IRL: Surfer´s Paradise Practice Times *SPOILER*

(from autosport)

Home favourite Will Power left the rest of the field trailing in his wake in second practice at Surfers Paradise, as he topped the session by 1.3 seconds.

The KV Racing driver moved to the front halfway through the session, usurping early pace-setters Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman) and then casually extended his advantage, eventually setting a 1:34.8084.

That performance will boost Power's hopes of taking a third consecutive pole position at Surfers, following on from his poles in the final two Champ Car events at the track. But despite his speed on the Australian street circuit, Power has always suffered poor luck on race day and is still hunting for his first home win after collisions in all three of his Surfers races to date.

Helio Castroneves improved on his morning performance to take second for Penske, albeit still a long way behind Power's pace.

Dario Franchitti maintained his earlier third place as his very impressive return to the IndyCar Series continued. This time he was four places clear of his Ganassi teammate Scott Dixon.

Power's teammate Oriol Servia briefly made it a KV Racing/Team Australia one-two towards the end of the session, before being edged back to fourth as Castroneves and Franchitti improved.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan duo Rahal and Justin Wilson completed the top six.

AJ Foyt IV (Vision Racing) and Townsend Bell (Dreyer & Reinbold) both gave their crews plenty of work to do this evening after crashing at the chicane on the backstraight, with Bell's incident bringing the chequered flag out slightly early.

They were the only drivers to make contact with the wall, but certainly not the only people to make errors - with Ryan Briscoe (Penske), Hunter-Reay, Dan Wheldon (Panther), Mario Moraes (Dale Coyne), Buddy Rice (Dreyer & Reinbold) and Hideki Mutoh (Andretti Green) all taking trips down escape roads.

Following his accident at the end of morning practice, Conquest Racing's Alex Tagliani had to sit out much of the second session and could only manage 13th, eight places down on his practice one position.

Pos Driver Team Time
1. Will Power KV 1:34.8084
2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:36.1609 + 1.3525
3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1:36.1712 + 1.3628
4. Oriol Servia KV 1:36.4394 + 1.6310
5. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:36.4963 + 1.6879
6. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:36.5127 + 1.7043
7. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:36.5812 + 1.7728
8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 1:36.8863 + 2.0779
9. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:37.5183 + 2.7099
10. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 1:37.5488 + 2.7404
11. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:37.7709 + 2.9625
12. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:38.6572 + 3.8488
13. Alex Tagliani Conquest 1:38.8099 + 4.0015
14. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 1:38.8353 + 4.0269
15. EJ Viso HVM 1:38.8784 + 4.0700
16. AJ Foyt IV Vision 1:39.0920 + 4.2836
17. Vitor Meira Foyt 1:39.1538 + 4.3454
18. Dan Wheldon Panther 1:39.8513 + 5.0429
19. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 1:39.8582 + 5.0498
20. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 1:40.0527 + 5.2443
21. Jaime Camara Conquest 1:40.4821 + 5.6737
22. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 1:40.7196 + 5.9112
23. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:41.4711 + 6.6667
24. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 1:41.5490 + 6.7406