CHAMP CAR Carpentier's fast lap secure after fishtail
The Canadian took the provisional pole for Sunday's Bridgestone Grand Prix.
MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) -- A cloud of dirt billowed from Patrick Carpentier's tires, and the Canadian driver had thoughts of losing his fast lap ran as he fishtailed through the sand at 150 mph Friday.
Carpentier swerved several times, narrowly missing a low concrete wall jutting toward the track at the end of the third turn sandtrap as he made his last qualifying lap around the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course. But he pulled back onto the asphalt and drove on, keeping his top lap and taking the provisional pole for Sunday's Bridgestone Grand Prix of Monterey.
Concern
"They take your fastest lap away if you cause a red flag," said Carpentier, who led wire-to-wire in last year's Champ Car World Series race at the picturesque Monterey Peninsula track. "I was just trying to save it and, with all that dust, I couldn't see a thing."
Neither could defending series champion Paul Tracy, who was on what he thought would be his fast lap until he drove into turn three -- a fast right-hander -- and saw, well, nothing.
"He was spraying dirt everywhere and he took all the paint off the front of my car and my helmet," Tracy said. "It was not a very effective lap for me because I couldn't see through (turns) three and four."
While Carpentier's fast lap of 1 minute, 9.918 seconds (115.232 mph) guaranteed him his first front row start of the season, current series leader Sebastien Bourdais wound up second at 1:10.130 (114.884) and Tracy third at 1:10.214 (114.746). The challengers will get another chance in today's final qualifying to beat out Carpentier, last year's pole winner, for the top spot.
The point Carpentier received for taking the provisional pole moved him into sole possession of fourth place in the standings, ahead of Alex Tagliani and trailing Bourdais by a daunting 76 points with four races remaining. Tracy, Carpentier's Forsythe Racing teammate, is third, 55 points behind, while Bruno Junqueira, Bourdais' Newman/Haas Racing teammate, is 34 back.
No room for error
"I need every point I can get," Carpentier said, shrugging. "The guys ahead of Paul and me can afford to make a mistake and lose some points. We can't."
Tagliani was fourth on Friday, followed by Junqueira, coming off his first victory of the season two weeks ago in Montreal, Mario Dominguez, rookie A.J. Allmendinger, Jimmy Vasser and Michel Jourdain Jr.