Qualifying success has not been the calling card of Champ Car star Paul Tracy during his many years in the Champ Car World Series, but the 2005 season has been a different story
source: F1.racing-live.com Tracy has showed unprecedented strength in qualifying this year and kept his strong run going at the first day of the Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver presented by PacifiCare, setting a new track record in capturing the provisional pole for Sunday's ninth round of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. The 30-time Champ Car race winner stormed around the 1.657-mile Denver street course in 59.759 seconds (99.821 mph) to break the track standard set a year ago by eventual racewinner Sebastien Bourdais. Tracy was the only driver to make a trip around the nine- turn course in less than 60 seconds, earning him a championship point - closing his gap behind points leader Bourdais to 27 points - and guaranteeing him a front-row starting spot for Sunday's race. Tracy led a 1-2 first-day sweep for Forsythe Championship Racing as he was joined atop the time charts by Mario Dominguez, who punched the clock at 1:00.213 (99.068 mph). Dominguez and Tracy took the top two spots ahead of defending Denver champ Bourdais, who settled for third with a time of 1:00.347 (98.848 mph). Qualifying took place under cloudy skies in Denver, keeping track temperatures lower and allowing cars to maintain their grip on the tricky street-course surface. The session took a little time to get rolling as many of the pre-qualifying favorites waited 10 minutes before attacking the course, but the cloud cover helped drivers get up to speed quickly. Dominguez set his best time on just his fourth lap while Tracy set his eventual polewinning time on his fifth pass, leading early while Bjorn Wirdheim and Timo Glock ran in the top five.
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