Great Friday for RLL’s Conway in Long Beach

Mike Conway’s first day back in IndyCar with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing couldn’t have gone much better.

The Englishman, driving the No. 17 blu eCigs Dallara-Honda as the third RLL entry, was second in both sessions and thus second fastest on the day behind Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Conway observed a solid grip level from this year’s Firestone street course tires thus far, compared to 2012’s.

“Generally the grip feels very good this weekend,” he said. “We are yet to try the reds of course and there are some differences, and we’ll have to adjust for that.”

Immediately he has begun to gel with the rest of the RLL squad, teammates Graham Rahal and James Jakes and their engineers Gerry Hughes and Eddie Jones, respectively.

“It’s great to have, as even just after first session we were close,” said Conway. “We have different styles per corner. Graham is good in 1-2, James in other corners, and we really push off each other and learn.”

For now the race is a one-off with RLL, but Conway is optimistic of other races that don’t conflict with his FIA World Endurance Championship schedule. Conway races an LMP2 class Oreca 03 Nissan for the G-Drive by Delta-ADR squad.

“I think it’s possible; we just have to work on this weekend first, and get a good result,” he said. “WEC is all confirmed and is going ahead. There are races we can do – I think the rest of street courses at least – as I think there is only one conflict.”

Indeed, the only potential conflict between WEC and an IndyCar street race is the weekend of August 31 and Sept. 1. WEC races in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with IndyCar in Baltimore.