Cook sets Cleveland track record with pole

Davy Cook put the Motorsport.com car on the pole for the Barber Dodge race at the CART Cleveland Grand Prix with a track record time of 1:14.030. This was Cook's first pole of the season. Cook, who was fourth-fastest in the first qualifying session, found some speed through a better setup on the car, which took away some of the understeer he struggled with yesterday. Cook said that the understeer returned late in today's session, but he had plans to do a little more tuning before this afternoon's race and was confident that he could find a good balance with those changes. The additional point for pole moves Cook into fourth place in Barber series points, breaking a tie with Laguna Seca winner Rafael Sperifico.

Davy Cook.

Photo by John Francis.

Mark Breuers, though tenth fastest today, will start outside of the front row by virtue of his winning provisional pole in yesterday's qualifying. Breuers is in second place in Barber Dodge points this year. Second quick today was Josh Beaulieu, who like Cook, improved his time by more than a full second over his best time in yesterday's session. Beaulieu will start third.

Runaway series point leader (and winner of four of this season's five races), A.J. Allmendinger, was third fastest today and will start outside the second row. The rest of the top ten starters will be: Julio Campos, Leonardo Maia, Christian Szymczak, Piero Rodarte, Dan Di Leo, and Sperifico.

The Barber Dodge series takes the green flag at 3:40 pm (EDT) today at the Burke Lakefront Airport course.