Franck Perera of Montpilier, France had never driven an Atlantic car before Wednesday. Don't tell that to the veterans around the Cooper Tires Presents the Champ Car Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda series.
Perera, another discovery of Condor Motorsports, paced both the morning and afternoon test sessions on the opening day of Champ Car's four-day Spring Training, bettering the existing single-lap track record for Atlantics in the process. Condor Motorsports also brought Charles Zwolsman to the U.S. and he promptly won the 2005 Atlantic championship.
Perera turned a one minute, 16.978 seconds (104.664 miles per hour) in the morning, just a tick better than A.J. Allmendinger's qualifying mark in 2003 of 1:16.986. In the afternoon, Perera dropped his time to 1:16.634 (105.133 mph).
Brazilian Rafael Matos of Sierra Sierra Enterprises was the only other driver to drop below 1:17, turning a quick lap of 1:16.684 (105.065 mph) in the day's second session.
Perera is anything but a novice, despite no previous seat time in an Atlantic car. He has test in Formula One and competed last year in GP2 in Europe.
Monterey native Jonathan Bomarito, who won the season-ending Atlantic race at Road America last year, was third quickest in the morning with a 1:17.244 (104.303 mph). Bomarito drives for PR1 Motorsports out of Fresno.
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