Justin Wilson’s love affair with Toronto reached a new high on Saturday when he set an IZOD IndyCar qualifying record of one minute .271 seconds around the Exhibition Place 2.82-kilometre temporary street course.
That puts the Englishman’s No. 22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara on the pole for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto, breaking the Team Penske string of seven straight poles.
Australia’s Will Power, who leads the IZOD IndyCar driver’s championship will start beside Wilson on he front row in the No. 12 Team Penske Racing Dallara.
Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves will start third, his best qualifying effort at Toronto. Toronto Sun
“We’ve had a couple of tough races, so to come back and get the pole here is just fantastic,” Wilson said. “Everyone at Dreyer & Reinbold has worked so hard.
“It’s a good weekend so far. We have to keep it up. We’ll keep pushing for the race. It’s easy in this stage to sit back and relax, but we have a lot of work to do.”
Wilson is the first driver to reach the final six-car session — called the Fast Six — without using a set of the red tires in the first two segments since the alternate-tire program was introduced last season.
“I was OK with the first round,” the Englishman said. “The second round, I was a little nervous, but the car was that fast that we pulled it off.”
“We definitely got the car better for qualifying, but Justin was very quick and tough to beat,” Power said. “I’m not sure I could have beaten him this time. I know I made a mistake at the end of my lap, but that was a tough qualifying session. I’m exhausted. ... I feel good about tomorrow. I’m not sure what will happen with the weather. Rain always stirs things up, but we will take it as it comes.” The Associated Press
“It was exciting; we didn’t know if the rain was coming or not,” Castroneves said. “So we decided to keep going as fast as we could. We certainly had the car to get up there, but we just wanted to play it safe and to be in the top six. But in the top three is certainly a good position to win a race from.”
His other teammate, Ryan Briscoe, will be on Row 4 with Tony Kanaan in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Nestle Pure Life entry for Andretti Autosport. Montreal’s Alex Tagliani in the No. 77 Bower & Wilkins/Hot Wheels car for FAZZT Race Team and Marco Andretti, driving the No. 26 Venom Energy car for Andretti Autosport will start on Row 5.
Raphael Matos in the No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing car, coming off a fourth place at Watkins Glen International, will start 11th and Danica Patrick posted her highest road/street course starting position (12th) since Infineon Raceway (11th) last August. Paul Tracy of Toronto will start 24th in the No. 15 Make-A-Wish KV Racing Technology car.
“I was pleased with our qualifying run today,” Patrick said. “It was great to advance out of our group, which had a lot of good cars in it. Today was a good step in the right direction. I’m happy with the GoDaddy car and hopefully we can have a decent day tomorrow.” IndyCar.com
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