Tracy Extends Hot Streak

The 2003 Champ Car titlist has now qualified among the top five in each of the nine races so far this season; in fact, with the exception of a fifth-place grid slot on the Milwaukee Mile oval, he has started no lower than third.

The Canadian pronounced himself satisfied after outpacing his nearest competitor, Forsythe teammate Mario Dominguez, by nearly half a second and putting Championship leader Sebastien Bourdais in the shade.

"The car was just about perfect," he enthused. "The car has to be right to do a quick lap around here and the team did a terrific job.

"I got a good first lap on the first set of tyres, but I thought there was a little bit more [time to be found] and was able to improve on it all the way around the track.

"I came in at the end of that first run and I told my engineer Eric [Zeto], 'That was a really good lap, I pretty much got everything just about right without really any small mistakes'."

Tracy has had a busy time since the San Jose race a fortnight ago, highlighted by a high-profile test in Richard Childress Racing's NASCAR Nextel Cup car at Michigan International Speedway earlier this week.

"In the last week, I went from a half-mile short-track stock car, back to Vegas on a flight, did a night test with Sebastien [Bourdais] on a high-speed superspeedway, and went back and ran the stock car at Michigan for two days," Tracy related.

"Then last night we went out together and ran midgets and sprint cars, dirt modified cars out at the Rocky Mountain Speedway.

"I've had a lot of fun driving different types of race cars, and this is like the icing on the cake."