Gil de Ferran waiting for morning practice to resume. Did he realize he was so close to his win the following day?

09:50 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Another favorite for Boris in his choices for the SpeedPick Pick12 competition, this is Luiz Garcia Jr. in the Tang Car, a Payton Coyne Reynard-Ford. Note that he has a ready supply of Tang at hand.

09:50 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Dario Franchitti sitting patiently. It was to be a strange weekend for him, with difficulty getting set up for qualifying and then working up through the field to finish third in the race.

09:55 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Jimmy Vasser sits in his car surrounded by boxes of shop towels and an annoying marshal in a bright orange suit who kept standing in the way while I was trying to get a shot of Jimmy wearing his swimming goggles.

10:03 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/1500 CF5.6

The green flag flies and the cars stream back onto the track for the last few minutes of practice. This is the 22 car of Robby Gordon, who impressed few with his 25th fastest time. But he is popular with the timing crew because the IRL-spec night racing yellow paint makes him easy to spot as he crosses the line.

10:06 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/700 CF11.0

Meanwhile eventual race winner Gil de Ferran was concentrating on his set up. He was only 12th fastest in practice, but by far the quickest on Goodyear tires.

09:50 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/500 CF11.0

"Mad Max" Papis puts an end to the practice session by losing control coming out of turn 12 onto the front straight. He's sitting backwards with the rear of the car crunched into the concrete wall.

10:16 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/700 CF11.0

Jimmy Vasser, who had earlier done pretty much the same thing returns the 12X car to the pits.

10:17 Fujicolor Smart H400 SS1/1500 CF9.5

Robby Gordon peers out from his helmet as he steps from the car.

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Joining the Walker Racing team alongside Gil de Ferran for his first CART race is Californian Memo Gidley. There was a distinct lack of sponsorship on his car, so we wonder if Walker can keep a two car team together next year when Valvoline abandons them.

10:20 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/700 CF5.6

Max Papis' Harley-Davidson Ford Cosworth-powered Reynard is unceremoniously hauled back into the paddock.

10:22 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/350 CF9.5

But Max looks none the worse for wear. He had still been sixth fastest before the spin brought everything to a close.

10:24 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Yet another Boris favorite, Michel Jourdain Jr. looks less than ecstatic with his 21st fastest position.

10:24 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Nice sunglasses, PJ!

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Paul Tracy looks hot and sweaty, but was pretty satisfied with seventh fastest in practice for his Team Kool Green Honda-Reynard.

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Patrick Carpentier, on the other hand, is wondering why he could only clock 16th when his teammate Greg Moore is third.

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J.P. Montoya obviously enjoying posing with a couple of fans. Where's his girlfriend this week?

12:23 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/1000 CF4.5

Jimmy Vasser and team manager Tom Anderson hang out on the pit wall, waiting for qualifying to begin.

12:42 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

J.P. Montoya gets set for his qualifying attempt. Rain had interrupted Friday's qualifying session, so Saturday's session was unusually mixed. The sessions are divided into two periods of half an hour, with the fastest from Friday comprising the second group on Saturday. J.P. was in the first group and Jimmy in the second.

12:45 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/700 CF5.6

Helio Castro-Neves looks pretty happy. He had been sixth fastest in the morning practice and was to qualify second, to sit alongside J.P.'s pole for the race.

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Greg Moore spins in the chicane as Montoya comes by. Some of those are his tire tracks. After being fast on Friday, he was only able to grab thirteenth spot in qualifying.

Montoya took pole with a 58.193 second lap time, averaging a speed of 121.808.

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New driver Memo Gidley, who qualified 25th, ahead of Tarso Marques, who took the 18th spot.

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Roberto Moreno is still sitting in for Mark Blundell and doing a very good job at it. He qualified eleventh and finished the race seventh.

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Claude from Omega Timing publishes the official qualifying report to the Web site. Patricia was kind enough to give us a tour of the scoring booth.

15:08 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/20 CF5.6

The only thing Alex Barron was driving this weekend was a motorbike with his name on it. Gualter Salles was at the wheel of the #36 Eagle and will continue for several future races, while Alex tries his hand at the second Penske car, taking over from Tarso Marques at the Michigan US500.

15:45 Fujicolor Smart A200 SS1/700 CF5.6