Montoya dominating at St Louis
The dominance of Juan Montoya and Target/Chip Ganassi Racing continued in opening practice for the Gateway round of the CART Championship Series
The Columbian triple-winner was narrowly fastest, ahead of the resurgent Paul Tracy in the KOOL Green car. Greg Moore, Dario Franchitti and Christian Fittipaldi completed the top five.
Christiano da Matta was one of the stars of the session, the Toyota powered rookie an impressive sixth fastest as a second covered the top 24 cars.
Penske ran Lola chassis for the first time after promising performances in testing, Al Unser Jr lined-up 22nd, team mate Tarso Marques stayed in the Penske PC27 and was 25th.
Mark Blundell's replacement Roberto Moreno missed the morning session to drive in practice at Indianapolis.
The PacWest team used Gualter Salles in his place, but Moreno helicoptered to the track in time for the afternoon session to go 21st quickest.
Team mate Mauricio Gugelmin was down in 19th in the end, but had been in the top 10 in the morning session.
While Montoya goes for win number four this weekend, the second Ganassi car of Jimmy Vasser finished practice way down in 16th place, as the former champion's miserable start to the season continued.
Final practice times from St Louis
|
Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
|
1 |
Juan Montoya |
Ganassi Reynard-Honda |
25.153s |
|
2 |
Paul Tracy |
Green Reynard-Honda |
25.221s |
|
3 |
Greg Moore |
Forsythe Reynard-Merc |
24.239s |
|
4 |
Dario Franchitti |
Green Reynard-Honda |
25.324s |
|
5 |
Cjristian Fittipaldi |
Newman-Haas Swift-Ford |
25.327s |
|
6 |
Christiano da Matta |
Arciero-Wells Re-Toyota |
25.346s |
|
7 |
Max Papis |
Rahal Reynard-Ford |
25.372s |
|
8 |
Helio Casto-Neves |
Hogan Lola-Mercedes |
25.384s |
|
9 |
Gil de Ferran |
Walker Reynard-Honda |
25.496s |
|
10 |
Michael Andretti |
Newman Haas Swift-Ford |
25.526s |
|
11 |
Patrick Carpentier |
Forsythe Reynard-Merc |
25.552s |
|
12 |
Bryan Herta |
Rahal Reynard-Ford |
25.555s |
|
13 |
Adrian Fernandez |
Patrick Reynard-Ford |
25.564s |
|
14 |
Robby Gordon |
Gordon Reynard-Toyota |
25.585s |
|
15 |
PJ Jones |
Patrick Swift-Ford |
25.610s |
|
16 |
Jimmy Vasser |
Ganassi Swift-Ford |
25.638s |
|
17 |
Tony Kanaan |
Tasman Reynard-Honda |
25.670s |
|
18 |
Alex Barron |
AAR Eagle-Toyota |
25.761s |
|
19 |
Mauricio Gugelmin |
PacWest Reynard-Merc |
25.762s |
|
20 |
Scott Pruett |
Ardiero Reynard-Toyota |
25.803s |
|
21 |
Roberto Moreno |
PacWest Reynard-Merc |
25.809s |
|
22 |
Al Unser Jr |
Penske Lola-Mercedes |
25.891s |
|
23 |
Michel Jourdain Jr |
Payton-Coyne Lola-Ford |
25.967s |
|
24 |
Richie Hearn |
Della Penna Swift-Toyota |
26.069s |
|
25 |
Tarso Marques |
Penske-Mercedes |
26.239s |
|
26 |
Shigeaki Hattori |
Bettenhausen Reynard-Merc |
26.484s |
|
27 |
Dennis Vitolo |
Payton Coyne Lola-Ford |
28.098s |
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