A two-day Indy Lights test session at NOLA Motorsports Park outside New Orleans has ended with ex-Formula One pilot Max Chilton atop the overall times for Carlin Racing.
Chilton set the best time of the entire test today with a 1 minute, 24.120 second blitz around the 2.75-mile, 16-turn road course. Following the Brit was Juncos Racing’s Californian, Kyle Kaiser, with a 1:24.6047, and in third was Puerto Rico’s Felix Serrales from Belardi Auto Racing with a 1:24.6562.
Serrales led Wednesday’s first day of testing at NOLA with a 1:25.0687, just ahead of Chilton’s 1:25.3107 and 2014 title runner-up Jack Harvey’s 1:25.4608.
Chilton said today that he felt a bit more at home at NOLA than he did in the recent test on the Homestead road course.
“It’s been nice to get our Carlin car built up,” said Chilton in a release. “I’m more comfortable here than I was at Homestead. It has challenging corners, high speed and slow speed, and it’s all coming together nicely.
“But for me, all the circuits are new. It’s taken a bit of time to get used to the car but at the end of these two days, the [Dallara IL-15] has really grown on me. It’s a fun car to drive.”
Meanwhile, Kaiser’s ready to really get after it next Tuesday and Wednesday during the series’ final preseason test at Barber Motorsports Park.
“It’s about learning here but going into Barber, it will be a different game plan, to really attack the track and get some data we can use in April,” he said. “The team did a good job. I’m happy with the amount of progress we’ve made over the last couple of tests.”