Qualifying 1: Tracy leads Forsythe 1-2
Paul Tracy's odds of claiming victory in his 200th Champ Car race got better Thursday afternoon as the Canadian grabbed provisional pole for the Grand Prix of Cleveland. Patrick Carpentier made it a Forsythe Racing sweep of the front row by running second fastest, but he was nearly half a second slower than his countryman.

Tracy receives a championship point and is guaranteed of starting no worse than second in Saturday night's 115-lap event.
Carpentier set the early pace with a 59.227-second lap while Tracy suffered a brief spin at Turn 4. But after cleaning his tyres, Tracy stormed around in 58.405 seconds (129.811mph), a lap he couldn't match with his second set. But neither could anyone else, though Carpentier came closest, improving to 58.868 seconds.
"I think the track got slower later in the session because people were going off and throwing dust and dirt onto the circuit," Tracy said. "I had to regroup after that 360, but I put a lap together. It was good because I couldn't do better than a 58.8 on my second set of tyres."
Carpentier said he and the Forsythe team were coming off a good test at Mid-Ohio and he was happy with his effort on the day.
"I knew it would take a really good lap to beat Paul's time," Patrick said. "I had another lap going that seemed faster but I ended up doing a 360 at the same place Paul did, at Turn 4. At the end, I blocked Jimmy Vasser pretty badly, so I have to apologise to him [Vasser had the quickest Reynard in eighth place]."
Sebastien Bourdais also mowed the Burke Lakefront Airport grass on a couple of occasions, but the French rookie improved to 59.163 seconds on his final lap to jump up to third.
"This is a difficult track and we had even less practice here than usual so I am very happy to be here," Bourdais said.
Oriol Servia ran a series of quick laps to claim fourth on the grid in the Patrick Racing Lola, while Michel Jourdain and Alex Tagliani filled the third row. Jourdain was unhappy after being blocked by Tracy on his final flying lap.
"I'm very disappointed with Paul," he said. "We were P1 and P2 on the first set of tyres and he went out on the next set to try to block me. I saw that Jimmy had problems with Patrick and I'm not sure what strategy that team is running, but it kills me that nothing is being done about this."
Bruno Junqueira completed only one flying lap before a gearbox failure ended his day and left him 11th fastest. "The tyres weren't even up to temperature yet," he reported. "The car was obviously good because we were fastest in practice so it's a shame."

French police impound BAR F1 racecars
The inside line on the French GP

Latest news
Magazine: Hamilton's F1 2009 woes retrospective, BMW Motorsport at 50
Lewis Hamilton’s struggles with mediocre Formula 1 machinery in 2009 and 2022 are compared in this week’s Autosport magazine, out today (11 August).
Rodin reveals more details about 'F1-beating' hypercar
More details have been revealed about Rodin’s new closed-cockpit FZERO hypercar, which it intends will offer greater performance than Formula 1 machinery.
Magazine: F1 Hungarian GP review, FE London and BTCC Knockhill
Last weekend's Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, featuring another Ferrari clanger and Max Verstappen victory, is our focus on the cover of this week’s Autosport magazine, out today (4 August).
MotorsportDays LIVE reveals date of 2022 show at Silverstone
Motorsport Network is excited to announce that MotorsportDays LIVE will be held at Silverstone on 4-5 November 2022.
Why romanticism isn't the key factor in Lola’s racing return
The iconic Lola name is being relaunched after it was taken over by new ownership. Part of that reboot is a planned return to racing, though the exact details of this are still to be finalised - though its new owner does have a desire to bring the brand back to the Le Mans 24 Hours. But romanticism doesn't appear to be the driving force behind this renewed project...
Rating the best drivers of the century so far
Autosport's Top 50 feature has been a staple of the magazine for the past two decades since its first appearance in 2002. Here are the drivers that have featured most prevalently during that time
The best motorsport moments of 2021
Motorsport produced one of its greatest years of all-time in 2021 despite a backdrop of ongoing COVID-19 challenges and an ever-changing racing landscape. Through the non-stop action Autosport has collected the finest moments from the past 12 months to highlight the incredible drama and joy motorsport generates
The racing comeback artists who resurrected long-dormant careers
Making it in motorsport can be tough, and sometimes drivers move elsewhere before their best chance arrives. Here are some of those who made it back
The hidden racing gem attracting ex-F1 heroes
It’s rarely mentioned when it comes to assessing the best national contests, but the Brazilian Stock Car series that reaches its climax this weekend has an ever-growing appeal. Its expanding roster of ex-Formula 1 names has helped to draw in new fans, but it's the closeness of competition that keeps them watching
The one-time Schumacher rival rebooting his career Down Under
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
The lesson football’s would-be wreckers could learn from racing
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be
The F1 and Indy 'nearly man' that found contentment in Japan
Having had the door to F1 slammed in his face and come within three laps of winning the Indianapolis 500, the collapse of a Peugeot LMP1 shot meant Japan was Bertrand Baguette's last chance of a career. But it's one which he has grasped with both hands