Practice: Tagliani sets the early pace

The lead 10 drivers broke the 25-second barrier. Seventeen of the 19 drivers went faster than Patrick Carpentier's fastest race lap in last year's event of 25.251 sec (210.859 mph).

"The car is quite good, and man, this place is fast," said Tagliani, whose last flying lap of the session was the chart-topper. "It's been a long time since we ran on an oval, so qualifying should be interesting."

Tora Takagi (Walker Racing Reynard-Toyota) also saved his best lap for last, and it was good enough for second place ahead of CART championship leader Cristiano da Matta (Newman/Haas Lola-Toyota). The small Reynard contingent looked good, with Tagliani, Takagi and Patrick Carpentier (in the other Player's car at 24.935 sec) all running in the top five.

Dario Franchitti and his Team Green colleagues Paul Tracy and Michael Andretti were straight on the pace. Dario wound up fourth on 24.890, while Tracy's 24.941-second lap led most of the session until a flurry of late activity dropped him to seventh behind Kenny Brack.

"The car seems really good," Franchitti remarked. "We're hardly lifting at all - just for a flash into Turn 4 - and whoever can run flat-out in qualifying will have a shot at the pole."

Darren Manning was fastest in the early going at but his hopes of pulling a surprise on the Champ Car regulars were blunted by a baulky gearbox on his Team St George Lola-Ford. Manning was confident after logging about 130 miles of track time on the Rockingham oval during his CART rookie test. He had just warmed up with a lap at 206 mph before he the problem occurred.

Rather than sending Manning back out after exploratory repairs, Team St. George elected to perform a complete rebuild of the gearbox.

Though there were no crashes, Manning wasn't the only driver to suffer a mechanical malady. Scott Dixon's track time was severely restricted and the Kiwi wound up 16th, while Shinji Nakano's car stopped on course with a driveline problem. And Michel Jourdain lost a Ford engine in his Team Rahal Lola.

Qualifying for the Rockingham 500 begins at 14.00 BST.



Alex Tagliani (Forsythe Racing), 24.811s (214.598mph)
Tora Takagi (Walker Racing), 24.877s
Cristiano Da Matta (Newman-Haas Racing), 24.887s
Dario Franchitti (Team Green), 24.890s
Patrick Carpentier (Forsythe Racing), 24.935s
Kenny Brack (Chip Ganassi Racing), 24.939s
Paul Tracy (Team Green), 24.941s
Bruno Junquiera (Chip Ganassi Racing), 24.942s
Michael Andretti (Team Motorola), 24.968s
Tony Kanaan (Mo Nunn Racing), 24.971s
Adrian Fernandez (Fernandez Racing), 24.973s
Jimmy Vasser (Rahal Racing), 25.036s
Shinji Nakani (Fernandez Racing), 25.054s
Christian Fittipaldi (Newman-Haas Racing), 25.084s
Oriol Servia (Patrick Racing), 25.141s
Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing), 25.159s
Mario Dominguez (Herdez Competition), 25.267s
Michel Jourdain Jr (Rahal Racing), 25.528s
Darren Manning (Team St George), 25.737s