Power retains Surfers Paradise pole
Will Power took pole for the Surfers Paradise Champ Car race, sending the local crowd into a frenzy of alcohol-fuelled happiness
The Team Australia driver crossed the start finish line to complete his hot lap moments before the red flags were flown for Katherine Legge's spinning PKV Racing car. A few seconds later AJ Allmendinger set a faster time, but it was of course disallowed because of the red flags.
Paul Tracy had been the session pace-setter, albeit half a second off but Sebastien Bourdais set a quicker time - on the hard compound black-walled tyres - before having a huge crash that wiped out the front left corner of his car and brought out the red flags. Thus Seb's quickest time was deleted.
However when Power beat Tracy's time, PT no longer had his guaranteed front row slot (for being fastest in the session), and so Bourdais' quickest time from yesterday was enough to put him on the front row.
Paul Tracy will thus line up third, four places ahead of Allmendinger, while between them lie Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas), the impressive Nelson Philippe of CTE Racing-HVM, and PKV Racing's Oriol Servia.
Philippe's teammate Dan Clarke starts eighth, and has seen the gap to his Rookie of the Year rival Will Power increase to nine points, following the Australian's two points won for topping each qualifying session.
Antonio Pizzonia wrecked his car and chances of a top six qualifying slot after tearing off the right front corner of his car in the 15-minute pre-qualifying session.
Combined qualifying times:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Will Power Team Australia 1:31.403 2. Sebastien Bourdais Newman/Haas 1:31.774 + 0.371 3. Paul Tracy Forsythe 1:31.959 + 0.556 4. Bruno Junqueira Newman/Haas 1:32.265 + 0.862 5. Nelson Philippe CTE - HVM 1:32.348 + 0.945 6. Oriol Servia PKV 1:32.371 + 0.968 7. AJ Allmendinger Forsythe 1:32.536 + 1.133 8. Dan Clarke CTE - HVM 1:32.821 + 1.418 9. Alex Tagliani Team Australia 1:32.845 + 1.442 10. Mario Dominguez Rocketsports 1:32.974 + 1.571 11. Ryan Briscoe RuSPORT 1:33.043 + 1.640 12. Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest 1:33.564 + 2.161 13. Antonio Pizzonia Rocketsports 1:33.736 + 2.333 14. Jan Heylen Dale Coyne 1:34.182 + 2.779 15. Charles Zwolsman Mi-Jack Conquest 1:34.282 + 2.879 16. Katherine Legge PKV Racing 1:34.634 + 3.231 18. Andreas Wirth Dale Coyne 1:35.176 + 3.773
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