Matthew Brabham, who is seeking to become the first driver to win all three steps on the Mazda Road to Indy in consecutive seasons, posted a best lap time of 1 minute, 15.160 seconds during the final day of the Cooper Tires Wintefest Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires test on the 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park course in Birmingham, Ala.
Gabby Chaves, the series championship runner-up in 2013, was second quick (1:15.461) in a Belardi Auto Racing car. Luiz Razia was third (1:15.522) for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Andretti Autosport's Zach Veach (1:15.728) was fourth and Jack Harvey (1:15.806) was fifth in a Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car.
"I'm coming out of this test a lot more confident than I was going in, that's for sure," said Brabham, who is driving the No. 83 MAZDASPEED/United Fiber & Data car for Andretti Autosport. "I think we proved that we definitely have the pace to run up front. We were in the top two, fighting for the first few positions time-wise, in every single session, so I'm really, really confident and very happy with how the team's working."
The season-opening race is March 30 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla.
Click it: Test session results