Dalziel Targets Top Ten

Dalziel has stepped into the Dale Coyne Racing seat previously occupied by Oriol Servia, Michael Valiante and Tarso Marques. He finished 16th in first qualifying, within two seconds of provisional pole-sitter Paul Tracy and only two tenths of a second behind teammate Ricardo Sperafico, but he is targeting a big improvement in the final session.

"I'm pretty happy with the first day here," said Dalziel. "The car ran well all day and the lap times were pretty close.

"Obviously I'd like to be further up but there's more time in the car and there's more time in me. We've got some things we can look at tomorrow and hopefully we can get a top ten out of it."

Before the Coyne opportunity emerged, Toyota Atlantic graduate Dalziel had originally expected to spend 2005 working as a consultant to the PKV Racing Champ Car team while racing a Pacific Coast Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette in the American Le Mans Series.

It is anticipated that Dalziel will step up to PKV's Champ Car line-up if team co-owner/driver Jimmy Vasser retires at the end of this season. The Coyne deal is seen as a way of giving Dalziel some Champ Car race experience in preparation for this promotion.