Long Beach, CA (My Sportsbook) - Defending Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Paul Tracy captured the pole for Sunday's season-opener. The No.3 Forsythe Championship Racing driver circled the 1.968-mile temporary street course in a track record one minute 07.485 seconds (104.983 m.p.h.). Tracy broke the old mark of 1:07.494 set in 2000 by Gil de Ferran. It was Tracy's 23rd career pole victory and he earned one championship point. The 2003 Series champion was sitting third best when he posted his quick lap just three minutes before the end of the session. Starting on the front row with Tracy will be provisional pole winner Bruno Junqueira who posted a second-best time of 1:07.644. Mario Dominguez (1:07.803) and 2004 Series champion Sebastien Bourdais (1:07.821) will start in row two. The Frenchman is coming off an eight pole, seven win performance which ranked among the best in Champ Car history. He led the series in victories, poles, laps led and qualifying average. "I'm obviously very proud of what we achieved last year, but that was last year," said Bourdais. A total of 19 drivers took to the track including seven rookies: Andrew Ranger, Ronnie Bremer, Bjorn Wirdheim, Timo Glock, Ricardo Sperafico, Marcus Marshall and Fabrizio del Monte. Glock was the fastest of the rookies and was sixth quickest overall at 1:08.274. The race scheduled to begin on Sunday at 4 p.m. (edt). |
