Tracy holds on to pole

The big surprise is that Tracy will be joined on the front row for Sunday's race by his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Rodolfo Lavin. The second-year Mexican driver punched in a 60.980sec lap between the stoppages to secure the best starting position of his Champ Car career. It was the only lap of the day timed under 61 seconds.

The two Forsythe team-mates embraced warmly as the post qualifying press conference. Lavin was the last to arrive, prompting Tracy to joke, "He doesn't know to get here because it's his first time!"

Tracy was in good spirits after nailing down his second pole of the season and the 21st of his career, even though he was 14th fastest on the day.

"It was a very strange session," he remarked. "When we decided to go, everyone followed us out and it created a lot of traffic. I had a good lap going but I slid out and brushed the wall. After that I could never really find a good rhythm.

"It's a little frustrating because the track was going to be quicker today, but I never got a chance to put a full lap in because of the traffic," he added. "The red flag came out at the right time for Rodolfo and myself."

Lavin could barely contain his glee after qualifying four positions better than his previous season and career best, sixth at Milwaukee. In general, the 27-year old Mexican has run closer to his team-mates Tracy and Patrick Carpentier than many observers expected.

"We've worked really, really hard since the start of the season," noted Lavin. "We went the right direction on set-up today and now we are starting to show what we can do with a good car and a good team. This is just the beginning for good results and hopefully we can win the race or get on the podium."

Lavin insisted he is prepared to race Tracy for the lead into Turn One but, in all likelihood, his task will be to protect Tracy from third qualifier Sebastien Bourdais. The Frenchman was another driver adversely affected by the session's two red flags - the first of which was brought out when Junqueira's PacifiCare Lola suffered a broken right-front suspension and plowed into the tires at the final turn.

"We have to feel pretty lucky because we didn't put a lap together and we are still starting up front," Bourdais said. "There were a lot of surprises today and good for Rodolfo."

It's likely that Junqueira brushed a wall at some point, though Tracy said the curb at that point on the track is particularly harsh and hard on cars. "I think something happened to the car before I hit the curb," said Junqueira, who will start eighth. "The car felt different for a while and I wasn't confident in it so I slowed down to get a feel for the car. Maybe I started to damage the suspension slowly, and then it broke."

Mario Dominguez earned fourth place on the grid by running second fastest in the Saturday session with a 61.168sec lap. "We're on the second row for the second straight race, so that's good," said the Mexican."

Memo Gidley starred by running fourth in the Saturday session, an effort good enough to put the American fifth on the grid, four spots ahead of his Rocketsports team-mate Alex Tagliani. Gidley literally sprinted from his U.S. Air Force Reserve Lola to a waiting police escort to the airport in the hopes of making the green flag for the SPEED World Challenge race at Portland International Raceway some 90 minutes later.