CART, INDYLIGHTS: Franchitti Second and Tracy Sixth for Team Kool Green in Provisional Qualifying
6 September 1998
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Only Alex Zanardi was faster than Franchitti, claiming the provisional pole with a lap of 1:04.838 seconds at 100.052 mph. Zanardi's time was just 0.120 seconds better than Franchitti's quick lap of 1:04.958 seconds (99.868 mph) on the 1.7649-mile street course. Gil de Ferran recorded the third fastest time at 1:05.010 seconds (99.788 mph).
Tracy, meanwhile, pushed his way into the fast group for tomorrow's final qualifying session with a strong final lap of 1:05.514 seconds at 99.020 mph. He was running with the slower second group today and was 16th before jumping to sixth with only two minutes left in the session. He ran only nine laps, nailing his final lap to finish as the highest qualifier from the second group.
Tracy and Franchitti will be in the faster group of cars for qualifying tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. local time. The slower group of cars will begin qualifying at 12:45 p.m.
DARIO FRANCHITTI, #27 TEAM KOOL GREEN REYNARD/HONDA/FIRESTONE:
(2nd with a lap-time of 1:04.958 seconds at 99.868 mph)
"We made a big improvement over this morning. I am a lot happier with the track -- where the braking zones are, where you turn in and how far you can push the car. As more and more rubber goes down, we're getting more traction. But it's like you're chasing the ball around the field. As we get more grip from the track, we have to adjust the setup of the car."
PAUL TRACY, #26 TEAM KOOL GREEN REYNARD/HONDA/FIRESTONE:
(6th with a lap-time of 1:05.514 seconds at 99.020 mph)
"We're getting there with the car. We didn't make any big changes for qualifying. But we started the session with a front suspension problem. The toe bar was loose and it made the steering kind of screwy. That kind of upset the flow of the session. I think we could have been quicker, because we had pretty limited time (only nine laps) to try to improve the car. The end result was good and now we have a baseline to work from tomorrow. Mainly, we need to get off the corners better."
PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship - Provisional Qualifying
Points leader Cristiano da Matta of Brazil earned the provisional pole in Indy Lights qualifying with a lap of 1:10.609 seconds at 91.875 mph. Austrian Philipp Peter was second fastest in the session, clocking a lap of 1:11.265 seconds at 91.029 mph. Meanwhile, Team KOOL Green's Naoki Hattori was sixth quick with a lap of 1:12.043 seconds at 90.046 mph.
NAOKI HATTORI, #27 TEAM KOOL GREEN LOLA:
(6th with a lap-time of 1:12.008 seconds at 90.046 mph)
"My fastest lap was my last one of the session and I just barely got it started before the checkered flag. We will have to go faster tomorrow and I think we will. We started this morning with some new damper settings that we had tested recently. But we went back to the original settings for qualifying and went much quicker. We've still got some understeer and will work on fixing that for tomorrow."
KOOL/Toyota Atlantic Championship - Provisional Qualifying
Anthony Lazzaro holds the provisional pole after turning a lap of 1:15.210 seconds at 86.254 mph. KOOL-sponsored driver Jeff Shafer, who was quickest in morning practice, was second with a lap of 1:16.089 seconds (85..258 mph). Lee Bentham was third quick at 1:16.205 seconds (85.128 mph), while another KOOL-sponsored driver, Matt Sielsky, was fourth with a lap of 1:16.623 seconds (84.664 mph).
JEFF SHAFER, #24 PPI-DEREK DALY ACADEMY SWIFT-TOYOTA:
(2nd with a lap-time of 1:16.089 seconds at 86.254 mph)
"It's great to be second today, but it's tomorrow's qualifying and the race that counts. It's really helped to be in the car recently. The experience of races at Trois-Rivieres, Road America and a test at Buttonwillow have made the difference. But, we've still got a low-speed corner understeer problem - we've had it at every race. I just don't have enough front end grip to get it around the corner. If we can get the front end to hook up a little better, I know I'll be fast."
MATT SIELSKY, #16 LCI INTERNATIONAL SWIFT-TOYOTA:
(4th with a lap-time of 1:16.623 seconds at 84.664 mph)
"I'm pretty happy with the car. This is the first time we've come to a street circuit and have been in the hunt right off the bat. We're only making minor changes to the car. I think there's more time in me learning the race track and there's a little more time in fine-tuning the car. If we can get some clear laps tomorrow, I think we have a shot at the front row."
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