Friday 10 February 2012

GPUpdate

Power leads Penske domination in qualifying

3 July 2010

Team Penske earned its sixth consecutive pole position at Watkins Glen International and eighth in a row this season overall. That impressive statistic will mean little if one of its three drivers don’t come away with the victory in the Camping World Grand Prix at The Glen. 

Will Power, the Mario Andretti Road Course Championship points leader, won the PEAK Performance Pole Award for the fifth time this season with a lap of 1 minute, 29.3164 seconds on the 3.4-mile, 11-turn circuit during the Firestone Fast Six shootout. 

Teammate Helio Castroneves (1:29.4609) was second – the first time this season a team has swept the front row – while Ryan Briscoe (1:29.9346) and reigning series champion Dario Franchitti will share Row 2. Team Penske started 1-2-3 at Edmonton in '09. 

Takuma Sato made his third Firestone Fast Six appearance in the No. 5 Lotus KV Racing Technology car and will be on the third row with defending race winner Justin Wilson in the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. 

The top six were separated by less than a second. Six different teams are represented on the first three rows. 

During Team Penske’s eight-race run, Briscoe (Texas) and Power (St. Petersburg) have transferred their pole starts into victories. The team hasn’t had as much success at Watkins Glen despite its pole starts (second by Briscoe in ’09 and Sam Hornish Jr. in ’07 are the highest finishes. 

“It’s awesome to have the Verizon car on pole again,” Power said. “We’re certainly racking them up, but we’ve got to get the race win. The way the points are structured (a 10-point margin between first and second) you have to get that win. 

"I was on it (in the Firestone Fast Six). I haven’t driven so hard, because I haven’t had such an advantage here. In the practice sessions, I was a little worried. I was thinking, ‘Man, it’s going to be tough to get pole.’ But we worked hard, and we got it all together.” 

Added Castroneves, who had started on the pole the first three years at The Glen: “Certainly the competition is pushing us, but credit goes to my engineer Ron Ruzewski and the other ones as well. Each one of us wants to win, but as Roger (Penske) says in the end the team wins. Whoever is up there it benefits the team.” 

Scott Dixon, a three-time winner of this race, missed advancing to the Firestone Fast Six by one-tenth of a second. Mario Moraes qualified a season-high best ninth on a road/street course in the No. 32 KV Racing Technology car. 

Adam Carroll, the former A1GP champion with Team Ireland who’s making his IZOD IndyCar Series debut in the No. 27 Boost Mobile entry for Andretti Autosport, will start 10th. Raphael Matos will start 11th in the No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing car. Paul Tracy, making his first race start of the season, qualified 12th in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car. 

“This qualifying result was a big improvement from some of the last races, so that’s a great positive,” said Matos, who recorded a season best. “I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get to move on to the Fast Six, but again, it’s good to have improved from some previous events. We have learned a lot this weekend. We’ll just keep working to continue that improvement. 

“Tomorrow’s race will be long and physical. We’ll take what we’ve learned and use it to hopefully produce a good result.” 

Tony Kanaan, the winner at Iowa Speedway two weeks earlier, missed advancing to Round 2 for the first time since Edmonton in ’09 (six races). He was seventh (1:31.1934) in Group 1. E.J. Viso, whose No. 8 PDVSA KV Racing Technology car made heavy contact with the left and right barriers in Turn 2 in the morning practice session, didn’t make a qualifying attempt and will start on the back row with fellow Venezuelan Milka Duno.

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  IndyCar Series

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  Will Power

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  Team Penske

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