Kent, England, May 4, 2003 Team Playes driver Paul Tracy didt even have to work up a sweat on Sunday in winning his first Champ Car World Series pole in almost three years. Tracs provisional lap time of 37.006 seconds withstood all challenges today, giving him the inside front-row position for Mondas London Champ Car Trophy race on the 1.2-mile Brands Hatch road course, as Tracy goes for his fourth straight victory. He has started from the front row in all four races this season.
Patrick Carpentier of Team Playes, who also posted his fastest lap in the first qualifying session, will start from the inside of Row 5, while his Canadian compatriot Alex Tagliani, managed to move up two positions over Saturdas qualifying and will start on the inside of Row 3. Tracs pole was the 14th of his Champ Car career.
Prior to todas qualifying session, the Legends Marketing Group presented Tracy with the National Driver of the Quarter Award. The award, given to the top driver among competitors in all of the major racing series, qualifies Tracy as one of the candidates for Driver of the Year honours. After accepting the award, Tracy watched his fellow Champ Car drivers take aim at his 37.006-second qualifying time, with French rookie Sebastien Bourdais coming the closest during his four-lap allotment, touring the course in 37.044 seconds falling short of both Tracy and Bourdai teammate Bruno Junqueira.
Is been such a long time since ve been on the pole that I dot even remember what it feels like said Tracy, who had gone 52 qualifying attempts since his last pole on the Michigan superspeedway, July 23, 2000 and had not won a road-course pole since 1994, at Laguna SecaIs tremendous for Team Playes. Starting from the front row is always a great feeling, but is even better to have the pole
Tracy, who put in a tire-scrubbing lap once his pole was assured, said the sunny and warm weather as opposed to the cloud cover that made the track a bit cooler and faster on Saturday was a factor in his provisional time holding upll do the best I can for the race he vowedThe experience will help, and saving tires is one of the things m good at. Wve been able to win three races from second on the grid, now we get a shot at winning from the pole
Carpentier, whose best time in Sundas final qualifying was about two-tenths off his fastest lap a day earlier, said the warmer weather was a factor because it changed the aerodynamic balance of the carBut the main thing today was the understeer he addedWe made some changes in an effort to improve our times, but we ended up with too much push. There was not enough front wing
Carpentier said that because he is starting from the ninth spot on the grid, Team Playes will work on using a different race strategy than the one employed by Tracy. He feels that off-sequence pitting and potentially adverse weather conditions rain is a threat for the race may be factors in helping him move up during the race.
