Montoya takes first CART pole
Juan Montoya continues to add to his list of rookie year accomplishments by picking up the first pole position of his very young CART career
In an incredibly close qualifying session, Montoya beat Helio Castro-Neves by 0.001 seconds for the top spot in the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Nazareth.
Qualifying right behind Castro-Neves are Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy and Mark Blundell.
'The car just kept improving and improving,' said Montoya.
He heated up the track in this morning's practice session, turning in the fastest time of the weekend, a spot that had been dominated by Castro-Neves. His previous best start, and this is only his fourth CART event, was a fifth two weeks ago at Long Beach. He won that event.
Montoya didn't expect to do this well on an oval this early. But he describes the track as different than the other two ovals he's driven.
'You can push the car a bit,' he said.
He is not alone in that thinking as several other drivers described Nazareth as an odd sort of track, not like a traditional oval. The additional modification of the front wings makes the car a different animal as well.
The qualifying session got off to a bang as the first man out, Dennis Vitolo, smashed into the wall on a warm up lap.
The clean up accomplished, several drivers went out and put in their efforts with Jimmy Vasser sitting in the hot seat for quite some time.
Adrian Fernandez was next man on the pole, the first driver to turn in a lap under 20 seconds. Mark Blundell, Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti all had a moment of glory but it came down to Castro-Neves and the nail biting as Montoya went out.
It was the best performance of Castro-Neves' career and he wasn't too upset about missing pole.
'Qualifying is tough,' he said. 'But I'm very happy with the front row. I don't think things could have
gotten any closer if we tried!'
Qualifying Results from the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix
Pos, Driver, Car, Lap Time
1 Juan Montoya Target 0:19.600
2 Helio Castro-Neves Hogan Motor Leasing 0:19.601
3 Dario Franchitti Team KOOL Green 0:19.668
4 Paul Tracy Team KOOL Green 0:19.693
5 Mark Blundell Motorola PacWest 0:19.775
6 Patrick Carpentier Player's/Indeck 0:19.842
7 Max Papis Miller Lite 0:19.859
8 PJ Jones Visteon Yahoo 0:19.938
9 Adrian Fernandez Tecate Quaker State 0:19.959
10 Greg Moore Player's/Indeck 0:20.005
11 Jimmy Vasser Target 0:20.030
12 Christian Fittipaldi Kmart 0:20.043
13 Gil de Ferran Valvoline/Cummins Spcl 0:20.145
14 Michael Andretti Kmart/Texaco/Havoline 0:20.161
15 Mauricio Gugelmin Hollywood PacWest 0:20.235
16 Bryan Herta Shell Oil 0:20.284
17 Christiano DaMatta(R)MCI Racing 0:20.303
18 Alex Barron AAR Denso 0:20.340
19 Richie Hearn Budweiser 0:20.460
20 Tony Kanaan McDonald's 0:20.482
21 Scott Pruett Pioneer/MCI 0:20.524
22 Michel Jourdain Jr Herdez/Viva Mexcio! 0:20.708
23 Al Unser Jr. Marlboro Team Penske 0:20.750
24 Robby Gordon Johns Manville/Panasonic 0:20.895
25 Dennis Vitolo Team Nicoderm No Time 0.000
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