Long Beach, CA (My Sportsbook) - Justin Wilson won the provisional pole for Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the final race of the CART Series. The No.02 Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver circled the 1.968-mile, 11-turn, temporary street course in one minute, 07.356 seconds. He was more than half- a-second faster than the next quickest qualifier. The first of two sessions qualifying win guarantees Wilson a front row starting position for Sunday's race. Wilson beat Oriol Servia, who posted a second-best time of 1:07.858. Alex Tagliani (1:07.887), Mario Dominguez (1:07.998) and Graham Rahal (1:08.172) completed the top-five. Two weeks ago, Rahal, at 19 years of age, became the youngest ever IndyCar winner. This is the final race of the CART Series which has finally joined up with the IndyCar Series to form one open-wheel series. However, the two sides got together too late for either this race or IndyCar's Japan Indy 300 to shift to a separate weekend. Not wanting to upset either venue, the former CART drivers will race in California while the IndyCar stars go to Motegi, Japan. Both races will accrue IndyCar Series championship points. The second qualifying session is set for Saturday at 5 p.m. (et) and the race is scheduled to drop the green flag on Sunday at 4 p.m. (et). |
