Mont-Tremblant, Quebec—Saturday, June 30, 2007—After a frustrating opening day at Champ Car Mont Tremblant, Paul Tracy and Oriol Servia worked with their Forsythe engineers overnight and today during morning practice and managed to drastically improve the performance of their DP01 Champ Cars at the picturesque 2.621 mile road course. Tracy showed his speed by finishing second quickest during the 10 minute pre-qualifying practice but as qualifying started the rain began to fall and prevented anyone from improving their Friday qualifying times.
Qualifying began with rain and a damp track but as the sun came out and the track started drying it turned into a game of who could turn a lap at the exact moment when the track was at its best. For Tracy it looked like things were going to go his way as he was quickest coming into his last lap and in a perfect position to post a flyer, but a spin in front of him forced him to cut the chicane and lose his final timed lap. Servia’s last lap came a few seconds too late as rain started falling again while he was going through the last three corners causing him to lose valuable time. Tracy and Servia will start on the sixth and seventh rows in Sunday’s race.
Paul Tracy
#3 Indeck Cosworth/Bridgestone/DP01
1m17.629s / 121.547mph / 195.611 kph
Qualified 11th
“We timed it perfectly and we were going to get our last lap in at the right time but Katherine (Legge) spun in front of me coming into the chicane and I had to go straight to avoid her so that was it. We were quickest but our position dropped like a brick because everybody was posting laps at that time when the track was drying. This is completely frustrating for the whole team. Yesterday we struggled but this morning we improved the car quite a bit. When we went out right before qualifying the car was way better, but then it started raining and we never got to show our speed. We could’ve been easily in the top five; we just can’t catch a break. I guess we used up all our good luck last week! Tomorrow we just have to survive the first corner and try not to get into trouble like we did last week. We're probably going to have to go on an alternate strategy since we are so far back, so if a yellow comes out we might try to pit early and get some clear track in front of us. It’s going to be tough; this track is fast and narrow in some places so passing will be very tricky.”
Oriol Servia
#7 Indeck Cosworth/Bridgestone/DP01
1m18.012 / 120.951mph / 194.651 kph
Qualified 14th
“I can say that I am obviously not happy because we are starting with the times from yesterday, but I’m actually the happiest I’ve been in a while because I feel we have a very good car! We changed it quite a bit and we’ve put it in a different window. I feel much better than I did in Cleveland and yesterday. We are starting fourteenth but when you have a good car it gives you the confidence and the speed to fight and to improve positions, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Qualifying was one of those crazy sessions, because not only was it first wet and then dry, but it actually was wet again for the last 3 corners of my last lap. Basically it was all about timing and being out there at the right time and we finished our last lap a few seconds too late and caught that last shower.”
Champ Car Mont Tremblant will be broadcast LIVE July 1st at 2:00pm Eastern Time on ESPN and XM Satellite Radio 205, and in Canada through Global and RDS. You can also tune in to Race Director, available through the Champ Car website, for live coverage of the race and many practice and qualifying sessions with multiple channels of live video, audio, timing, telemetry and commentary. Visit http://www.champcar.ws for more information.