Familiar streets helpful to racers

Three of the six fastest drivers in qualifications raced the Edmonton circuit before.

EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — A little local knowledge can be a big thing.

Three of the six fastest drivers in Friday’s qualifying for the Rexall Edmonton Indy raced on the temporary street circuit in this western Canada city before.

The Edmonton race is the first run by everyone on a traditional Champ Car World Series circuit since that series was absorbed in February by the longtime rival IndyCar Series.

In April, the IndyCar regulars raced in Japan on the same weekend the Champ Car finale was run in Long Beach, Calif., with both events paying IndyCar championship points. But that’s the only other Champ Car venue on the schedule this year — although Australia’s Surfers Paradise could be added this fall.

This season has mostly been a totally new experience for the teams and drivers making the transition to IndyCar — new tracks, new cars and new competitors.

It’s even newer for Paul Tracy, a star in Champ Car and in the CART series that preceded it. Today’s race will be Tracy’s first since Long Beach and only his second since completing the 2007 season in Australia last October.

“It’s completely different, obviously,” Tracy said of IndyCar. “We have advantages because we’ve been here before and we know the problem areas. But the top level guys, like [Scott] Dixon and Helio [Castroneves], those guys, I mean, they’re good. They were great road course drivers when they were in Champ Car and CART. They’re going to learn the track real quick.”

That showed in qualifying, with Penske Racing teammates Ryan Briscoe and Castroneves — who finished 1-2 last week in the race at Mid-Ohio, sweeping the top two spots in time trials. Right behind them, though, was former Champ Car star Oriol Servia.

IndyCar series leader and former champion Dixon was fourth, followed by two more newcomers, Will Power — who won the pole for last year’s Champ Car race here — and Justin Wilson, who won the Champ Car race here in 2006.

One huge difference for the nine newcomers in the 27-car Edmonton field is the car. Champ Cars were turbocharged, while IndyCars are normally aspirated. And that’s only one difference.

“This car, in trying to compare how you would drive a Champ Car here, the line is similar but the car is doing a lot of different things than the Champ Car,” said Tracy, who qualified 16th, narrowly missing moving out of the first round of qualifying.