SEBRING, Fla. – Gustavo Yacaman and Sebastian Saavedra have been rivals for most of their racing careers.

Judging from the results of Firestone Indy Lights testing at Sebring International Raceway, the rivalry between the two young Colombian racers may pick up where it left off.

Yacaman paced the test with a lap of 56.4954 seconds, knocking Saavedra (56.5711 seconds) from the top spot with a few minutes left in the one-day test session.

“Today was a lot of carryover from what we’ve done since last season,” Yacaman said. “I’m happy with the performance today, but we still need to go quicker. The competition in the series is going to be really tough. Last year, I might have been too aggressive and too cocky going into the year. I got knocked down a bit. We’re just going to have to work out butts off to keep this pace against some very tough competition.”

Saavedra, who will compete in Firestone Indy Lights with AFS Racing/Andretti Autosport, led most of the day’s eight hours of testing. He said his return to the team felt like he had never left.

“Working with this team today was like the same feeling I had in 2009,” Saavedra said. “The test went exactly how we expected. I was able to catch the feeling of the Indy Lights, which was good. It allowed us to get with the testing program and components that we want to use for St. Pete. I think we did a great job. Now we need to focus on what’s coming for St. Pete.”

Juncos Racing’s duo of Peter Dempsey (57.1157 seconds) and J.V. Horto (57.4440) were third and fourth respectively, while Juan Pablo Garcia of Jeffrey Mark Motorsport rounded out the top-five with a lap of 57.6071.

In all, eight drivers turned 622 laps with the day’s only incident involving Indian rookie Armaan Ebrahim, who made contact with the tire barrier in Turn 6. Ebrahim was not injured in the incident, but his No. 24 Fan Force United car was damaged too severely to repair before the end of the test.

It’s got to be the shoes
Sebastian Saavedra’s pace may have come from a source other that himself. Saavedra forgot to bring a pair of shoes to the test and borrowed a pair of driving boots from Peter Dempsey.

“It was definitely the shoes that helped him,” Dempsey joked as Saavedra answered questions from a reporter.

“All credit to Peter for his shoes,” Saavedra quickly retorted.

Electrical gremlin returns
David Ostella sat out the morning session of the test after his team discovered an electrical issue while warming up the car. it was determined that the wiring harness had burned out. 

The crew repaired the wiring at the track and Ostella was able to take to the track for the afternoon session.

Interested spectators
Former Firestone Indy Lights competitor Martin Plowman was at Sebring, serving as a driver coach for Rodin Younessi, who hopes to move up from the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship to Firestone Indy Lights.

Plowman will race as part of the endurance program for Conquest Racing, which also fields Younessi's racing effort.

Another former race winner, Stefan Wilson, also spent time in the paddock watching the test.