Power leads Thursday morning Sonoma test

A quiet morning of testing opened the GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma on Thursday. Fourteen of the 22 drivers entered turned laps during the two-hour session that spanned 10 a.m-noon. Ten of the 14 drivers turned single-digit laps due to a restricted number of tire sets available for the day.

"It's great; we get to spend some time socializing instead of driving," Dale Coyne Racing's Sebastien Bourdais said with a smile.

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Four sets have been provisioned for each entry, and teams are able to carry one set over to Friday's practice session, which has left most drivers, barring the rookies, in conservation mode.

With an afternoon session set for 2-6 p.m., which closely mirrors the window where qualifying and the race will take place, most teams have opted to wait until the afternoon to run extensively.

"We've got three hours' worth of tires for a six-hour test," one race engineer was overheard telling his driver. "It's going to be a Mexican standoff: Once somebody puts down the first fast lap this afternoon, everybody's going to go out and try and beat it."

RLLR rookie Zachary Claman DeMelo turned 32 laps in the No. 13 Honda (12th, +1.193s), and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Jack Harvey followed with 13 laps in the No. 7 Honda (13th, +1.3394s).

Notes: Juan Pablo Garcia has been scratched from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' plans for the weekend. The Mexican tested for SPM the day after Watkins Glen and had planned to test today in Sonoma with the desire of earning a competition license from IndyCar, but it's said that when his sponsors learned there was no guarantee he would race, the entry was scratched.

Alexander Rossi spent the morning in one of Ryan Hunter-Reay's yellow and red DHL firesuits. "He keeps forgetting to bring his!" the 2012 IndyCar champion told RACER.

RACER's Robin Miller presented Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato with a set of custom 2018 Indy 500 tickets featuring Godzilla. The Japanese driver was surprisingly enamored with the gift.

Championship contender Scott Dixon and his wife Emma played host to Susie Wheldon and her sons in Indiana as they fled Hurricane Irma in Florida.

Chip Ganassi Racing coach and four-time series champion Dario Franchitti spent last weekend driving a Jaguar D-Type at Goodwood. The sublime machine, engineered by his friend and former Ganassi man Andy Brown, gave the Scot copious amounts of oversteer to manage around the flowing circuit.

According to a team member, the primary color on Claman DeMelo's car is seafoam green, also a popular choice for bridesmaid dresses.