There was little to show for Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s trip to Texas Motor Speedway a couple of weeks ago, but Long Beach could be a happier hunting ground after a solid opening to the weekend from the team’s three cars.
Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey finished Friday practice session 10th- and 12-fastest respectively, while Graham Rahal spent most of the afternoon inside the top 10 before dropping back to 16th on his second set of tires.
“I kind of felt coming into the weekend that our street circuit car was showing potential at St. Pete, so I was pretty optimistic, honestly, about what we can achieve this weekend,” Harvey told RACER.
“Compared to other weekends, we’ve unloaded with that speed and it’s just come a little easier than it has at some other races. Straight away, I looked down and thought, ‘Oh, that’s not a bad lap,’ and I think there’s still quite a bit more to come.
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“On the No. 30 car we’re just chasing a little bit of rear stability, but I think the track will rubber in and perhaps give us that. So tonight we’ll sit down and figure out how much or how little we want to do.”
Friday’s running was defined in part by much cooler conditions than the IndyCar field has dealt with at Long Beach over the last couple of years; the ambient temperatures in the 80s and 90s of the recent past making way for conditions in the low 60s. Saturday is forecast to be cooler still, and one of RLL’s priorities overnight will be ensuring its performance won’t be adversely affected.
“One thing we need to do tomorrow is try to activate the tire a little sooner,” Harvey said. “That’s probably going to be our biggest focus overnight (because of the cooler temperatures). It’s something we’ve struggled with before; just trying to activate the tires quick enough. The Andretti cars are very good at that. It’s just something we have to try to figure out tonight – see if we can put the energy into the tires a bit sooner. But I think we’re in pretty good shape.”
