Defending Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford
champion Paul Tracy (#1 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) earned a
championship point and a guaranteed starting spot in the front row for
Saturday's U.S.
source:
champcarworldseries.com
Bank Presents The Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland by leading Thursday
qualifying, but didn't know it until he was putting in his dinner order at a
downtown restaurant.
Tracy left the track with the second-best time of the day in his pocket after an
action-packed Thursday at the 2.106-mile temporary road course at Cleveland's
Burke Lakefront Airport. His top lap of 58.361 seconds (129.909 mph) left him
just .015 seconds behind frontrunner Sebastien Bourdais (#2 McDonald's
Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), who was gunning for his third pole of the
season.
However, long after Tracy had left the track and made it to a Cleveland
establishment for dinner, Champ Car Stewards found both Bourdais and Patrick
Carpentier (#7 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) guilty of blocking a
competitor's lap during a qualifying session - a violation of Champ Car Rule
6.17.4i. The penalty for the violation is the loss of a competitor's fastest
lap, meaning that Bourdais' session-leading effort would be negated, giving the
first-day pole to Tracy.
Tracy earned a championship point for leading the session, boosting his total to
80 for the year and guaranteeing himself a front-row starting spot for Saturday
afternoon's race. The result marks the first time this season that Tracy will
start a Champ car race in the front row. It also moves Bruno Junqueira (#6
PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) into the second spot and promotes
Ryan Hunter-Reay (#4 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) to the third
position on the first-day grid.