''Basically, we had no luck at all today.'' Carpentier
source: Team Players
Portland, Oregon - Scattered showers turned Friday's
provisional qualifying session for the Champ Car World Series G.I. Joe's 200
into a guessing game that turned out wrong for Team Player's drivers Paul Tracy
and Paul Carpentier, who had to settle for the eighth and 14th fastest times
respectively.
Michel Jourdain Jr., who gambled and put in an early quick lap before a light
rain dampened the 1.969-mile road course, took the provisional pole, the
guaranteed front-row starting position and the one point that comes with it by
clocking a lap in 59.397 seconds. American Ryan Hunter-Reay was next fastest in
59.432 seconds.
"It was a really weird session," said Tracy who was just over
three-tenths of a second off the pace. "Every lap of the track is
different. You've got some wet spots, some dry spots. We weren't able to get a
good feel for the car, although overall it was working fine. It's just that we
missed all the spots when the weather was good."
Tracy, the fastest in the morning practice session under dry conditions, made
his entry about five minutes into the qualifying session and had a solid warm-up
lap before turning his best lap of the session. As he tried to improve on that
time, he either ran into heavy traffic, or - as was the case on his second of
tires - he missed out on the dry part of the track.
Antoine L'Estage and his codriver Alan Ockwell of the Yokohama Canada Rally Team won the 2014 edition of the Rallye Defi by winning every stage of the rally.