Nothing, it seems,
could keep Paul Tracy off the pole in
Vancouver
source: Players
After being
unceremoniously stripped of his provisional pole yesterday following a
controversial ruling, the Team
Player's driver took the track early in the second qualifying session to
re-capture the pole for the Molson Indy Vancouver, the eleventh stop in the 2003
Champ Car World Series.
With
a fervent home crowd cheering him along the length of the 2.866 kilometre (1.781
mile) temporary street course, Tracy was the only driver in the session to break
the 61-second mark, with a blistering hot lap of 1 minute, 0.926 seconds
(169.360 km/hour). Bucking tradition, he recorded the time early in the session,
when the track was quiet. With 14 minutes left, he sat back and waited for
someone to top his time. Many tried, but none came close. Tracy closest
competitor, Bruno Junquiera, posted a fast lap of one minute, 1.070 seconds
(168.961 km/hour) in the final minutes of qualifying in an attempt to dislodge
Tracy from the pole even with a spot on the front row secured with Friday's
provisional pole. Roberto Moreno had the third fastest time of the day, with a
time of one minute, 1.172 seconds (168.679 km/hour). Tracy's teammate Patrick
Carpentier, who tagged the wall on Turn 12 in the final minutes of qualifying,
causing a red flag, had his fast time taken away. His second quickest time of
one minute 1.691 seconds (167.260 km/hour) was good enough to place him on the
third row (6th) of the grid for Sunday's race. Canadian Alex
Tagliani came in just behind Carpentier, with a time of one minute, 1.816
seconds (166.922 km/hour.)