Briscoe Snags First IRL Pole In Sonoma
Written by Josh Katinger · August 27, 2005
In a MUCH needed shot in the arm for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, Rookie Ryan Briscoe put one of Chip’s Toyotas on the pole for tomorrow’s inaugural Argent Mortgage Indy Grand Prix at Infineon Raceway.
IndyRacing.com: Briscoe will start from pole, with Castroneves alongside
Motorsport.com: Briscoe best in Sonoma’s inaugural qualifying
TSN.ca: Briscoe wins IRL pole in Sonoma
MercuryNews.com: Infineon remains great unknown in the IRL
Briscoe’s final flying lap of 107.606mph put the Australian squarely atop the field, besting Helio Castroneves, who starts second, by over half a second. While I know this isn’t a race win, can you imagine the relief for both Ryan and Chip Ganassi? To finally be putting the sponsors name in the news and on TV for a GOOD reason instead of through wrecking! Good for them. I think Briscoe is a definite hot shoe, but he’s come into TCGR at the worst possible time in the team’s history. More power to him…literally…ya hear me Toyota?!
While Briscoe’s pole is a relief for them, it’s not surprising considering his background. Same goes for former F1 pilot Tomas Enge who will start 4th. Similarly surprising, but in the opposite sense, were the poor performances from Giorgio Pantano, making his series debut in one of Chip’s other cars, and Tomas Scheckter. The two highly experienced road racers will start 13th and 14th respectively.
Speaking of experienced road racers…Darling Danica is stuck with “unlucky” 16th again as she continues “to work through what the car needs and it’s tough right now. I don’t enjoy it when I’m not fast and I don’t think we had the car balanced as well as we would have liked.”
However, in a welcome surprise for Bobby R and gang, Buddy Rice had a decent showing starting 6th, while Vitor starts an unacceptable 11th (maybe he’s too used to the ovals now?).
In the hot sun the track has been quite slippery and will throw even more curves (pun intended) at the oval guys (I’m looking at you Hornish) and I predict Danny Wheldon will march to another top-10 finish further cementing his points lead. I’m looking forward to an interesting race
Comments
3 Responses to “Briscoe Snags First IRL Pole In Sonoma”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
With Franchitti, Scheckter, Pantano, Meira and Dixon all starting 9th and deeper, I expect a wreck-a-thon as they attempt to work through the oval racers to the front.
I expect Briscoe to make a rookie mistake in traffic and the race will come down to Castroneves, Kanaan, or Herta, with an ouside chance by Dixon. I’ll call Helio as the winner, but my hopes are for Briscoe or Dixon.
Interesting to see a Target car leading the pack after our discussion last week. I think this is what Briscoe is good at and known for, but with so few road courses, ya gotta wonder about Chip’s move as they’ve waited a long time for the payoff.
This race, for me, is like NASCAR at Watkins Glen - a couple guys know what they are doing and the rest are there for show. I’ll take Bryan Herta in a surprise win, or Castroneves or Kanaan. As for the other experienced “road drivers” : Dario starts too deep, but Pantano or Carpentier could make a run to the front if they can get past people. That might be the hard part.
The rest are just oval drivers trying to find the right turn signal.
What? No mention of Danica?
(Truth is, given where she’s come from she’s actually well prepared for races like these.)
Go Tony! (Kanaan, not George)