Practice 2: Da Matta holds sway
Target/Ganassi Racing threw all it had at Cristiano da Matta in the Saturday morning Champ Car practice session at Surfers Paradise, but the newly-crowned CART champion still emerged fastest.
Kenny Brack, Scott Dixon and Friday pole man Bruno Junqueira ran 2-3-4 behind the Newman/Haas driver, who appeared to have a bit in reserve if necessary. Da Matta lapped a thousandth of a second quicker than Junqueira's provisional pole lap with a 1m31.514s tour of the 2.795-mile street course.
"We improved the car overnight," said da Matta, who is seeking a record-tying eighth win of the season. "But we have to do a better job of finding some clear laps in qualifying."
Brack and Dixon also dipped below 1m32s, while Junqueira was at 1m32.218s to head Adrian Fernandez and Paul Tracy. Shinji Nakano, Tony Kanaan and the Team Rahal duo of Jimmy Vasser and Michel Jourdain Jnr rounded out the top 10.
Dario Franchitti's miserable Gold Coast weekend continued. The Scot got only a handful of laps in before the clutch again failed in his Team Green Lola-Honda. The team intended to switch the rear end of the T-car onto Dario's race car prior to Saturday afternoon's qualifying session.
Saturday morning's practice was twice briefly delayed for repairs to the course. With several walls moved back from the track, drivers have been more aggressive about attacking chicanes and eventually the rubber cones mounted at the apex of Turns 6 and 7 were torn off, leaving exposed mounting bolts. Around 15 minutes of practice time was lost while the bolts were removed.
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