CART: Brack picks up first oval pole at Texas Motor Speedway
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 29, 2001
FORT WORTH, Texas- Kenny Brack of Team Rahal secured the first oval track pole position of his FedEx Championship Series career Saturday when he captured the pole for Sunday's Firestone Firehawk 600 Presented by Pioneer at Texas Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, live, ESPN).
Brack (Shell Ford Lola), who topped Friday's practice charts at 233.785 mph (22.821 seconds) averaged 233.447 miles per hour (22.854 seconds) on his fastest lap of the 1.5-mile oval to capture second pole of his career and his second of the season, after starting from the pole in the season opener at Monterrey, Mexico. His previous best oval start was second at Japan last year.
Brack came to this weekend's first-ever CART event at Texas Motor Speedway as the only Champ Car driver with competitive experience at the venue. He made five starts at Texas as a member of the Indy Racing League from 1997-99, with a best finish of third in the first of two events in 1998.
Brack's best previous start at Texas is third in 1997.
Patrick Carpentier (Player's/Indeck Ford Reynard) of Player's Forsythe Racing starts on the outside pole after a lap of 233.345 mph (22.864 seconds). It was an impressive effort, considering that Carpentier is continuing his recovery from a small fracture of his left wrist sustained in an accident at the April 8 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Carpentier's qualifying performance represents his best overall start since winning the pole at Milwaukee in 1998.
Oriol Servia (Sigma Autosport Ford Lola) of Sigma Autosport qualified third at 232.978 mph (22.900 seconds). It was a career-best qualifying performance for Servia, the 1999 Dayton Indy Lights champion, in his 23rd Champ Car start.
Bryan Herta (Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing Ford Reynard) of Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing qualified fourth at 232.663 mph (22.931 seconds), followed by Shinji Nakano (Avex/Alpine Honda Reynard) of Fernandez Racing, who was fifth at 232.086 mph (22.988 seconds). Herta's qualifying performance is his best since fourth at Laguna Seca last year, while Nakano is a career best in his 20th FedEx Championship Series event.
The top four qualifiers were all Ford-powered. Brack's pole was the first for Ford on an oval since Alex Tagliani's at Rio de Janeiro last year.
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING
KENNY BRACK, Shell Ford Lola: "I think that right now for qualifying, I don't think my knowledge of this track is of any advantage. We'll see tomorrow if I've got something more than the others. This car has got a lot of power and I've got to thank Ford for that. Pat [Carpentier] lifted a little bit and I kept it flat, and that was the difference. Servia blew up, and we all know that the engine is at its best right before it blows up. I didn't expect us to be this fast. We tested here in December and went 221, and we thought that would be pretty representative, but obviously we're 12, 13 miles an hour quicker. I think this will be a great open-wheel race. It's going to take a lot of discipline from the drivers. We're not used to racing on high banks, so we need to view this race as a long race and to be patient."
PATRICK CARPENTIER, Player's/Indeck Ford Reynard: "[Jokingly] The first thing, and this is kind of a scoop, but Kenny is fired from the band [with Carpentier and Cristiano da Matta]. Yesterday, we were struggling with the car. We actually turned the whole car over last night, and right away this morning it was a lot better. We're real confident with the Ford engine. As you can see, it's three Fords up here, so the engine is very strong. We'll see what happens for the race. I think my wrist is going to be okay. [CART Chief Orthopedic Consultant] Dr. [Terry] Trammell did a great job with my wrist. When we first went out in the morning yesterday it was a little bit painful, but in the afternoon it was much better. It was even a little better this morning. It's not very strong, and I only did about ten laps, but so far I haven't had any problems with it. We'll see what it is for the race."
ORIOL SERVIA, Sigma Autosport Ford Lola: "The car has been really strong all weekend, and it was really strong at Long Beach. I don't know what happened, but the engine blew up on the second lap. I'm very lucky, because that means the engine was very close to blowing up on the first lap, but it didn't. I'm very happy to be starting third, because I think on the first lap there is going to be a lot of turbulence, so it'll be good to be starting up front."
WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY
* Kenny Brack (Shell Ford Lola) has qualified among the top five drivers for all three of his FedEx Championship Series starts on 1.5-mile ovals. He qualified fifth at Homestead for his FedEx Championship Series debut last year, then qualified on the outside pole at Japan, his previous career best oval start prior to Saturday.
* Patrick Carpentier (Player's/Indeck Ford Reynard) recorded his best qualifying effort since winning the pole at Milwaukee in 1998, and will make the third front-row start of his five-year FedEx Championship Series career, including a pole at Nazareth in 1998.
* Oriol Servia (Sigma Autosport Ford Lola) qualified a career-best third, exceeding his previous career benchmark of seventh at Portland last year. His previous career-best on an oval was 13th at Japan last year.
* Fourth-place qualifier Bryan Herta (Zakspeed/Forsythe Racing Ford Reynard) will make his best oval start since third at California Speedway in the 1997 season finale.
* Shinji Nakano's (Avex/Alpine Honda Reynard) fifth-place qualifying effort exceeds a career best of 11th established at Japan last year.
* Mauricio Gugelmin (Nextel PacWest Toyota) of the PacWest Racing Group has withdrawn from Sunday's Firestone Firehawk 600 Presented by Toyota as a result of muscle strain sustained in a practice accident Friday afternoon. By not taking the green flag, Gugelmin's streak of consecutive FedEx Championship Series starts - which began at Mid-Ohio in 1993 - comes to an end at 130, tops among active drivers. Jimmy Vasser (Patrick Racing Toyota Reynard) of Patrick Racing owns the second-longest active streak of consecutive starts, currently 128.
WHAT'S ON TAP
Qualifying for the Firestone Firehawk 600 Presented by Pioneer will air 1 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2. CART 2Day airs 11 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2, while ESPN's live race broadcast begins 3 p.m. ET. Twenty of 21 FedEx Championship Series events are being televised live on ABC-TV or ESPN, and 18 are being televised live on Eurosport, a European network which reaches 250 million viewers in 54 countries. Sunday's race will also air on the CART Radio Network and on CART's official website, at www.cart.com .
Text provided by T.E. McHale
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