Long Beach PacWest Qualifying Report

Newly-signed driver Scott Dixon has put his Invensys-Powerware PacWest Lights car on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's opening round of the Dayton Indy Lights Championship at Long Beach in California.

Dixon clocked a qualifying time of 1:15.715s in what will be the first race of his second season in Indy Lights competition.

Dixon's teammate Tony Renna, driver of the #18 Motorola PacWest Lola, will start tomorrow race from 12th position on the grid after posting a time of 1:16.617s.

Dixon, who finished second at Long Beach last season for Johansson Motorsports, is hoping he can go one better tomorrow.

He will start alongside Jonny Kane on the front row who set a qualifying time of 1:15.155s and was followed by Jason Bright (1:15.831s), Felipe Giaffone (115.863s) and Jeff Simmons (76.158s).

SCOTT DIXON - #17 -- INVENSYS-POWERWARE PACWEST LIGHTS -- 2nd

"It started off pretty good, but we ran into a bit of traffic, but that is the way we thought it was going to be," said Dixon.

"We were really waiting to put the new tires on before having a crack at a lap, but then a red flag came out and we really only got one lap.

"Jonny (Kane) had put a time in early which nobody could have touched without putting on new tires and doing the same amount of laps on them.

"We are happy with where we are and I think we would have been pretty close if we had of had another two or three fast rolling laps.

"We need to get off to a strong start tomorrow and come away from the event with as many points as possible."

TONY RENNA - #18 MOTOROLA PACWEST LIGHTS -- 12th

"We ended up changing a few things including the tires and the balance was no good," said Renna.

"We really struggled and you can see that in the time.

"We battled to get front-end grip and ended up with way too much push to put in a reasonable time.

"There is not doubt that it is disappointing after being third at the end of the session yesterday.

"We need to make some positive changes overnight and I just have to patient tomorrow and pick my way through the field."