MOTORSPORTS ROUNDUP | Saturday's results

Champ Car: MONTEREY, Calif. -- Sebastien Bourdais won his seventh pole in 11 tries this season, but this one was anything but routine for the Champ Car leader. Trailing defending series champion Paul Tracy late in qualifying, the Flying Frenchman locked up the left front tire on his Newman/Haas Racing Lola as he approached the left-handed Mario Andretti hairpin turn. "I knew that could be the end of my chance for the pole if I flat-spotted the tire, so I had to release the pressure," Bourdais said. "But I knew if I did that, I probably wouldn't make it through the corner." He didn't. Bourdais put his left wheels into the dirt and struggled hard to stay in control, finally jerking the car back onto the track. "The tire was fine," Bourdais said, grinning. "I slowed down for a bit to clear my mind and clear the tires. Then I got two decent laps I was pretty happy with." Either of those fast laps, both coming in the final minute and a half of the session, would have been enough to take his fourth straight pole and the 12th of his Champ Car career. The second one was slightly faster at 1 minute, 9.358 seconds (116.163 mph). Defending race winner Patrick Carpentier, guaranteed a front-row starting spot in Sunday's race after winning the provisional pole Friday, will start alongside Bourdais, although he was only fourth fastest in the final round of time trials at 1:09.605 (115.750). Carpentier went off course on the slick, fast 2.238-mile, 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca course twice during his fastest lap Saturday. "That would have been one heck of a lap if I could have kept it on the track," said Carpentier, who started from the pole and led every lap a year ago. "I feel pretty good for the race." Tracy, Carpentier's teammate, also was feeling good about his Saturday lap of 1:09.515 (115.900) after a crash during the morning practice tore a hole in the tub of his primary car and forced him to jump into a spare Forsythe Racing Lola for qualifying. "I wasn't too worried, even though we lost yesterday's time when we switched cars," said Tracy, who was third on Friday. Rookie A.J. Allmendinger will start fourth in the 18-car lineup, followed by RuSport teammate Michel Jourdain Jr., Alex Tagliani, Ryan Hunter Reay and Bruno Junqueira. The pole gave Bourdais, who has won a series-high five races this season, one more championship point, building his lead over Junqueira to 35 with four races remaining. Tracy is third, 56 points back.
IRL: JOLIET, Ill. -- Helio Castroneves ran away with his second straight pole and third of the season with an official lap of 214.759 mph for the Delphi Indy 300. Tony Kanaan was second at 214.030 mph, the only other driver in the 22-car field to crack the 214 mph mark. Buddy Rice came up short again in his effort to equal the IRL record of six poles in a season, qualifying third at 213.843 mph. He'll be joined in the second row by Dario Franchitti.
Formula One: MONZA, Italy -- Rubens Barrichello won the pole position for today's Italian Grand Prix, edging Juan Pablo Montoya and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher. Barrichello covered the 3.6-mile lap in 1 minute, 20.089 seconds on the Monza circuit. The Brazilian was almost one second faster than Schumacher was in capturing last year's pole. Barrichello, the No. 2 Ferrari driver who has yet to win this season, will have the pole for the 11th time in his career. Montoya, who broke his own lap record in pre-qualifying, drove his Williams-BMW in 1:20.620. Schumacher was timed in 1:20.637 and will start from the second row with Renault's Fernando Alonso. Schumacher has won 12 of the previous 14 races and clinched a record seventh world title at the Belgian GP on Aug. 29. The German is seeking his fifth victory at Monza. After this race, Formula One racing moves to China, Japan and Brazil.
Associated Press
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.