Local hero Power and Servia both showed strongly before incidents wrecked their chances. (LAT photo) » More Photos

TIME AND RESOURCES WELL SPENT

Team Australia was notably absent from the early August Champ Car test at Road America. For good reason, it turns out. Rather than test at Road America, the team spent the time and money working on more important things, such as readying themselves and their cars for what, in the grand scheme of things, is a more important race for the team, namely this weekend's Lexmark 300.

With thousands of patriotic Australians wearing green and yellow in support of "their" team – not to mention team co-owner Craig Gore in attendance (along with potential sponsors) – it only made sense for the team to focus its resources on its "home" race. And if today's results are any barometer, it was a wise decision. Alex Tagliani and Will Power were among the early pace setters today, turning second- and fourth-fastest times in the morning practice session. Then in qualifying, Power uncorked a lap at 1:31.403 moments before A.J. Allmendinger crashed and brought out what would prove to be the session-ending red flag.

Voila, Team Australia's first provisional Champ Car pole.

"We decided to totally focus on Surfers Paradise rather than attend the test at Road America," said team owner Derrick Walker. "We did a lot of testing on the shaker rig and threw what R&D budget we have left for the season into making the cars better over the curbs and improving traction for Surfers Paradise. It was a deliberate decision on our part to take what resources we have left and use them to focus on this race . . . and Will did the rest.

"The cars were very close right out of the box today and before the qualifying session, Will said to me, 'Can I get the pole position?' I told him pole was definitely in the car, he just had to go out and get it. And he did a great job. There's a tremendous amount of pressure on him here, but he just went for it without going overboard. My hat's off to him and to the whole team. We came up with a plan and executed it well."