Briscoe on pole for inaugural race in Edmonton
Fri 25th, July 2008
Edmonton, Canada (Sports Network) - Ryan Briscoe captured the pole for Saturday's inaugural Rexall Edmonton Indy. The No.6 Team Penske driver circled the 1.973-mile, 14-turn temporary street/airport course in one minute, 0.7311 seconds (116.955 m.p.h.).
The pole victory was Briscoe's second of the season and third of his IndyCar career. Team Penske has now won four consecutive poles.
Starting alongside Briscoe will be teammate Helio Castroneves who recorded a speed of 116.753 m.p.h.
"Wow, I mean we had to work for that one," said Briscoe. "It was just unbelievable. We were definitely thrashing for an hour-and-a-half there just trying to keep in there and get to the fast six (final round)."
Oriol Servia (116.710 m.p.h.) and Scott Dixon (116.710 m.p.h.) will start in row two.
Will Power and Justin Wilson were the other two drivers running in the final of the three-segment qualifying session at City Centre Airport. Power and Wilson will start fifth and sixth, respectively.
Wilson managed to make it to the final round with a fast lap even though he lost control fighting understeer going through a corner at the end of the second round.
The 12 quickest drivers, the top-six from each of the first two qualifying groups, then competed for 15 minutes to eliminate six drivers for the final segment.
Tony Kanaan spun off course in the first round and roared backward on the grass, frying his engine. He'll start 12th.
Canadian Paul Tracy qualified 16th and will be competing in his first competitive open-wheel race since finishing 11th at April's Champ Car finale in Long Beach, California.
The Toronto native was close to making the cut when the first round of qualifying was shut down with a minute to go under a full-course caution flag after Roth, also of Toronto, spun out and stalled in the middle of the track.
Tracy managed to get one more lap in before time ran out, but it wasn't fast enough and he will start in the middle of the pack for Saturday's race.
"I went quick enough to advance but the checkered (flag) fell before I got the lap time," said Tracy.
The 39-year-old Tracy was left without a ride this spring when his Forsythe team decided not to join the IndyCar circuit in the merged open-wheel series. Initially contracted just for the Edmonton round, Tracy will drive for Vision Racing team owner and IndyCar Series founder Tony George.
Tracy, who has 31 career wins in 262 starts, raced at all three Champ Car events in Edmonton.
The Rexall Speedway, located at City Centre Airport in Edmonton, Alberta is no stranger to motor racing. This track previously hosted ChampCar Series events for three seasons. Sebastien Bourdais, now racing in Formula One, won at Edmonton twice, while Wilson took the checkered flag in 2006.
Seven drivers racing at Edmonton this weekend have competed in a previous ChampCar event there. Wilson, Mario Dominguez and Servia have run in all three races at Edmonton, while Bruno Junqueira and Power have raced in two events there. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Graham Rahal have one start each there.
Heading into Edmonton, Dixon leads in the points race, owning a 58-point advantage over Castroneves. Dixon finished third last week at Mid-Ohio, while Castroneves came in second. With the victory, Briscoe moved into fifth in the standings. Briscoe recorded his second career IndyCar victory. His first win came last month at Milwaukee.
The green flag is scheduled to drop on Saturday around 5:00 p.m. (et).