Franchitti on pole at Long Beach

of his game.
He started the 1999 season with a podium finish in Homestead
and today he finished the day on the provisional pole for the Toyota Grand
Prix of Long Beach.

Rookie Juan Montoya was the second fast driver followed
by Byran Herta, Tony Kanaan and Max Papis. The top eleven drivers turned in
laps within less than a second of Franchitti.

The first day of practice and qualifying was perfect for running on the
newly reconfigured streets of Long Beach. The course was modified to
accomodate changes to the area including the new Long Beach Aquarium of the
Pacific which stands square in the middle of the course.

The course has a few new surprises
and the changes found several drivers a bit out of sorts on the course
today. There were three accidents and a number of cars skidding off course
in the first day of qualifying but none of the drivers was injured.

Dario Franchitti finished last season third place in the points battle. He
finished five of the last six races in the top five, including three wins.

And he made his first podium visit of the season at this event, finishing
in second place. His success came on the road and street courses. He
indicated his success off the oval may come from experience in the
International Touring Car Series.

"We raced a lot on street circuits. I
like driving between the walls," he said late this afternoon. The
competition will be intense here this weekend, but a betting man would have
to put money on Franchitti to win this weekend.

Rookie Juan Montoya is working hard to fill the shoes of departed champ
Alex Zanardi, and he's doing a decent job of it so far. With only two champ
car races under his belt he's managed to score a couple of points already
and his performance last weekend, he turned in the fastest lap of the race,
was impressive even though he finished four laps behind the leaders.

Today
he turned in a quick lap a mere 0.151 seconds slower than Franchitti. He
said, " I thought we'd have a good shot at it. On the first set of tires,
we were definitely the quickest out there."

Bryan Herta is another driver who seems to favor the street and road
courses. His first win finally came at Laguna Seca last year, and like
Franchitti, his best races were off the ovals last year.

He even finished
on the podium with Franchitti and race winner Alex Zanardi here last year.
Herta started on the pole last year and said he's not quite done for this
weekend. "There's certainly more in the car for tomorrow if we can make the
right changes. I think there's definitely more speed in it."

Twenty seven drivers will take to the track once again tomorrow afternoon
for the final qualifying session. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
begins at 1:00pm local time on Sunday.


Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach

Ps.No. Driver Car Lap Time M.P.H.

-- ---- ----------------------------------------------------- -------- -------

1 27 Dario Franchitti Team KOOL Green RI HD F 0:61.805 106.244

2 4 Juan Montoya Taget RI HD F 0:61.956 105.985

3 8 Bryan Herta Shell Oil RI XD F 0:62.189 105.588

4 44 Tony Kanaan McDonald's RI HD F 0:62.332 105.346

5 7 Max Papis Miller Lite RI XD F 0:62.363 105.293

6 40 Adrian Fernandez Tecate Quaker State RI XD F 0:62.434 105.173

7 12 Jimmy Vasser Target RI HD F 0:62.514 105.039

8 11 Christian Fittipaldi Kmart SW XD F 0:62.654 104.804

9 6 Michael Andretti Kmart/Texaco/Havoline SW XD F 0:62.694 104.737

10 26 Paul Tracy Team KOOL Green RI HD F 0:62.731 104.676

11 33 Patrick Carpentier Player's/Indeck RI MB F 0:62.759 104.629

12 99X Greg Moore Player's/Indeck RI MB F 0:62.808 104.547

13 18 Mark Blundell Motorola PacWest RI MB F 0:62.840 104.494

14 20X PJ Jones Visteon Yahoo RI XD F 0:62.936 104.335

15 5 Gil de Ferran Valvoline/Cummins Spcl RI HD G 0:62.956 104.301

16 24 Scott Pruett Pioneer/MCI RI TY F 0:63.009 104.214

17 25 Christiano DaMatta(R)MCI Racing RI TY F 0:63.076 104.103

18 2 Tarso Marques Marlboro Team Penske PC MB G 0:63.185 103.923

19 17X Mauricio Gugelmin Hollywood PacWest RI MB F 0:63.391 103.586

20 10 Richie Hearn Budweiser SW TY F 0:63.666 103.138

21 19 Michel Jourdain Jr Herdez/Viva Mexcio! LO XD F 0:63.788 102.941

22 9 Helio Castro-Neves Hogan Motor Leasing LO MB F 0:63.959 102.666

23 36 Alex Barron AAR Denso EA TY G 0:64.140 102.376

24 34 Gualter Salles Team Nicoderm RI XD F 0:64.157 102.349

25 71 Luiz Garcia Jr. (R) Tang RI XD F 0:69.695 94.216

26 16 Shigeaki Hattori (R) Epson RI MB G 0:72.144 91.018

27 22 Robby Gordon Johns Manville/Panasonic RI TY F No Time 0.000