Wheldon has provisional third at Long Beach

Wheldon's provisional third at Long BeachEngland's Dan Wheldon is provisionally in third spot on the starting grid at Long Beach in California for tomorrow's second round of the 2001 CART Dayton Indy Lights Championship.

The 22-year old Briton -- the current Toyota Atlantic 'Rookie of the Year' -- set a fastest time of 1minute 16.414 seconds (92.716 mph) in his Gemstar Communications Lola-Buick around the testing Long Beach street circuit in the first qualifying session which was held late yesterday (Friday) afternoon.

At one stage in the 30-minute session Wheldon was 'P1', but two red flag periods shortened the actual running time, leaving Wheldon's PacWest Racing team-mate, Mexican Mario Dominguez, in provisional pole position -- less than half a second faster -- with a time of 1 minute 15.968 seconds.Last year Dan was on pole position at Long Beach for the Toyota Atlantic race and finished a battling fourth despite having gearbox problems and his water bottle exploding during the race!

Finally qualifying for this weekend's Dayton Indy Lights race is scheduled for 1pm (local time) today, but with the Southern Californian coast currently suffering uncharacteristic heavy rain and strong winds, yesterday's times may determine the actual starting grid positions for tomorrow's race.

-danwheldon.com