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"Oh, Canada......"

For the fourth time, American Open-Wheel Racing's stars make their way to the Great White North and Edmonton's City Centre Airport, but this time its' not the former ChampCar series traveling here, it is the mergified, unified IndyCar Series. In a nutshell, it is the first track on the calendar that the former ChampCar teams have solid, substantive data to work with and that could mean surprises if they can make the right calls this weekend.....

Weekend schedule................
all times Canadian Mountain Time, -2 hrs. US EDT/-6 hrs. GMT
~~Practice Session #1, 1:15-2:45pm, 24 July 2008
~~Practice Session #2, 4:45-5:45pm, 24 July 2008
~~Practice Session #3, 10:30-11:30am, 25 July 2008
~~PEAK Motor Oil Knockout Qualifying, 3:15pm, 25 July 2008
~~Final Practice Session, 9:55-10:25am, 26 July 2008
~~Rexall Edmonton Indy, 3pm, 26 July 2008

Broadcast info................
--domestic TV(U.S.), ESPN
--domestic TV(Canada), TSN
--domestic AM radio, IMS Radio Network
--internet simulcast(audio/video), indycar.com and indy500.com
--domestic satellite radio, XM Satellite Radio Chs. 144-145
--international shortwave/TV simulcast, United States Armed Forces Network

Rexall Edmonton Indy Grand Prix Entry List......................


A.J. Foyt, IV, #2 Vision Wellness/CardioChek
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Vitor Meira, #4 National Guard/Delphi
Oriol Servia, #5 KV Racing Tech.
Ryan Briscoe, #6 Team Penske
Danica Patrick, #7 Motorola
(R)Will Power, #8 Aussie Vineyards
Scott Dixon, #9 Target
Dan Wheldon, #10 Target
Tony Kanaan, #11 Frank's Energy Drink
Darren Manning, #14 ABC Supply Co.
Buddy Rice, #15 RollCoater
Ryan Hunter-Reay, #17 Ethanol
Bruno Junquiera, #18 Z-Line Designs
(R)Mario Moraes, #19 Sonny's Real Pit BBQ
Ed Carpenter, #20 Menards/DirecTV
Paul Tracy, #22 Subway
Townsend Bell, #23 Emu/WilliamRast
Marty Roth, #25 Cirrus Aircraft
Marco Andretti, #26 Blockbuster
(R)Hideki Mutoh, #27 Formula Dream
(R)Ernesto[E.J.] Viso, #33 PDVSA
(R)Jaime Camara, #34 Sangari
(R)Enrique Bernoldi, #36 Sangari
(R)Mario Dominguez, #96 Visit Mexico City
(R)Justin Wilson, #02 McDonald's
(R)Graham Rahal, #06 Rexall/Edmonton Oilers

Past Winners...........................
~~Sebastien Bourdais, 2005 and 2007
~~Justin Wilson, 2006


Edmonton Fast Fact #1..............................
~~Several drivers competing this weekend at Edmonton have raced on the airport circuit during the three years ChampCar competed there.......
--Justin Wilson(3 starts: 1 win, 2 podium finishes)
--Oriol Servia(3 starts w/1 podium)
--Paul Tracy(3 starts w/1 podium)
--Graham Rahal(1 start w/1 podium)
--Mario Dominguez(3 starts; best finish 5th)
--Will Power(2 starts; best finish 6th)
--Bruno Junquiera(2 starts; best finish 7th)
--Ryan Hunter-Reay(1 start; best finish 16th)

Edmonton Practice Session #1 top-5.................
1} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, 1:02.933 sec/112/863 mph
2} Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske, 1:03.143 sec/112.488 mph
3}(R)Will Power, KV Racing Tech., 1:03.210 sec/112.368 mph
4} Oriol Servia, KV Racing Tech., 1:03.248 sec/112.112.301 mph
5} Tony Kanaan, Andretti-Green Racing, 1:03.260 sec/112.279 mph
PT Watch--7th fastest @ 1:03.375 sec/112.077 mph

Edmonton Practice Session #2 top-5.........................
1}(R)Will Power, KV Racing Tech., 1:02.340 sec/113.936 mph
2} Oriol Servia, KV Racing Tech., 1:02.390 sec/113.845 mph
3} Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, 1:02.537 sec/113.578 mph
4} Ryan Briscoe, Team Penske, 1:02.583 sec/113.494 mph
5}(R)Justin Wilson, NHL Racing, 1:02.622 sec/113.422 mph
PT Watch--8th fastest @ 1:02.693 sec/113.294 mph

Knockout qualifying has begun............here's a quick primer:
--the field on road and street-circuit events is divided into 2 groups for 20 minutes sessions each; the top-6 in each group advances to round 2........
--in round 2, the 12 drivers that survived round 1 then run for 15 minutes; the top-6 then compete in the Firestone Shootout for the pole.......

3 minutes into the first of the 2 20-minutes initial sessions............

Justin Wilson P1 at 1:01.975 sec.................
--drivers in group 1: Castroneves, Meira, Servia, Briscoe, Patrick, Dixon, Manning, Rice, Junquiera, Bell, Andretti, Viso, Camara, Wilson

Top-6 in group 1 at the moment................
Wilson, Dixon, Servia, Castroneves, Andretti, Junquiera

Watching timing and scoring, it appears most everyone in the first qualifying group have pitted for new tires as the session continues......Wilson fastest at the 8min. mark at 1:01.659 sec

Approaching the halfway mark of the session.........top-6 at the moment:
Wilson, Dixon, Castroneves, Servia, Andretti, Junquiera

Race control has stopped the session............according to race control, there are problems with the timing and scoring system......

Race control reporting that there was a malfunction with the timing/scoring transponders; they will be using the timing/scoring line at the start/finish line rather than the qualifying timing/scoring line btwn. turns 12-13........

Session is back to green as they have restored the timing/scoring counters.........8 minutes or so remaining in session 1A....

Watching the video feed, the course at Edmonton is very similar to the airport circuit at Burke Lakefront in Cleveland; it is bumpy and there are several transitions btwn. the concrete runways and asphalt connectors.......

Wilson still P1 in the session, but the gap btwn. P1 and P6 is beginning to tighten as the session winds down.........
P1, 1:01.703(Wilson)
P2, 1:02.574(Briscoe)