Da Matta takes advantage of course changes for pole slot

Dennis Passa, Associated Press, Surfers Paradise, Australia

Three weeks after clinching the CART FedEx series championship, Cristiano da Matta is showing no sign of coasting in the season's final stages.

Da Matta broke the day-old Surfers Paradise street course lap record by more than 1.3 seconds Saturday in winning pole for Sunday's Honda Indy 300, the third-last race of the CART season.

Taking advantage of the smoothing out of several chicanes on the 2.795-mile (4.5-kilometer) temporary circuit, da Matta, who clinched the championship Oct. 6 in Miami, broke the record with a time of 1 minute, 30.204 seconds to lead a 1-2-3 Brazilian sweep of qualifying.

It was da Matta's seventh career CART pole in his 77th event. A victory here Sunday would match a series record of eight wins in a season achieved by Michael Andretti in 1991 and Al Unser Jr., in 1994.

Da Matta's clocking of 111.547 miles per hour (179.517 kph) came on his 10th lap in the final 15 minutes of a scheduled 35- minute qualifying session.

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

Da Matta, the defending champion here, will share the front row Sunday with countryman Bruno Junqueira, who broke Canadian Paul Tracy's 30-minute-old track qualifying record on Friday.

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

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

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

Ten other drivers went under Junqueira's previous track record that had not been broken since 1999 when Dario Franchitti, who was eighth-fastest Saturday, had a time of 1:31.703.

Race organizers made changes this year to the special 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," said Tracy. "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 pole positions. Last year at Surfers Paradise, he started and 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. Da Matta and Andretti, who qualified 16th-fastest Saturday, are attempting to become the first Australian champions to repeat as race winner here along with Tracy, Franchitti, Adrian Fernandez and Jimmy Vasser.

The race has had 11 different winners since its inception in 1991. Fernandez was 10th-fastest Saturday and Vasser 11th.

Sunday's 70-lap race will be 195.65 miles (314.87 kilometers).