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©1999 SpeedCenter Publishing Rookie Juan Montoya of Target/Chip Ganassi Racing moved closer to the CART rookie record for pole positions while adding to his FedEx Championship Series points lead Saturday when he captured the pole for the Molson Indy Vancouver at Concord Pacific Place (Sunday, 4 p.m. ET, live, ABC-TV). Montoya's lap of 105.730 miles per hour (1 minute, .641 seconds) in the Target Honda Reynard brought him his sixth pole of the season, leaving him one shy of Nigel Mansell's 1993 CART rookie record of seven. In addition, the PPG Cup point he earned for the feat extended his FedEx Championship Series points lead to 173-168 over Dario Franchitti of Team KOOL Green. Franchitti (KOOL Honda Reynard), the defending Molson Indy Vancouver champion, was bumped from his provisional pole of Friday and ended up fourth on the grid at 105.191 miles per hour (1:00.952). PJ Jones (Tecate/Quaker State/Patrick Racing Ford Reynard), filling in for the injured Adrian Fernandez for the third consecutive race, earned the outside pole with a lap of 105.321 mph (1:00.877). It marks a career-best start for the four-year veteran, eclipsing his best of eighth established at Nazareth in Round 4. Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard), disqualified from his provisional outside pole position when his car failed post-qualifying inspection, rebounded in impressive fashion by qualifying third at 105.258 mph (1:00.913). It marks his career-best starting position in eight appearances at Vancouver. He will line up next to his Team KOOL Green teammate, Franchitti. Mark Blundell (Motorola PacWest Mercedes) qualified fifth at 105.182 mph (1:00.957) for his best road/street qualifying effort of the season. The top 13 qualifiers were separated by less than one second on the reconfigured 1.781-mile temporary street circuit.
JUAN MONTOYA, Target Honda Reynard: "I think the day was good. The car felt much better. We had some problems this weekend, which cost a lot of time. [During qualifying] Just like Paul [Tracy] said, there was too much traffic. I did a good time on the first set of tires, then we went with a different set and I couldn't get a good lap in. I felt like we could do a low one [minute lap time] or something, but I'm a bit surprised at how quick we went." PJ JONES, Tecate/Quaker State/Patrick Racing Ford Reynard: "The weekend has been good. We started improving at Chicago with a seventh-place finish and this weekend we just kept carrying on. We've kept refining and fine tuning and it's kept getting better and better. I wanted to go out and put a good lap in and we got it. I'm happy for Tecate, Quaker State and Adrian [Fernandez]. He deserves a lot of credit. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have had this opportunity."
For full qualifying results and more driver quotes, go to SpeedCenter's Vanvouver coverage. Source: CART News Service |
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