As Time Goes By . . .

It isn’t often a driver will sit on his first day qualifying time on a street circuit and not have most of field pass him by, but Gil De Ferran got away with it Saturday.

The personable Brazilian, who set a Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach track record of 111.313 mph Friday over the 1.586-mile, eight-turn track, sat out Saturday’s second day of time trials after a terrifying accident during morning practice wiped out the right side of his Reynard.

Instead of risking damage to the team’s backup car, which De Ferran will drive in today’s 166-mile Grand Prix, team owner Derrick Walker elected to have his driver sit in the pits and hope.

Surprisingly, one after another of the faster drivers--including Alessandro Zanardi, CART’s pole record-holder--took shots at De Ferran’s time, only to fall short.

“We decided that we would not go out unless we dropped below sixth in the lineup,” De Ferran said. “It was very difficult to sit in the car and not run. You have control of your destiny when you are out on the track running. In this situation, I was completely helpless.”

With only a couple of minutes remaining in the 30-minute session, De Ferran climbed out of his car with a relieved smile on his face.

He had escaped, winning his second consecutive Long Beach pole and its $10,000 Marlboro Pole Award.

Zanardi, who had won a record six consecutive poles, could manage only 110.512 mph Saturday, but that was quick enough to move him into the front row with De Ferran. It is the 12th straight race that the Italian Formula One veteran has started from the front.

“I had a chance in the last two laps, but Gil’s time was pretty impressive and we didn’t make it, but we have a strong car for the race,” Zanardi said.

Mauricio Gugelmin, who was second Friday with a speed of 110.341 mph, could not improve on it and slipped to third position.

“Normally, the tendency on a street circuit is for the track to be faster on the second day, but today was a bit warmer and generally the track was a bit slower,” Gugelmin said. “Some of the others went faster but we didn’t. Apparently we didn’t make the right adjustments.”

De Ferran’s car was torn up in the freak accident as he was accelerating down the sweeping Shoreline Drive, the fastest part of the course. When he came up on a stalled car driven by rookie Gualter Salles of Brazil, there was no avoiding it.

“It was the scariest moment in my whole career,” De Ferran said. “I was rapidly closing in on Hiro [Matsushita] when he moved from the lower line up toward the wall. As he cleared my line of sight, Salles’ car was directly in front of me. There was insufficient time for me to avoid him.”

The impact sheared off the right side of De Ferran’s car.

Salles’ car suffered extensive damage to the left rear.

“Coming out of the hairpin, I shifted from first to second and the engine just stopped,” Salles said. “I pulled to the right and had my hand in the air down the [Shoreline] straight. I was looking to pull off just past the pit exit when I got hit hard.”

Salles did not get in his backup Reynard because Davis Racing did not take delivery of it until Wednesday and it could not be readied for the race. Gerald Davis, team owner, said parts from the new car will be cannibalized in hopes of repairing the wrecked car for today’s race.

After the accident, De Ferran immediately climbed into the team’s backup and gave it a quick test.

“I had enough laps to be quite happy about Sunday’s prospects,” he said. “It is a good-handling car and that is most important at Long Beach.”

The accident was the latest to plague the former European Formula 3 champion since coming to the United States two years ago to drive for Jim Hall. When Hall retired at the end of last season, De Ferran moved to Walker’s team as a replacement for Robby Gordon, who left CART to drive Winston Cup cars in NASCAR.

After an extensive winter testing program, De Ferran’s problems began during the opening race at Homestead, Fla., where he tagged the wall on his second qualifying lap and then crashed his backup while leading the race after he and Dennis Vitolo collided with Max Papis.

Last week, at Surfers Paradise, Australia, he crashed in a second-lap accident with Christian Fittipaldi and Michel Jourdain Jr. that hospitalized Fittipaldi and caused the race to be restarted. De Ferran jumped into his backup car and finished fifth.

His fortunes at Long Beach have not been much better.

In his rookie season, De Ferran qualified third but collided with Jimmy Vasser on lap 16 and finished 27th.

Last year, after starting from the pole, he led 100 of the first 101 laps before an exhaust hose disconnected from his turbocharger, leaving his car virtually without power. He managed to finish fifth, a frustrating ending to what looked like an easy victory.

Vitolo, with no backup car, was forced to withdraw from today’s race after damaging his Lola Ford during qualifying when the back end came around, throwing the car into the crash wall.

Vitolo said he hoped to have the car ready for the Bosch Grand Prix at Nazareth, Pa., in two weeks.

Michael Andretti, who won the Long Beach race in 1986, moved from eighth to fourth with a 110.152 mph effort in his new Swift chassis.

“We really didn’t have a setup for the Swift on this type of track,” Andretti said. “I’m really happy with the way it turned out. I’m going to do everything I can to keep Al [Unser Jr.] from winning his seventh Long Beach race. Don’t ever count him out. He’s always in contention here.”

Unser qualified 15th at 108.438 mph in his Penske-Mercedes and said, “I’m just really frustrated. We’re starting so far back that it’s going to be really tough to stay out of trouble. But we’re not giving up.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

* WHAT: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

* WHEN: Today--10:30 a.m., Indy Lights race; 1 p.m., Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach; 3:40 p.m., Super Touring race.

* TV: CART Grand Prix, Channel 7, 3 p.m (delayed); Indy Lights, ESPN2, 4 p.m. (delayed).