Ride in question, Tracy still contends

Veteran driver Paul Tracy quickly went from being a possible no-show at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach to, yet again, being a threat to win.

But the four-time winner of the race said the 34th running of the Grand Prix on Sunday might be the last time he competes in a major open-wheel race, because he doesn’t have a ride after Sunday.

Tracy has been in a contract dispute with team owner Gerald Forsythe that threatened to leave the 39-year-old Canadian driver on the sidelines this weekend.

They reached a deal late Thursday to compete in Long Beach one more time and, despite little practice over the winter, Tracy regained much of his form Friday on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn seaside street course.

But Justin Wilson of the Newman-Haas-Lanigan team won the provisional pole in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 105.184 mph.

That means the English driver is guaranteed a spot on the front row even if another driver wins the first starting position in the second round of qualifying today. Oriol Servia, a Spaniard who finished second in last year’s race, was second-fastest at 104.406 mph for KV Racing Technology, and Alex Tagliani of Walker Racing was third at 104.362 mph.

“I was really happy to see we have the speed,” Servia said. “We just need to work a little bit more.”

Wilson’s 19-year-old teammate Graham Rahal, who won two weeks on a street course in St. Petersburg, Fla., was fifth in qualifying.

Tracy kept his No. 3 Forsythe-Pettit Racing car among the top five in practice but slipped to eighth in qualifying, conceding he “was a little rusty” and made mistakes that curbed his speed. The murky outlook for Tracy’s driving career stems from the recent merger of the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series, which reunited after a 12-year split.

The two series are temporarily separated one last time this weekend - the IndyCar Series is racing in Japan -- due to commitments with both tracks.

Long Beach will be on the IndyCar schedule starting next year, and several Champ Car teams and drivers, including Wilson and Rahal, already have moved to the IndyCar Series.

But Forsythe did not, which left Tracy in limbo. Until Thursday, it wasn’t known whether they would compete this weekend.

“We decided to do this race, it’s the best thing for the fans,” said Tracy, who also won the Champ Car title in 2003 when the series was known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART.

“After this race I’m pretty much free to do whatever I want, but I don’t have anything going, so it’s hard to say whether this is going to be my last open-wheel race or not,” Tracy said. “At this point there’s really not a lot available.

“I don’t know how I’m going to feel after the race,” he added. “This isn’t how I want my career to end.”

Wilson, meanwhile, picked up where his former teammate Sebastien Bourdais left off.

Bourdais won the last three Long Beach races -- and the Champ Car title for the last four consecutive years -- before moving to the Formula One series this season.

“I’m very pleased to keep up the tradition,” said Wilson, 29, who’s taller than most drivers at 6 feet 3. “The car was good, and I was pleased with the handling. I feel I had a lot left.”

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In other series competing at Long Beach this weekend, Jonathan Bomarito won the provisional pole in the Atlantic series that races Sunday.

In the American Le Mans Series that races today, the Penske Porsche RS Spyder driven by defending LMP2 co-champion Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas led all four of the series’ classes. The ALMS also announced an agreement to be part of the Long Beach weekend for an additional five years.

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james.peltz@latimes.com

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GRAND PRIX

OF LONG BEACH

Sunday, 1 p.m. (ESPN2, 2:30)