OCTOBER 21, 2006

Will Power on pole in Oz

Local hero Will Power is on pole for the Champ Car at Surfers Paradise. The young Australian stayed ahead of all challengers, helped by a couple of timely red flags as others were doing their fastest laps. One of the incidents was caused by Sebastien Bourdais, who smote the wall a healthy blow with eight minutes to go. Title challenger AJ Allmendinger then lost the second fastest time because his lap was completed moments after another caution caused by Katherine Legge. This also helped Bourdais hold on to second on the grid. Paul Tracy was third with Bruno Junqueira fourth and Nelson Philippe fifth ahead of Oriol Servia and Allmendinger.

Sebastien Bourdais must finish ninth or better to clinch his third consecutive Champ Car title.

It is worth noting that there are suggestions in the United States that Allmendinger will race for Team Red Bull in its NASCAR debut next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The debut race was to have featured veteran Bill Elliott but it seems that Awesome Bill will appear in an R&J Racing Dodge instead.