Team Australia has had a mixed day in opening qualifying for the Round 9 of the Champ Car World Series at the Canary Foundation Grand Prix of San Jose in California today. source: teamaustraliamotorsport.com Alex Tagliani was a strong fifth fastest in his Aussie Vineyards Lola in Friday's qualifying, while Australian rookie Will Power missed opening qualifying for the second round in succession after an accident damaged his car. Tagliani was pleased with the improvements organisers have made to the San Jose layout for this year's race, one of the marquee events on the Champ Car schedule. In today's qualifying, all cars participating went faster than last year's pole time set by Sebastien Bourdais. Tagliani is confident that the set-up of his Aussie Vineyards Lola can still be improved for tomorrow's final qualifying and the Canadian will be able to push even harder knowing that the track-related problems of last year's event are now unlikely. Team Australia is growing a reputation as arguably the hardest working crew in the Champ Car World Series pit lane, and again the green and gold Aussie Vineyards squad will get to work on repairing Power's car. Power had a master cylinder failure as he exited the pits for second practice, sending his Aussie Vineyards Lola down the escape road at Turn 1 and into a tyre wall. The damage was enough to rule him out of action for the rest of the day, but the Roshfrans Rookie of the Year and his car will be back on track tomorrow. Power will spend the night analysing team-mate Tagliani's data from today so that both Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards cars can be on the pace for final qualifying at the tough Californian venue tomorrow.
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