petersburg.
Hildebrand, who returns to full-time IndyCar racing this season for the first time since leaving Panther Racing mid-way through the 2013 season, and Pigot, who returns to the team for all of the road and street course races in place of team owner Ed Carpenter, completed a productive test around the Californian circuit.
“It feels great to be here,” said Hildebrand. “I grew up racing here, grew up watching races here and went through the whole system; pretty much everything I’ve ever raced, I’ve raced here at some point.
“This is our first road course test of the season, so it’s a nice familiar place for us to be doing that, and it’s one of the most difficult tracks on our schedule so it’s a great place for us to be collecting a bit of data.”
Pigot, the 2015 Indy Lights champion who made his IndyCar debut with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing at St Petersburg at the beginning of 2016 and switched to Ed Carpenter Racing for the Dual in Detroit at the beginning of June, had his first drive in an IndyCar this season after sitting out the recent two-day test at the Phoenix International Raceway as he will not compete in the oval races.
“It’s been a while since we were here and it’s been since September since I drove the car, so I’m excited to be back in an Indy car and so far, so good,” said Pigot. “We had a really productive morning, and we’ve been sticking to our test plan, which we spent a lot of time going over before we got here in order to maximize our day.”
