Dario Franchitti earned his first Indy car pole start on the streets of Toronto in 1997. He claimed No. 29 on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place street circuit for the Honda Indy Toronto.
Franchitti posted a lap of 59.3510 seconds on the last of his five laps in the Firestone Fast Six to wrest the pole from Will Power, the 2011 pole sitter, in the final 20 seconds of the 10-minute session. Power, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship front-runner in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, was .0247 of a second back.
It’s the third consecutive race in which Franchitti, driving the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, will start from the pole.
Five different teams were represented in the Firestone Fast Six, and the six were separated by .2106 of a second.
Justin Wilson, who set an IZOD IndyCar Series track record of 59.0663 seconds in Round 2, will start third in the No. 18 Sonny’s BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing. Sebastien Bourdais gave Dragon Racing its highest start of the season in fourth, while Scott Dixon, the 2011 race runner-up to Franchitti, was fifth.
Also on July 7, Gustavo Yacaman prevailed over his childhood rival Sebastian Saavedra in the Toronto 100, winning by 2.2874 seconds.
Pole sitter Victor Carbone finished third, Peter Dempsey (in his first race with Belardi Auto Racing) posted a season best of fourth and Oliver Webb finished fifth.
It was the second victory of the season for Yacaman, driving the No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, and his third in the past two seasons. Yacaman overtook Carbone in Turn 3 of the 1.75-mile, 11-turn circuit on Lap 13 of 50.
TORONTO – Qualifying Saturday for the Honda Indy Toronto IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.755 mile(s) Streets of Toronto, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 59.3510 (106.451)
2. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 59.3757 (106.407)
3. (18) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 59.4506 (106.273)
4. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 59.4721 (106.235)
5. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 59.5140 (106.160)
6. (98) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 59.5616 (106.075)
7. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 59.4829 (106.215)
8. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 59.5476 (106.100)
9. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 59.5958 (106.014)
10. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 59.6650 (105.891)
11. (15) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 59.8197 (105.617)
12. (38) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 59.8966 (105.482)
13. (14) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 01:00.0718 (105.174)
14. (2) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 59.9888 (105.320)
15. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 01:00.1557 (105.027)
16. (22) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 01:00.0004 (105.299)
17. (4) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 01:00.4508 (104.515)
18. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 01:00.1207 (105.089)
19. (19) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 01:00.5440 (104.354)
20. (8) Rubens Barrichello, Dallara-Chevy, 01:00.2043 (104.943)
21. (78) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Lotus, 01:00.6709 (104.136)
22. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 01:00.2199 (104.915)
23. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 01:01.0333 (103.517)
24. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 01:00.6145 (104.232)
25. (5) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 01:02.5280 (101.043)
