Red Bull Racing Team tested Tuesday at Virginia International Raceway, with both the #82 and #83 Red Bull Toyotas turning laps around the southern Virginia road course. Filling in for Brian Vickers, Sweden’s Mattias Ekstrom piloted the #83 car to provide the team testing support for the upcoming road-course race in Sonoma, CA. “I was really surprised how the car drove today. Everyone had told me that it would be very special and it was quite nice,” said Ekstrom, a Red Bull-backed driver for the past nine years and two-time DTM champion with Audi. “The first hour of the test I was fighting the car a lot just getting used to the power, the weight and the fact that the car has little aero ‘Â all things that are very different for me. A few hours into the test I felt a lot more comfortable in the car and overall I think we had a really good test. I came into this test not having any experience in these types of cars, and also having never worked with the #83 team before, so it was really nice to see how well we all worked together. I really enjoyed my first Sprint Cup test and am glad to have had this opportunity.”(Red Bull Racing Team)(5-29-2010)
UPDATE: Mattias Ekstrom, who won the Race of Champions for Red Bull in 2009 and is considered one of the top road course drivers in Europe, is being considered to replace Casey Mears in the June race at Infineon Raceway. Red Bull Racing general manager Jay Frye said Ekstrom was impressive in a road course test at Virginia International Raceway this past week. “We were worried about getting him up to speed,” Frye said on Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “He was up to speed in an hour. Ask Juan Pablo Montoya, some of the other guys that were there. It was impressive.” Ekstrom was at CMS for Saturday’s Nationwide Series race. He said he would love to drive at Sonoma and may one day get into stock car racing fulltime, but reminded it would take a team willing to let him develop. Frye said Ekstrom would not be available for the Watkins Glen road course event because of a scheduling conflict. Mears replaced Brian Vickers three weeks ago at Dover after blood clots were discovered in Vickers’ legs and lungs. With Vickers out for the rest of the season taking treatments that involve blood thinners, Mears was signed to a deal with provisions that would allow Red Bull to use other drivers if performance warranted. Frye said there are no plans outside the road courses to replace Mears, but said the organization wanted to keep its options open.(ESPN)(5-29-2010)
