Dan Wheldon is confident for Texas race

Dan Wheldon will line-up fifth on the grid for today’s third round of the 2001 CART Dayton Indy Lights Championship on the new one and a half mile oval circuit at Fort Worth in Texas. The 22-year old Briton – currently leading the Rookie of the Year Award points standings – is confident of a good result in his Gemstar Communications Lola-Buick.

Having set a best time of 29.283 seconds (just .223 seconds off pole) around the banked track and ahead of his team-mate Mario Dominguez who was sixth fastest, Dan Wheldon commented after the qualifying session: "We misjudged a little on the car, but no big worries. Anything can happen in this type of race and there will be a lot of wheel-to-wheel action. I’ll work with Ziggy Harcus, our Team Manager, and Steve Erickson, my engineer, on a race strategy for tomorrow. We have a competitive car and I’ll have plenty of opportunity to pass, so we should come out on top."