DaMATTA Wins Pole With New CART Street Course Record In SURFERS PARADISE

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SURFERS PARADISE, Australia October 26, 2002; The AP reported that Cristiano da Matta won the pole position for the CART Honda Indy 300, breaking the day-old course record by more than 1.3 seconds Saturday.

Da Matta, who clinched the series title three weeks ago in Miami, broke the record with a time of 1 minute, 30.204 seconds to lead a Brazilian sweep of the first three starting spots Sunday.

Taking advantage of a 2.795-mile road course in which several curves were smoothed out, da Matta averaged 111.542 mph on his 10th lap in the final 15 minutes of a 35-minute session.

"I felt confident with the laps and everything just went smooth," said da Matta, the defending race champion. "The important thing is that my car is very competitive for the race."

Da Matta, trying to match the series record of eight victories in a season set by Michael Andretti in 1991 and matched by Al Unser Jr. in 1994, will share the front row with Bruno Junqueira, who broke Paul Tracy's 30-minute-old track qualifying record Friday.

Da Matta also had faster times than Junqueira in both the morning practice and in a 10-minute warmup before the qualifying session.

Junqueira was second-fastest Saturday in 1:30.214, followed by Tony Kanaan, Sweden's Kenny Brack and Canada's Tracy.

"I lost the pole by a hundredth of a second," Junqueira said. "It was a very frustrating qualifying. This year is Cristiano's year. It just seems that everything is going his way."

Race organizers made changes this year to the curves on the track, enabling drivers to glide through the edges of most of them.

"We don't have the mounds of concrete that were on top of the chicanes that we had for the last couple of years," Tracy said. "It allows us more time there."

Junqueira's second season on the CART circuit has seen him win twice, place second twice and take three poles. Last year at Surfers Paradise he finished 21st.

CART reinstituted Friday qualifying this year on street circuits and road courses. Each day's pole winner is determined by the fastest lap on Friday and Saturday, but Friday's winner is guaranteed a front-row starting spot.

Last year, da Matta led 16 of 65 laps for a 5.7-second victory over Andretti, who qualified 16th.

Sunday's 70-lap race will be 195.65 miles.