Sunday, August 25, 2002
Da Matta keeps rolling
Open-wheel roundup
The Associated Press
MONTREAL - It was just another routine day for Cristiano da Matta as he took the pole for the inaugural Montreal Molson-Indy with a series of sizzling laps late in Saturday's qualifying.
It was the sixth pole in 13 tries this season for the Brazilian driver, who has won six races while dominating the CART series with his Toyota-powered Newman-Haas Racing Lola.
“I had good tires and plenty of fuel at the end, so my only concern was to push it,” daMatta said.
The latest triumph added another series point for daMatta, raising his lead over Patrick Carpentier and Bruno Junqueira to 44 points.
Da Matta started the day on the provisional pole with a time of 1 minute, 19.465 seconds, or 122.726 mph, on the 2.709-mile, 14-turn Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He was knocked off the top spot briefly by Junqueira and Dario Franchitti.
Junqueira ran a lap of 122.255 with about 15 minutes to go and daMatta waited impatiently through a 20-minute red flag after Michael Andretti spewed oil on the track.
CART drivers are guaranteed 30 minutes of green flag time in each qualifying session and they went out again with 9:28 remaining. Da Matta retook the top spot almost immediately at 122.908.
Franchitti went ahead with a lap of 122.885 with less than 3 minutes to go. But da Matta came back with consecutive laps of 123.231, 123.266 and, as the checkered flag waved, 123.512.
“I knew Dario and Bruno and some other guys were out there behind me on new tires,” da Matta said. “The clock inside my car that keeps the countdown on the time left in qualifying stopped working, so I thought I'd better just keep on going.”
IRL: Short ovals seem to agree with Gil de Ferran, who won his fourth IRL pole of the season after turning a best lap of 175.120 mph at Madison, Ill. His effort at 1.25-mile Gateway International Raceway barely beat series points leader Sam Hornish Jr. for the top spot in today's Gateway 250.
All four of de Ferran's poles have come on tracks shorter than 11/2 miles.
“I call the short tracks handling tracks, and we have a very good handling car,” de Ferran said.
Hornish, who leads the standings by four points over Helio Castroneves with three races to go, was timed at 174.959. He finished just ahead of Castroneves (174.939), de Ferran's Team Penske teammate.
IRL rookie Tomas Scheckter will not race today after missing a technical briefing Friday, and his position on the Red Bull Cheever Racing team is in limbo. Team owner Eddie Cheever Jr. replaced Scheckter with rookie Buddy Rice.
Cheever said Scheckter has been unreliable and intimated being the son of former Formula One champion Jody Scheckter might have something to do with it.
“He has a habit of missing technical debriefings and not being there on time unless he is led by the hand,” Cheever said. “Maybe the fact he doesn't have to work for a living might give him a different perspective.”
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Da Matta keeps rolling
