|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Letting it slip away De Ferran loses point to Montoya in final minutes
SURFERS PARADISE, Australia (Ticker) -- Juan Montoya will start from his seventh pole this year at the Honda Indy 300, CART's penultimate race of the season. Montoya snatched pole position from Gil De Ferran with a furious late charge in the final qualifying session, recording a time of one minute, 31.722 seconds (109.701 miles per hour) over the 2.795-mile street circuit in his Toyota Lola. The 25-year-old Colombian, who will race for Williams-BMW next year in Formula One, tied Bobby Unser for seventh place in CART history with his 14th career pole. “It's really, really good,” said Montoya, who has three series wins and the IRL-sanctioned Indianapolis 500 this year. “On just my second lap I went out and went as fast as I did yesterday, but there were lots of red flags. We came in and just improved the car as much as we could. If you can do one lap, you can do two, there's no magic. You've just got to go out and go as fast as you can and try to do it better than the last time. This is my last road course (race), and I'm really glad to be on the pole.” In search of his third victory this season, de Ferran held the top spot after provisional on Friday. But the 32-year-old Brazilian saw his chance for a fifth pole of the season disappear in the final two minutes of Saturday's session. “Those were exciting times,” De Ferran said. “I knew I lost the pole because (team owner) Roger (Penske) said so on the radio, but I didn't know how much I needed. I had a little too much oversteer, but I still did a one minute, 32.8 second lap. I hoped that would be enough. There was silence on the radio for a few seconds, and then they came back and told me Juan got the pole. I just didn't have enough.” De Ferran has points in six of his last seven races and is the CART points leader with 153, holding a 19-point advantage over Canadian Paul Tracy with two races left. “Every point counts and if I won the pole today, I would be 20 points ahead instead of 19 points ahead,” he said. “It's important, but it didn't happen. I still feel like I have to race hard.” Teammates Dario Franchitti of Scotland and Tracy will start from the second row. Franchitti, the defending race champion, is in search of his first victory of the season. Jimmy Vasser qualified fifth, ahead of Michael Andretti, Brazilians Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves, Patrick Carpentier of Canada, and Sweden's Kenny Brack. The 65-lap race will be televised live in the United States at midnight EDT on ESPN. The 500 presented by Toyota is the final race of the season and will take place October 29 in Fontana, Calif.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
