Paul Tracy (#1 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) earned a championship point and a guaranteed starting spot in the front row for Saturday's U.S. Bank Presents The Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland by leading Thursday. 

Tracy left the track with the second-best time of the day in his pocket after an action-packed Thursday at the 2.106-mile temporary road course at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport. His top lap of 58.361 seconds (129.909 mph) left him just .015 seconds behind frontrunner Sebastien Bourdais (#2 McDonald's Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone), who was gunning for his third pole of the season.

However, Champ Car Stewards found both Bourdais and Patrick Carpentier (#7 Indeck Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) guilty of blocking a competitor's lap during a qualifying session - a violation of Champ Car Rule 6.17.4i. The penalty for the violation is the loss of a competitor's fastest lap, meaning that Bourdais' session-leading effort would be negated, giving the first-day pole to Tracy.

Tracy earned a championship point for leading the session, boosting his total to 80 for the year and guaranteeing himself a front-row starting spot for Saturday afternoon's race. The result marks the first time this season that Tracy will start a Champ car race in the front row. It also moves Bruno Junqueira (#6 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) into the second spot and promotes Ryan Hunter-Reay (#4 Herdez Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone) to the third position on the first-day grid.

The final grid for Saturday's U.S. Bank Presents The Champ Car Grand Prix of Cleveland will be set by today's qualifying session, which begins at 1:45 p.m. Eastern Time. The session can be seen live on HDNet as well as through the Race Director feature on the official website of the series champcarworldseries.com.

Pos  Driver  #  Engine/Chassis/Tire  Lap Time  Mph  km/h 

1  S. Bourdais  2  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.349  129.935       2  P. Tracy  1  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.361  129.909  3  B. Junqueira  6  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.500  129.600  4  P. Carpentier  7  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.516  129.565  5  R. Hunter-Reay  4  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.529  129.536  6  A. Allmendinger  10  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.745  129.059  7  J. Vasser  12  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.782  128.978   8  J. Wilson  34  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.842  128.847  9  A. Tagliani  8  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  58.948  128.615   10  M. Dominguez  55  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  59.258  127.942  11  M. Haberfeld  5  Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone  59.348  127.748   12  R. Lavin  3  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  59.384  127.671  13  M. Jourdain Jr.  9  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  59.448  127.533  14  O. Servia  11  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  1:00.081  126.190   15  N. Philippe  17  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  1:00.282  125.769  16  R. Gonzalez  21  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  1:00.419  125.484   17  A. Sperafico  14  Ford-Cosworth/Reynard/Bridgestone  1:00.428  18  G. Mazzacane  19  Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone  1:00.465  125.388