TORONTO Tracy plans to regroup at home



Paul Tracy is 46 points behind leader Bruno Junqueira entering today.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- Paul Tracy's whole season may be riding on his hometown race.
The defending Champ Car World Series champion, 46 points behind leader Bruno Junqueira going into today's Toronto Molson Indy, figures he can't afford to fall any further behind as the season nears its halfway point.
"This is my hometown and this is the biggest race of the year for me," said Tracy, who will start second in the 18-car field. "It always has been my biggest race and it always will be."
More so this year, though, as Tracy tries to climb out of a hole for which he at least partially blames nemesis Alex Tagliani.
In the race in Portland, Ore., on June 20, Tracy became irate, claiming Tagliani held him up for a dozen laps and cost him a shot at winning. Last week in Cleveland, Tracy got caught up in a crash involving Tagliani and rookie Justin Wilson.
Although replays showed that Wilson appeared to be at fault, Tracy has continued to blame Tagliani for "making it very, very difficult for me to have a real shot at the championship."
Deficit
With so much of the season left, Tracy's deficit would not seem as huge if it were not for the fact that Newman/Haas Racing teammates Junqueira and series runner-up Sebastien Bourdais have been so strong.
"It's going to be hard to catch them," Tracy said. "It seems like every time I'm in a press conference for being in the top three in qualifying or in the race, I'm usually between those two guys."
That was the case on Saturday, when Bourdais knocked provisional pole winner Tracy off the top spot and Junqueira took third.
Formula One
SILVERSTONE, England -- Kimi Raikkonen claimed his third career pole, and six-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher turned in the fourth-fastest time in qualifying for the British Grand Prix on Saturday.
Raikkonen, of the resurgent McLaren Mercedes team, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 18.233 seconds on the 3.195-mile Silverstone circuit for his first pole of the season. He last started from the top spot at the 2003 U.S. Grand Prix.
Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, the defending champion who started from the pole last year, was second in 1:18.305.
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