Tracy Beats Penalty to Claim Pole

The Canadian took to the track early in the 35-minute session to avoid getting caught up in traffic, but the ploy went awry when he lost control over the bumps in the fast final chicane and performed a big spin along the start/finish straight.

That in itself wasn't too much of a problem, but as he rejoined he inadvertently impeded the progress of arch-rival Sebastien Bourdais, prompting officials to decree that his fastest time would be disallowed.

The penalty meant that Tracy needed to post two laps quicker than anyone else's in order to clinch pole - a mission he duly accomplished on his second run, vaulting to the top of the charts with a 57.404s lap at the 25-minute mark and backing it up with a 57.419s on his next flier.

That, together with a red flag that brought the session to a halt four and a half minutes early, assured Tracy of pole by a wafer-thin 0.005s from Friday pacesetter Cristiano da Matta.

"We had a good warm-up session on old tyres so we knew the car was going to be fast, but unfortunately I started the session off by spinning at the last corner as I launched a lap, breaking a wing and flat-spotting the tyres," related Tracy.

"Then while I was regrouping I got in Sebastien's way at Turn One. I didn't see him coming but balked him and that meant a penalty which cost me my quickest time of the session.

"So the mindset was for two fast laps since I was going to lose one. I'm really pleased we did that because I don't think anybody has ever had a fast-lap penalty and still grabbed the pole before."

Da Matta has been at the sharp end of the timesheets all weekend and, although naturally disappointed to have missed out on pole by such a narrow margin, was relieved to find that PKV Racing's Portland pace was not a flash in the pan.

"I'm very happy just to know that last weekend's race [which he won] wasn't just a spell," said the Brazilian. "I'm very happy to be up here again and that we're getting more consistent as a team."

Third on the grid went to Bourdais, who was the first to dip beneath da Matta's Friday benchmark just five minutes into today's session. The Frenchman was gearing himself up for another challenge when the final red flag came out, but admitted he probably cut things a bit fine before venturing out for his second run.

"We were a bit too optimistic and stayed in the pits for too long," he conceded.

French-Canadian hotshoe Andrew Ranger will line up a sensational fourth on the grid for MiJack Conquest Racing. The 18-year-old battled oversteer in the morning practice session but was a major factor throughout qualifying, easily emerging as top of the rookie class.

Fellow countryman Alex Tagliani was a strong fifth quickest for Team Australia, and will be flanked on the third row by Newman/Haas Racing's Oriol Servia, who performed one of his regular giant-killing acts at Cleveland last year to finish fourth for Dale Coyne Racing.

Now ensconced in one of Champ Car's plum seats, Servia has yet to make a big impression in qualifying but made rapid progress through the field at both Milwaukee and Portland.

Mario Dominguez was a disappointed seventh fastest in the sister Forsythe Championship Racing Lola to that of polesitter Tracy, complaining that his true speed was masked by the late red flag. Jimmy Vasser was eighth in the second PKV entry ahead of AJ Allmendinger, who was the cause of said red flag when he buried his RuSPORT Lola in the tyre barriers at Turn Eight with five minutes remaining.

Tarso Marques, the latest beneficiary of the musical chairs at Dale Coyne Racing, spun twice but did a Herculean job for the underfunded team to qualify tenth.

Pos  Driver               Team                   Time            Laps
 1.  Paul Tracy           Forsythe Championship  57.419           29
 2.  Cristiano da Matta   PKV                    57.424 + 0.005   26
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais   Newman Haas            57.559 + 0.140   22
 4.  Andrew Ranger        Mi-Jack Conquest       57.801 + 0.382   25
 5.  Alex Tagliani        Team Australia         57.836 + 0.417   24
 6.  Oriol Servia         Newman Haas            57.917 + 0.498   25
 7.  Mario Dominguez      Forsythe Championship  57.942 + 0.523   24
 8.  Jimmy Vasser         PKV                    58.029 + 0.610   21
 9.  A.J. Allmendinger    RuSPORT                58.126 + 0.707   23
10.  Tarso Marques        Dale Coyne             58.335 + 0.916   25
11.  Timo Glock           Rocketsports           58.385 + 0.966   22
12.  Ronnie Bremer        HVM, Inc.              58.471 + 1.052   24
13.  Bjorn Wirdheim       HVM, Inc.              58.493 + 1.074   25
14.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Rocketsports           58.693 + 1.274   27
15.  Nelson Philippe      Mi-Jack Conquest       58.844 + 1.425   19
16.  Justin Wilson        RuSPORT                58.986 + 1.567   14
17.  Ricardo Sperafico    Dale Coyne             59.128 + 1.709   27
18.  Marcus Marshall      Team Australia         59.200 + 1.781   23