Catchfence

Sebastian Saavedra, #29 William Rast Dallara / Honda / Firestone: “Today was the best day so far because of the amount of speed we picked up. We tested a lot of things yesterday, and the plan for today was to start looking for some speed right away to try to move up the speed chart. That was our goal and we did it. From there, we were trying different things to keep improving our time. I felt very comfortable with the car, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

AT-A-GLANCE… 19 years old from Bogota, Colombia… currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana… will be attempting to make his IZOD IndyCar Series debut… currently competes in the Firestone Indy Lights Series with BHA… earned Rookie of the Year honors and finished third in the 2009 Indy Lights Championship with AFS Racing/Andretti Green Racing with two poles (St. Petersburg/Toronto), two wins (Kansas/Toronto) and seven podium finishes… finished second and was Rookie of the Year in the 2008 ATS German Formula 3 Cup with four poles, three wins and eight podium finishes… made his car racing debut in 2006 at the age of 15, contesting two years in Formula BMW winning three of six races in Asia and claiming one win, four podiums and six top-six finishes in eight rounds of U.S. competition… began racing karts at age 10 winning the Colombian championship in 2003 and finishing fourth in the Brazilian championship.

Bryan Herta, Team Co-Owner: “We find a little more speed every day but I wish we had two weeks. I miss the old two-week schedule. Today was good. We had the chance to let Sebastian feel the car with a little lower downforce trim today. We are not all the way to where we would qualify, but we are starting to let him see the car in different downforce levels and that was a positive step for us. We are looking forward to tomorrow. It is going to be an important day because weather-wise, it is probably going to be the most like what we will see this weekend and in the race. You are going to see a very busy race track tomorrow.”

Roberto Guerrero [Mentoring Saavedra]: “I think overall we had a great day and made a lot of progress. The gap to the frontrunners is getting shorter and I think that is very encouraging. Sebastian had a big moment when he tried to go too fast too soon and you don’t achieve anything by that. It was another good lesson learned. If you look at our speed, we are pretty much with everyone except the frontrunners who are in a class of their own.”

About Bryan Herta Autosport:

Founded by veteran driver Bryan Herta and noted race engineer Steve Newey, Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA) debuted in Firestone Indy Lights competition in 2009 claiming one win, five top-five and 15 top-10 results. Herta, an accomplished racer, has won in every series he has contested including the IZOD IndyCar Series, American Le Mans Series and CART in addition to garnering Skip Barber Formula Ford, Barber Saab and Firestone Indy Lights championship titles.

Amongst his career highlights are a third-place finish in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and victory in the LMP2 class at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2007. Newey’s racing career spans over 20 years and includes design and race engineering positions in Formula One and winning the 1992 Champ Car World Series title as the race engineer for Bobby Rahal. He was also instrumental in assembling both the Patrick Racing and Mo Nunn Racing teams. For more information, visit www.bryanhertaautosport.com.