Roth Readies for Return
Veteran has logged more than 1,000 testing miles in offseason
By Tim Harms - indycar.com
Monday January 30, 2006

There hasn’t been a lot of down time during the racing offseason for Toronto’s Marty Roth. Since the end of the 2005 Indy Racing League Indy Pro Series™ season, Roth has put in thousands of miles – both in the race car and in the air.

Roth has spent several weeks training to fly his new airplane – a six-seat Aerostar Super 700, which cruises at 245 knots and is pressurized up to 30,000 feet. He’ll use it to fly from race to race in 2006.

He’s also logged more than 1,000 miles in his Indy Pro Series car, preparing for his fifth season on the circuit.

“Last year, we just wanted to get to the races and the tracks,” said Roth, who drives the No. 4 Roth Racing Dallara. “This year, we’ve really prepared for it. Between the race at Homestead and the two races at St. Petersburg, you’ve got a quarter of your season over in the first two weeks. You’ve really got to be prepared for the first green flag to drop.”

The team’s preparations for 2006 actually started late last year when Roth hired Mark Weida as engineer and Jason Lucas for data acquisition. The testing has allowed the team to get to know each other before the season starts.

“The team has really gelled together,” Roth said. “They’ve made huge improvements in the car. I’m real happy with these guys. It’s a real nice mix.”

So far in the offseason, Roth’s testing has been exclusively on road courses.

“Last year, we had a good speedway car, but we were lacking on the road courses and the short ovals,” s aid Roth, who had a career-best, second-place finish at Chicagoland Speedway in September. “Right now, we have a really good road course car.

“All of our testing has been by ourselves, so I’m really looking forward to the Open Test at Homestead (March 4 & 6) to run with some other guys.”

In addition to his preparations for the Indy Pro Series season, Roth is already readying himself and the team for the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500. This will be his third Indy 500. He finished 24th in 2004 and 31st in 2005.

“I’ve already been talking with Honda,” Roth said. “We’re committed for the 500, and we’re going to start off from the beginning, with the Open Test in April. Last year, we missed some time at Indianapolis working on our deal, but this year we’re going to make sure we’re out there every day.”

That type of commitment and preparation fuels high hopes for Roth in 2006.

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