(from autosport) Ryan Briscoe claimed pole position at Edmonton ahead of teammate Helio Castroneves as Penske swept the IndyCar Series front row for the second week in a row. The result was Penske's 50th pole since joining the Indy Racing League in 2002, and also marked their fourth consecutive pole position, with Briscoe and Castroneves having alternated at the head of the field since Watkins Glen. Briscoe was fortunate to even make it as far as the top six session, as a water leak had delayed him at the start of part two of qualifying, and he only made the final cut-off in the closing seconds. KV Racing produced their best qualifying performance since joining the IndyCar Series as Oriol Servia and Will Power took third and fifth on the grid, sandwiching championship leader Scott Dixon (Ganassi), with Servia just 0.0001 seconds quicker than the latter. Justin Wilson was the final man to get into the top six session, but had to sit out the pole position shoot-out having bent his Newman/Haas/Lanigan car's suspension when he slid into the wall in second qualifying shortly after setting a time quick enough to progress to the Fast Six. Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne) and Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) were squeezed out of the Fast Six in the final seconds and will share row four, ahead of Ganassi's Dan Wheldon, Junqueira's teammate Mario Moraes and Conquest's Enrique Bernoldi. Moraes achieved his best qualifying result yet despite crashing late in the second segment. It was a bad day for Andretti Green Racing. Tony Kanaan was the only one of their drivers to get beyond the first round of qualifying, but a high-speed spin near the end of the session caused engine damage and meant he could not participate in second qualifying. He is set to fall to the back of the grid when a new engine is fitted prior to the race. Returning Canadian hero Paul Tracy also had a disappointing session. He felt his Walker Racing-run Vision car was too laden with fuel on his first qualifying run, then ran out of time to complete a final flying lap after Marty Roth spun and stalled, causing a stoppage. Tracy will start 16th, two places behind Watkins Glen winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who crashed his Rahal Letterman Dallara-Honda in the final seconds of first qualifying. More to follow Pos Driver Team Time 1. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:00.7311 2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:00.8360 3. Oriol Servia KV 1:00.8584 4. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:00.8585 5. Will Power KV 1:01.0154 6. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 7. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:01.2991 8. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:01.4573 9. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 1:01.6656 10. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:01.7552 11. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest 1:02.0227 12. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 13. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 1:02.2991 14. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 1:02.1039 15. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 1:02.4171 16. Paul Tracy Vision 1:02.2387 17. Vitor Meira Panther 1:02.4907 18. AJ Foyt IV Vision 1:03.1346 19. Darren Manning Foyt 1:02.6644 20. Mario Dominguez Pacific Coast 1:03.1359 21. EJ Viso HVM 1:03.9242 22. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 1:03.8100 23. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 1:03.4276 24. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:03.8825 25. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 1:03.6396 26. Marty Roth Roth 1:09.0498 27. Jaime Camara Conquest 1:03.8572
Anybody notice that Tracy is qualified right behind Danica? Crash PT over taking Blocker DP. Ought to be an interesting start...
In Paul's first time qualifying that car, and only other time in it besides a 15min practice. Not to mention he hasn't been in a single seater since the final Champ car race in Long Beach a few months ago. Before that it was preseason testing in January. Yeah good on her...
She and Townsend Bell are sharing the seat. He's managed to finish 8th at Richmond and 10th at Indy and Motegi. He should have the seat full time.
She got "toasted".........."Milka Toasted".......hahahahahahahhaha..............I guess you had to be there.
You are making excuses for him. If I remember correctly, young Rahal came from ChumpCar and did very well his first race.
Rahal wasn't out of the seat for several months, and he isn't nearly 40 years old either. You also can't say I'm biased against Danica, because I rate her higher than useless Marco.
Danica's safe as long as she doesn't speak to PT with a French accent after a 'misunderstanding'. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind witnessing an Andy Kaufman moment, I've seen everything else in IRL this year.....
We're about 8 laps into this race at this point, and I think this is the worst television coverage of a race I have ever seen.
watching other things on satellite right now - catching live timing on internet - 1/2 thru the race and it's good to see Paul Tracy into 8th damn good for someone who's been out of the car for awhile - hope he continues the move up. Either Marco had a long pit stop or he's once again done something since he's in 20th. Looking good for Helio with a 6.5 second lead. What happened to Mutoh? he, Will Power and Graham all are about the same number of laps down - makes me think they had a coming together? It will be most interesting to follow the Tracy/Forsythe AMLS news! Carol
So great news with Paul Tracy coming from 16th to 4th - hope this isn't just the one off race, but he's back again. From what I read on Autosport, it seems that Marco and Prissy had a coming together on the track.....wonder what she said or did to the "team owner's son" after this race??? Carol on another forum someone said she didn't move over for Kanaan who was on a different strategy - and she purports not to be a blocker?? that was a very stupid move for a teammate to make here's a bit from a report: Tracy started 16th in his initial race in the No. 22 Subway/Vision Racing car and edged Oriol Servia at the line for the surprising (for many) result. Not bad for a 39-year-old who acknowledged he hadn't done much since last racing in April but watch the televised IndyCar Series race from the comfort of his couch in Las Vegas. Not bad for a driver who didn't have two-way radio communication with his pit stand throughout the 91-lap race. "I'm just super-excited for the team," said Tracy, whose car was prepared and maintained by a Walker Racing crew. "They prepared this car in about a week and a half and I gave it a first-class effort for the sponsor. With a little more practice and me not sitting on the couch for the last six months, maybe we could do better." That's entirely plausible, and the logical question is whether he'll get the opportunity. Vision Racing co-owner Tony George had said though this was considered a one-off, potential future races would be considered if sponsorship materialized. Read this on another site too: Paul is a racer not just a race car driver. Paul burns with a desire to win and that is much needed in IRL. Paul grabs a car by the scruff of the neck and drives it. Bye, Bye Dramatica, Bye. Bye Mucus.
Tracy drove a very intelligent race and was pretty quick. He used his head and passed wisely when the opportunity arose and let others by cleanly when he had to. Somewhat surprising to me given his numerous poor judgement incidents in the past. He deserves major credit here. Very well done. I can't say the same for Marco running into the back of Danica, his own team mate. She was very animated as always after the incident. Not sure if she slowed abruptly contributing to the accident, but it appeared Marco pulled another bone head stunt.
tracy is a very talented racer. so many forget how he came up through the ranks...remember his TOTAL dominance in the ARS series? nobody could run with him. in the right car, he will win in irl too. he is one of the best open wheelers we have here.
+1 with comments mentioned above. With the equipment he had, 'remarkable' is appropriate for Tracy's result. Got into the top 10 from 15th and stayed there almost the entire race. Let faster cars pass when there was no point holding them, maintained pit strategy and stayed out of trouble, all with an unknown car and intermittant radio. Bravo.
Tracy has always had exceptional driving skills. He has a reputation for using poor judgement and has had more than his share of accidents that can be traced back to his poor judgement. That is why Penske canned him. Still a very talented driver and he showed it yesterday less the mistakes.
