JUSTIN WILSON toured the course prior to the field going out for the Saturday morning Champ Car practice at Portland International Raceway, no doubt to test the waters - pun intended.

The rain indeed was coming down more than the mist for the Atlantic qualifying session 90 minutes earlier. Wilson then tucked away and waited until well into the session before venturing back out and he went to the top. His lap was 1m 11.065s. This was a far cry from his 58.000secs lap which put him on the provisional pole Friday afternoon.

SEBASTIAN BOURDAIS was second fastest, with rookie NEEL JANI third. Fourth through tenth were rookie GRAHAM RAHAL, rookie ROBERT DOORNBOS, the two Team Australia drivers - WILL POWER and rookie SIMON PAGENAUD - JAN HEYLEN and ALEX TAGLIANI.

All 17 cars were on course, with all turning at least 19 laps. Seven cars drove more than 30 laps in the 75-minute session, which was punctuated by twelve minutes down time for the three red flags. Two of them were for Heylen's spins which cost him 16-minute of assessed penalties. DAN CLARKE also landed in the grass, needing a tow.

The temperature was 58 degrees F with no breeze. The second round of qualifying takes place at 2 pm PDT.