Qualifying 2: Another pole for da Matta

Da Matta and Brack maintained the top two slots, but both drivers improved their times from Friday. Da Matta finally set the mark at 58.679 seconds (120.800 mph), while Brack ran a 58.963s.

Junqueira jumped up to third fastest midway through Saturday's session, but the biggest gain was made by Alex Tagliani of the Player's/Forsythe team, who vaulted from 10th to fourth in the final two minutes.

Christian Fittipaldi was one of only three drivers who did not improve their times, dropping him from third to fifth on the grid. Rookie Townsend Bell continued his improved from to fill out the third row ahead of Dario Franchitti and Tora Takagi.

"Of course I'm very happy with the whole weekend," da Matta said after claiming pole. "We've had no problems and we've been able to improve the car to match the track conditions.

"I did my time on the first set of tyres," he added. "We made some changes, but maybe went a little over the top because I had too much oversteer for the second set. So I had to settle for what I had."

The Newman/Haas and Ganassi teams are showing their strength in the heat of the Champ Car schedule. Central to their success is engine supplier Toyota, which powered six of the top eight qualifiers at Portland.

"I think we have the upper hand on Ford and Honda in terms of power and drivability," remarked Brack. "That's natural if you look at Toyota's resources. We're still missing a little on the set-up, but I put a very good lap together and that's all I had."

Sunday's 110-lap event is the longest road race on the CART calendar. The minimum pitstop window has been set at 30 laps.

"It's going to be a sprint race with at least three pit stops," said Brack. "Maybe there will be some people at the back who will play it backwards, but I don't think they will get lucky here like they did at Long Beach."