Toronto, Canada (My Sportsbook) - A.J. Allmendinger grabbed the provisional pole for Sunday's Molson Grand Prix of Toronto. The No.7 Forsythe Championship Racing driver circled the 1.755 mile, 11-turn, temporary street course in 58.621 seconds (107.777 m.p.h.). The provisional pole earns Allmendinger one championship point and a guaranteed front row starting position. Justin Wilson (58.830), Nelson Philippe (59.203) Paul Tracy (59.274) and Sebastien Bourdais (59.313) made up the top-five. Wilson is the defending champion, but Bourdais remains the favorite after winning the first four events of 2006. After finishing 18th last week, expect a big rebound effort from Bourdais. Not since 2003 has the Frenchman had back- to-back races outside the top-10. Bourdais still leads the championship, by 26 points over Wilson (166-140). But with two consecutive wins at Portland and Cleveland, Allmendinger (135) has closed to with 31 points of the two-time defending series champion. In rookie of the year competition, Dan Clarke leads Katherine Legge by three points (75-72). Allmendinger was the first to post a 59-second lap with 15 minutes remaining in the session. Allmendinger's Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Tracy topped that time with 12 minutes to go, posting a 59.281-second lap. Wilson jumped up to P1 with nine minutes to go, but Allmendinger put on the softer "red" tires and went back out with just a few minutes remaining in the session. The softer tires worked to perfection and Allmendinger posted a time of 58.621 seconds to re-take the provisional pole. The second qualifying session is scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m. (et) while the race is set to begin on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. |
