Atlantic practice and qualifying notes at Cleveland

Burke Lakefront Airport - Cleveland, OH - This is the second road course for the CART Toyota Atlantic 28th season. Coming from Montreal three weeks ago the Toyota Atlantic Championship is led by David Rutledge after winning at Long Beach and Montreal, he now leads with 64 points. Hoover Orsi and Tony Ave are tied for second place with 53 points each.

In Friday practice Rocky Moran, Jr. had a small fire in the pits, the fire was quickly put out but the car did sustain some damage. At the end of the practice session Charles Hall makes contact with a tire wall and brings the session to an early end. Friday practice fastest drivers were Hoover Orsi, David Rutledge and Martian Basso.

By Friday qualifying Joey Hand had bumped Rutledge out of the second spot while Orsi held on to the provisional pole.

Orsi: "The track is great, better than this afternoon. We improved the car with some adjustments. We were struggling at first because I was stuck in traffic, I couldn't get a clear track. We did a small change on the setup and when I went back out, I had a clear track, so I got some clear laps. The car is perfect. It makes my life a lot easier when the car runs this well. My team is just awesome. I've got the best team in the world."

The final qualifying session was held on Saturday afternoon. During the morning practice session Rutledge had hit the wall and damaged his car. In the qualifying session he had to work his way up from the last spot.

The session was red flagged only once when Hall spun at turn 8.

The overall results of the combined qualifying:

Martian Basso posted a new track record (111.889 mph) to win the pole position for Sunday's race. Orsi will start in second. In third is Joey Hand (111.853 mph). Tony Ave qualified for the fourth spot and David Rutledge rounds out the top five.