Junqueira’s Jump-Start Has Him on Indy Pole

The scenario was taken from Rick Mears’ playbook on how to win the Indianapolis 500 pole--get an early starting position, set a fast time and defy the rest of the field to match you.

Brazilian Bruno Junqueira was the first qualifier on a cold, dreary and water-logged Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and after he ran 10 laps at 231.342 mph he had to wait nearly seven hours before the pole position for the May 26 race was his for sure.

Only Robbie Buhl, a six-time 500 starter from Lakewood, Ohio, prevented the day from becoming a Brazilian holiday. His 231.033 average speed put him alongside Junqueira, a native of Belo Horizonte, and just ahead of old-timer Raul Boesel of Curitiba and Sao Paulo neighbors Felipe Giaffone and Tony Kanaan, a rookie.

Despite two rain interruptions, 24 cars qualified and six others made attempts. Among the big names who missed and are hoping to make the 33-car field today or next Sunday are former two-time winner Arie Luyendyk, Paul Tracy, Dario Franchitti and A. J. Foyt’s two drivers, Greg Ray and Airton Dare.

“It was the longest seven hours of my life,” said the 5-foot-7, 148-pound Junqueira. “I went from the transporter to the garage to the pits, back and forth. The worst was about 3 o’clock when I was resting in the garage and I saw Buhl’s 231 pop up on the screen. I didn’t know it was his second lap (after a 229.576) so I was very nervous for a few moments.”

Junqueira collected $100,000 for his pole run. The last driver to win the pole at Indy as the first qualifier was Emerson Fittipaldi in 1990. It was Fittipaldi who started the Brazilian invasion of American open-wheel racing.

Buhl wasn’t the only surprise for the Dreyer & Reinhold Racing team. Sarah Fisher, Buhl’s teammate and protege, registered the biggest improvement of qualifying when she placed her G Force car eighth at 229.439. Her fastest practice lap before Saturday had been 226.970.

The day’s biggest surprise, however, may have been the semi-retired Boesel flying in from South America to put John Menard’s car on the outside of the front row. Boesel, 44, only got the ride after a crash by PJ Jones, who had replaced Menard’s No. 1 driver, Jacques Lazier, under similar circumstances.

“This team has gone through so much emotionally the last few weeks since Jacques went down,” said Menard. “It’s just such a hard thing to get everyone on the same page emotionally with a new driver. Then to have the same thing happen to PJ, it’s been the toughest month of May I can ever remember.

“But I can’t say enough about what Raul’s done and what my team has done here in such a short amount of time. One thing we knew, Raul has the experience.”

Boesel first drove in the 500 in 1985. He finished third in 1989 and fourth in 1993.

Junqueira, almost an afterthought in Chip Ganassi’s Target team plans this year, also had the day’s fastest single lap of 231.635 around the 2.5-mile, four-cornered oval in one of Ganassi’s Chevy-powered G Force cars.

When Ganassi, who won the 500 in 2000 with Juan Montoya of Colombia, revamped his driver lineup for 2002, he first signed Kenny Brack for his CART team and started an Indy Racing League team with Jeff Ward. For Brack’s teammate, Ganassi sought Franchitti and Kanaan, but when neither was available, he reluctantly resigned Junqueira.

The decision has paid dividends. Junqueira, 25, won a CART oval-track race two weeks ago in Motegi, Japan, driving a Toyota-powered car to the first win for a Japanese manufacturer in its home country.

Because Junqueira is a CART driver and the 500 is an IRL race, he and other CART crossovers had to drive IRL chassis-engine combinations.

Only Robby Gordon, who qualified 11th, is planning to drive in the Winston Cup Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C., after driving in the 500. Ganassi, however, will have favorites in both--Junqueira here and points leader Sterling Marlin in the nightcap.

Five rookies, headed by CART veteran Kanaan, qualified for their first 500. Three, Frenchman Laurent Redon, Rick Treadway and Max Papis, another CART driver, occupy the sixth row together.

Fisher’s surprising run, which placed her ahead of such favorites as Al Unser Jr., Gordon and South African rookie sensation Tomas Scheckter, also made her the fastest woman qualifier in Indy 500 history. It bettered the 225.345 by Lyn St. James in 1995.

“Robbie Buhl is the most awesome teammate ever,” said Fisher, 21. “Our first objective was try and get Robbie on the pole, so I didn’t get up to speed as quickly as I had hoped. He shared everything with me, and once we got Robbie’s setup where we wanted, we just went from there on my car.

“The car was perfectly settled to the point where it gave me a feeling of ‘oomph, there it is,’ every time I turned it. Today we accomplished exactly what we were aiming for in qualifications.”

Not so fortunate was Michael Andretti, who qualified for his 13th 500 but is in what may be a precarious position. After accepting a 226.780 mph speed, he is the 23rd qualifier, ahead of only Billy Boat. Either or both could be bumped by faster cars next Sunday.

“With the potential weather conditions over the next few days, we decided to take Michael’s run,” said Kim Green, manager of Team Green. “Keep in mind that 226.780 is above last year’s pole speed. If suddenly a lot of cars are able to find some speed and put us in jeopardy, we’ll be able to make another attempt in our backup car.”

It was a bad day for Team Green, which saw Tracy severely damage his car during a crash in morning warmups, and Franchitti experience engine problems as he pulled into the pits before making a qualification attempt.

Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran, who finished one-two last year for Marlboro Team Penske, had lackluster qualifying runs. They will start next to each other in the fifth row.

“I still think we’re in good shape because we are in the show,” said Castroneves. “It’s a 500-mile event over three and a half hours with six or seven pit stops, so it doesn’t really matter where you start.”

Unless, of course, you were Rick Mears, who won three of his four 500s from the pole and started his other victory in the front row.