Last-minute efforts save 17-car grid

The 30-minute session saw both Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) and Tonis Kasemets (Rocketsports) wreck against the wall, and with less than three hours between the end of session and when the cars need to be taken to the grid, there was some doubt whether the cars would be able to start.

However, both squads did a remarkable job to repair the crash damage, and Tagliani and Kasemets are expected to take up their 10th and 17th places respectively on the grid.

Tagliani's accident happened on his first flying lap of the warm-up. Team Australia co-owner Derrick Walker explained: "At the moment, the cause of the accident isn't completely confirmed other than we can rule out driver error, as it happened on a straight.

"However, we think a lower wishbone on the front-left suspension pulled out, so the wheels suddenly turned sharp left, wrenching the steering-wheel out of Alex's hands and putting him into the wall.

"Unfortunately, the impact with the wall tore the steering-rack out of the tub and wrecked that. Luckily, we had just got back from Lola the tub that we wrecked in Houston, so we put it on the trailer to come here. The downside is that the only thing attached to it at the time was the fuel cell!

"I believe bad luck goes in cycles," Walker continued, "so hopefully we've used up ours now with Houston, Milwaukee [where Tagliani failed to start after wrecking a tub in practice, when the team didn't have a spare] and now here."

The crew from Team Australia's second entry, that of Will Power, joined with Tagliani's crew to join the original rear end and engine from Alex's wrecked car to the reconditioned tub, and incredibly at 11am local time, team manager Rob Edwards was able to confirm "we'll be good to go".

A similar story occurred across the paddock at Rocketsports Racing. Estonian rookie Tonis Kasemets collided with Paul Tracy durning the warm-up, took off and struck the wall head-on.

Although the squad's second driver Nicky Pastorelli is absent this weekend (due to sponsorship problems), the team were unable to switch Kasemets to the Dutchman's car, because Champ Car rules state that the tub can only be changed in on raceday if it is badly damaged.

However, Kasemets' impact with the wall did not break the tub, so Pastorelli's car has been cannibablised and many of its parts fitted to Kasemets' machine.

Again, the team worked hard to overcome the tight timescale, and the crew have confirmed that Kasemets should be able to start the race.