Irl Opener - Qualifying

[HandyNZL 1]

Motorsport: Dixon secures first pole of the season

5:47PM Saturday March 29, 2008

Scott Dixon.

New Zealand driver Scott Dixon has secured the first pole position in the unified Indycar Series at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida today.

The Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver circled the 2.41km oval four times in one minute, 40.2341 seconds.

In a rules change, Indy Racing League qualifying now consists of four consecutively timed laps, with the lowest cumulative time being declared the pole winner.

The pole win was the ninth of Dixon's IndyCar career.

"It's a great start to the season for Team Target," said Dixon, who finished second in last year's championship.

"What a crazy qualifying session - I think the biggest thing was when it started cooling off.

"There were a bunch of guys who we didn't think we would have to worry about who ended up having some big laps."

Starting alongside the New Zealander will be Ed Carpenter who posted a four-lap time of 1min 40.2482sec to earn his first career start off the front row.

Carpenter's Vision Racing teammate A J Foyt IV and Andretti Green Racing's Danica Patrick will start in row two.

Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe (212.108) and Andretti Green Racing's Marco Andretti (211.838) will occupy the third row on the grid for the 483km race under the lights.

Team Penske's Helio Castroneves and Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan will be on the fourth row.

"We will see about tomorrow; there could be plenty of interesting things," Dixon said. "The last couple of the years - at least on my side - we haven't qualified real well. Dan (Wheldon) has always been fast here."

Dixon's teammate, Wheldon has won the season opener the last three years. But he crashed in his first qualifying lap as did Jay Howard and both will have to go to backup cars.

The 483km race will be run on Sunday (NZT)

Leading qualifiers for tomorrow's first round of the Indycar series at the Homestead-Miami speedway in Florida:

Scott Dixon (NZ, Ganassi) 1, Ed Carpenter (Vision) 2, AJ Foyt IV (Vision) 3, Danica Patrick (Andretti-Green) 4, Ryan Briscoe (Penske) 5, Marco Andretti (Andretti-Green) 6, Helio Castroneves (Penske) 7, Tony Kanaan (Andretti-Green) 8, Hideki Mutoh (Andretti-Green) 9, Marty Roth (Roth) 10.

- NZPA

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Hmmm 4-laps to set your best time...what a crazy idea?!?!?! It would never catch on in F1, more's the shame...

[Eric 0]

Crazy? You've never watched an Indianapolis 500, have you? This is Indy 500-style qualifying, now they apply the general concept to every race (just no 923084908590348250349859034859023485 days of qualifying).

Anyway, Vision surprised me. Special Ed's car looks good, but I hope he crashes.

It'll be fun to watch Dan "I Got Married to Cover Up The Fact I Hate Women" Wheldon try to come up through the field. I hope he gets what he deserves, if anyone remembers Milwaukee last year where Danica came from last to third, only to have Wheldon take her out. I'd love for something similar to happen...

Also, great job Marty Roth! No idea where that speed came from.

[pumpdoc 2]

Yawn

[HandyNZL 1]

I don't mean crazy as in stupid idea, Eric...and I know thats how 500 qually works...i meant, crazy as in it's a qually format that works for driver, sponsor AND fan, and of course F1 shouldn't have a bar of that...

[pumpdoc 2]

Just a note, it's only a 300km race

Stupid me.

[Eric 0]

Just a note, it's only a 300km race

No, it's actually a 300 mile race. 300 miles is equivalent to 482.8032 kilometers.

Anyway, not a great race, but not too bad. It had it's moments.

[HandyNZL 1]

That TK is a cheeky fellow...trying to coast it to a win under yellow....a lucky win for Dixon, but we'll take it Going to miss round two unless I go to work late...hmmm...motorsport or work....work or motorsport...

[Eric 0]

That TK is a cheeky fellow...trying to coast it to a win under yellow....a lucky win for Dixon, but we'll take it Going to miss round two unless I go to work late...hmmm...motorsport or work....work or motorsport...

Work. It's a street circuit; it'll be boring.