Catchfence

Sebastian Saavedra, #29 William Rast Dallara/Honda/Firestone: “With the weather, we didn’t get to do as much as we were expecting today but there were positive things. One was Bruno [Junqueira] actually getting into the car. Not having a teammate, we wanted someone who had experience and who knows his way around here to bring this knowledge not only to me but to the team as well. What we learned is that we are going in the right direction. He felt that the setup of the car is what you want to have here and that we are in a good position to keep working for the speed as we have been doing.”

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: “It was another positive day. It was a shame we didn’t get to run as much as we wanted to in the afternoon because of the on and off weather. Overall, we were able to fine tune the car a little more and find some more speed. We also want to thank Bruno [Junqueira] for hopping in and running a few laps to give us some ‘teammate’ feedback for Sebastian, which he hasn’t had. It was good to have some data to overlay. Every day we feel more encouraged.”

Roberto Guerrero [Mentoring Saavedra]: “The rain hurt us a little bit today, but I think we made a lot of progress. Putting Bruno [Junqueira] in the car was very good. He took a lot of the doubts away. The speeds that Bruno ran were in the ballpark of Sebastian’s and that is good and puts everyone at ease. We now know that the car has a good base and we can focus on making it better. We were all a little nervous about taking downforce away from the car. We are running out of time but I think we can get another two or three miles per hour and be safely in for the race.”

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.

- Bryan Herta Autosport Press Release