Canadians Fastest of the Fast at Phoenix : Indy cars: Tracy has the pole with record speed. Mansell isn’t comfortable.

The speeds keep going up at Phoenix International Raceway--despite efforts by Indy car officials to slow them down--and not everyone, including defending series champion Nigel Mansell, is happy about it.

Canadian Paul Tracy, one of Roger Penske’s team of Marlboro drivers, won the pole Saturday for today’s Slick 50 200 with a record lap of 176.266 m.p.h. around the one-mile oval. In all, seven drivers, including Mansell, bettered the track record of 172.804 set last year by Scott Goodyear.

“I’m not comfortable here,” Mansell said. “That’s not a reassuring thought for a race driver before a race, but here, if anything goes wrong, you are in the wall. I know exactly what can happen.”

Last year, when Mansell was preparing to make his oval racing debut at Phoenix, he crashed during practice and suffered a concussion and back injuries that required surgery. The British former Formula One world champion returned to win four consecutive oval races en route to winning the PPG Cup championship.

Then Saturday, Mansell crashed again late in the final practice session, slowing in the third turn after coming up quickly on another car. He appeared to simply lose control in the fourth turn, spinning up toward the wall and hitting Jacques Villeneuve’s car as the 23-year-old Canadian tried to slip past.

Both drivers escaped injury, but Mansell will probably start today’s race in his backup car.

“You can’t compare this track to any of the other ovals,” Mansell said. “It is so much faster. We are close to making three laps every minute.”

Tracy needed only 20.4 seconds to complete his record lap. Earlier in the day, during practice, he was even quicker, with an unofficial lap at 178.104.

“They changed the rules to reduce the down force through the corners and slow us down, but it had a reverse effect,” Tracy explained. “We were going 180 down the straightaways last year, but with less down force we are up to 193.”

Mansell added: “The result is that our entry speeds (into the corners) are so much higher. Because of the speeds and the banking, there aren’t too many lines out there, and there’ll be a lot of cars out there tomorrow going awfully fast.”

Tracy was joined on the front row by countryman Villeneuve, making what officials said was probably the first all-Canadian front row in Indy car history. Villeneuve ran 176.110, with Mansell third at 175.478.

Villeneuve is the son of the late Formula One champion Gilles Villeneuve, one of Canada’s most revered sports heroes. Jacques’ uncle, also named Jacques, won the pole at Phoenix in 1984.

“I was the first one out, so I didn’t know what to expect,” said Villeneuve, whose car was deemed reparable after the crash with Mansell. “The car felt great right out of the pits, and I just had to trust it. Tomorrow’s a completely different thing, because with 30 cars going at the same time, the aerodynamics will change the car quite a lot.”

In addition to Tracy, Villeneuve and Mansell, the track record was bettered by defending race champion Mario Andretti (174.932), Raul Boesel (173.357), Emerson Fittipaldi (173.346) and Robby Gordon (173.113).

Michael Andretti, who returned to Indy cars this season after a disappointing year in Formula One and won the opening race last month in Australia, could squeeze a lap of only 171.204 from his Reynard. He will start 12th.

Andretti won the Phoenix race in 1986.