Tracy collided with Power in the pits and was left mad with Champ Car officials after being told to cede a spot to Alex Tagliani. (LAT Photo) » More Photos

THEN THERE WERE 14

With Tracy, Wilson and Briscoe sidelined, the field of qualifiers was further reduced when Katherine Legge was unable to answer the proverbial bell. Although it was initially reported that she was under the weather, the fact of the matter is her Ford/Cosworth XFE would only run on about two and half cylinders and no amount of thrashing on the part of the PKV Racing crew or the Cosworth technical support staff could fix it in time for Legge to participate in qualifying. Although teammate Oriol Servia saved the team's bacon on the day with a 1:32.371 – good for fourth on the grid – the data traces showed his engine was a little lazy off the corners, and the team was considering changing the engine on his car as well as Legge's this evening.

"You'd think with our connections to Cosworth, we'd get better treatment," quipped one member of the team whose ownership includes Cosworth co-owner (with Gerald Forsythe) Kevin Kalkhoven.

RUBBER ON RUBBER

There may not be such a thing as too much grip when it comes to where racing tires meet the racetrack, but a number of Champ Car drivers expressed concern about the "grip" exhibited by the rubber sleeves which house the tire stacks at the apexes of the chicanes at Surfers Paradise. It's not unusual to place tires in the chicane to discourage drivers from short-cutting the corners, of course, but using the rubber sleeves to house the tire stacks is, although it is evidently common practice in the Aussie V8 Super Car Series, which is also on the card this weekend.

Last year, track workers hurriedly exchanged the sleeved stacks for two or three tires affixed side-by-side (rather than stacked two or three high) to the track by hefty cables between V8 and Champ Car sessions. Today, however, the sleeved stacks have been left in place, to the consternation of not a few Champ Car drivers.

"I just brushed the tire stack, but it grabbed my left-front tire and ripped the suspension off," said Paul Tracy of his morning practice crash. "I had no steering and the car just turned hard left into the wall."

Although Tracy escaped with nothing worse than a sore left leg, Justin Wilson was not so fortunate, suffering a fractured wrist as the result of his encounter with the tire stacks.

"There are bands on the tires so there's really no mistakes," said Sebastien Bourdais. "If you get it wrong, you're going to hit something pretty bad in the corner in the chicane, especially in the quick section. I'm surprised we haven't seen more (accidents) actually."