Sharp Wins Pole Position at Orlando
23 January 1999
Lake Buena Vista, Fl-Jan.23, 1999 Qualifying for the Transworld Indy 200 Pole Position at Walt Disney World was won by Scott Sharp with a time of 21.007 seconds for a speed of 171.371 mph and a new track record. For Sharp this was his second pole of his IRL career and the first since his crash at Pikes Peak raceway in 1997. The two-lap qualifying effort was not a sure thing until the second lap was finished. On the first lap Sharp was about one-tenth of a second off of then pole-sitter Raul Boesel. Sharp realizing that he was behind Boesel commented in the post qualifying press conferecne "I decided to put my foot into it and just went as fast as I could go." The qualifying effort of all the teams was commendable considering that the entire field was covered by 1.5seconds from first to last. Eliseo Salazar was the only driver not to make the 28 car field. Salazar was bumped by the "last minute" qualifying effort of Scott Harrington who had waved off his earlier attempt. Raul Boesel came out early (4th qualifier) in the single-car qualifying session and set the pace with a time of 21.152 seconds for a speed of 170.197mph. Boesel's time held up for most of the session until Sharp and Greg Ray came out to qualify. Boesel commented on his qualifying attempt "This is the fastest we've ever run here and we did well this morning. I am looking forward to the race." When Sharp set the quickest time, the disapointment in the Transworld pit area was obvious. Boesel's Transworld team is also the name sponsor of the WDW 200. Then it became time for Greg Ray to turn in his time and for Sharp's team to ponder losing the pole. Ray had waved off an earlier attempt when the car stalled on the warmup lane due to a problem with the gearbox. Ray was relegated to the back of the pack. On his first lap it looked like Ray had a chance to catch Sharp. Ray gave it his all but came up 83/100's of a second behind Sharp. Ray hiding obvious disapointment about missing the pole commented that "The car felt good and if we had one more lap we would have been there." The problem with the gearbox made us go to the end of the pack." Qualifying continued with the rest of the field, Scott Goodyear turned in a time of 21.210 for a speed of 169.731 mph. Goodyear commented "The car ran good. We changed a few things from this morning. The second time through, the tires were warmed up, and it made a difference in speed. Everyone did a great job on the Pennzoil team through the winter and we're looking forward to tomorrow." Defending Champion Tony Stewart's new team ended up qualifying 23rd. Not too bad for a team that was thrown together in less than two weeks. Stewart and Larry Curry hired former CART driver Gualter Salles. On Friday, Salles turned in a time of 23.100 for 28th position. On Saturday, Salles turned in a lap 22.145 seconds for a speed of 162.565 a considerable improvement. Salles said "The team is improving. It was our first time on Friday. We need more practices and we'll improve." The race will get underway at 1:00 pm tomorrow. Televised by ABC. Top Ten Qualifying Time Speed Lap 1 Lap 2 Scott Sharp 21.007 171.371 21.122 21.007 Greg Ray 21.090 170.697 NT 21.090 Raul Boesel 21.152 170.197 21.195 21.152 Scott Goodyear 21.210 169.731 21.419 21.210 Kenny Brack 21.357 168.563 21.457 21.357 Jeff Ward 21.384 168.350 21.535 21.384 Sam Schmidt 21.413 168.122 21.478 21.413 Buddy Lazier 21.451 167.824 21.783 21.451 TyceCarlson 21.454 167.801 21.454 21.505 Mark Dismore 21.466 167.707 21.479 21.466 David Treffer -- The Auto Channel
