CART Bourdais captures Cleveland qualifier

The rookie driver edged points leader Paul Tracy.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Rookie Sebastien Bourdais showed he's not afraid of the dark.
Bourdais, born in Le Mans, where they race all night, captured the pole for the CART Cleveland Grand Prix, which will be run under the lights tonight for the first time in its 22-year history.
The 24-year-old Frenchman drove a lap in 58.01 seconds Friday night to secure his fourth pole this season.
He was 0.39 seconds faster than points leader Paul Tracy, the provisional pole winner who spun out midway through the night session and decided not to return to the track.
Staying close
Defending champion Patrick Carpentier (58.44), who spun out twice, will start on the second row alongside Oriol Servia (59.50) along the 10-turn, 2.1-mile course set up on the runways of Burke Lakefront Airport.
Bourdais picked up one point in the series standings and was presented trackside with a Gibson guitar, a gift from the neighboring Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for winning the pole.
"I guess I have to learn how to play," he said.
There's no doubt he knows how to drive.
Since winning the pole at his CART debut -- the first driver since Nigel Mansell in 1993 -- in the season opener at St. Petersburg, Fla., Bourdais has had an uneven first season.
He won consecutive races at CART's only two European stops, but has finished ninth, 17th and 14th in his last three outings while being plagued by mechanical problems.
But when his car is performing, Bourdais has been running away from his more experienced counterparts, especially in qualifying where he has won his four poles in nine events.
"I don't know what it is," said Bourdais, whose pole in Cleveland is Newman/Haas' second straight following Cristiano da Matta last season. "I've always been a good qualifier, I guess."