Michigan qualifying: Scheckter on pole
Tomas Scheckter, son of former F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter, put the rumours concerning his future with Red Bull Cheever Racing behind him to lead a 1-2-3 clean sweep for the team in qualifying for Sunday's race. Scheckter led IRL debutant Buddy Rice and team boss Eddie Cheever to a lock-out of the first three grid slots, the first time that a team has achieved this in the IRL.
Scheckter's achievement was all the more remarkable as Rice had taken over his engineering team for this weekend as Cheever expanded his team to three cars.
"When I hit my lap, I thought it was going to be difficult to beat," said Scheckter. "I never knew I could do a lap like this, but we had done some stuff to the car. We took some chances on a couple of things and it paid off.
"It means a lot. Especially with my team being taken away from me and a new team on the car, we still managed to be on pole."
Reigning IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr qualified alongside Cheever in fourth place, ahead of Mark Dismore and the lead Penske of Helio Castroneves, whose team-mate, Gil de Ferran, was down in 17th.
Arie, Luyendyk, making his first start in an Indycar race other that the Indianapolis 500 for four years, will start 20th alongside last race poleman Billy Boat.
Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Infiniti, 32.4518s
Buddy Rice, Dallara-Infiniti, 32.4571s
Eddie Cheever, Dallara-Infiniti, 32.6785s
Sam Hornish Jr, Dallara-Chevrolet, 32.7898s
Mark Dismore, Dallara-Chevrolet, 32.8325s
Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 32.8631s
Alex Barron, Dallara-Chevrolet, 32.9317s
Sarah Fisher, G-Force-Infiniti, 32.9341s
Eliseo Salazar, Dallara-Chevrolet, 32.9366s
Tony Renna, 32,9428s
Robbie Buhl, G-Force-Infiniti, 32.9849s
Felipe Giaffone, G-Force-Chevrolet, 32.9891s
Airton Dare, Dallara-Chevrolet, 33.0377s
Laurent Redon, Dallara-Infiniti, 33.0435s
Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Chevrolet, 33.0929s
Scott Sharp, Dallara-Chevrolet, 33.0942s
Gil de Ferran, Dallara-Chevrolet, 33.1146s
Raul Boesel, Dallara-Infiniti, 33.1181s
Billy Boat, Dallara-Infiniti, 33.1408s
Arie Luyendyk, G-Force-Infiniti, 33.1785s
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