No Ray of Sunshine for Herta

A late burst of sunshine in Saturday’s final qualifying session for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach moved Bryan Herta of Valencia from the second to eighth row for today’s CART FedEx championship series race.

Herta, who qualified in the first of two groups, drove his Reynard-Ford 101.001 mph on racing slicks in an intermittent rain that pelted half of the 1.95-mile street course.

The rain fell harder as the second group took to the track on treaded tires, and it appeared Michel Jourdain Jr., in a Lola-Ford, would capture his first pole position at 101.809--with Herta starting fourth.

Speeds increased as the track dried--although a puddle in turn nine never went away--and with three minutes remaining, second-group drivers moved toward the top of the grid.

“We were doing the rain dance, and it just didn’t pull us through,” Herta said.

Helio Castroneves clocked 103.343 in a Reynard-Honda on the final lap to capture his fifth pole.

Herta, who has six consecutive top-six finishes at Long Beach, will start 15th.

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Owner-driver Rolando Quintanilla of Calabasas will start 10th in the Dayton Indy Lights series support race today after failing to better his qualifying time Saturday.

Quintanilla’s 80.087 clocking on rain tires Saturday was fastest of any driver not using slicks, despite a power loss at high RPMs.

“The loss of top-end power in the rain compensates, because the cars do not have as much grip,” Quintanilla said. “If it stays dry, we’ll have a good race and if it stays wet, we’ll have a good race.”