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Justin Wilson grabs provisional pole for Portland Grand Prix

English driver Justin Wilson won the provisional pole for the Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland on Friday with a course-record lap of 57.597 seconds.

The fast lap (122.756mph, 197.514kph) guarantees Wilson a front-row spot for Sunday's race on the road course at Portland International Raceway. He also earns a championship point, bringing his total to 71, six points behind series leader Sebastien Bourdais of France.

Bourdais, the defending champion at Portland, had the third-fastest lap in 57.825 seconds, but had to forfeit the time because he surprised Wilson by coming out of the pits just as the No. 9 car was passing by. Champ Car rules forbid interfering with a driver running at full pace.

"We nearly hit," Wilson said.

Bourdais insisted the flagman on pit lane failed to signal that Wilson was coming. He fell to fifth with a lap of 57.989 seconds (196.180kph).

The move bumped up Canada's Paul Tracy to the third fastest, with a lap of 57.911 seconds (196.444kph). Wilson's RuSport teammate A.J. Allmendinger was second-best at 57.816 seconds (196.766kph).

Qualifying for the fourth race on the Champ Car series continues on Saturday.

The 1.9-mile (3.1km) road course was reconfigured and shortened slightly, smoothing out the Festival Curves and making way for Wilson's new record.

Bourdais won the race from the pole last year, finishing ahead of Newman-Haas teammate Bruno Junqueira. Bourdais led for most of the race and won by 1.247 seconds.

Junqueira was leading the series in points this year before he broke his back at the Indianapolis 500, where he and Bourdais were the only Champ Car drivers in the 33-car Indy Racing League lineup.

Junqueira led two laps and was running sixth when he collided with A.J. Foyt IV and spun into the wall.

The Brazilian fractured two vertebrae and underwent surgery the next day. There is no timetable for his return. Spain's Oriol Servia is taking his place on the team.

Rookie Ronnie Bremer, who drives for HVM, was held out of practice because a set of his Bridgestone tires used at Milwaukee two weeks ago went missing. Security is an issue with high-performance tires because of the research and development that goes into them.

"The parties involved are working to resolve the issues. As part of this process, Bridgestone Motorsport and HVM agreed in a meeting this morning that the number 55 car would not participate in the first practice at Portland," Bridgestone executive director Al Speyer.
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