Junqueira claims Indy pole.

G-Force driver Bruno Junqueira (Chip Ganassi Racing) has claimed pole position for this year's Indianapolis 500 - putting an American chassis manufacturer on pole position for the first time since 1980.

The first driver to attempt a qualifying run, Junqueira recorded a four-lap average speed of 231.342mph.

G-Force cars dominated qualifying with Junqueira joined on the front two rows by Robbie Buhl (Dreyer & Reinbold) in 2nd, Felipe Giaffone (Mo Nunn Racing) 4th, and Tony Kanaan (Mo Nunn Racing) 5th.

A surprise performance from veteran Raul Bousel stopped G-Force from claiming a front-row sweep of qualifying"The car has been just perfect over the past couple of days," Junqueira said."This year has been much better because I have been able to do the full build-up for the race, rather than just coming in for the second weekend."It was always going to be a long wait this afternoon, but I am very pleased."

Other G-Force drivers to make the field on pole day included crowd favorite Sarah Fisher (Dreyer & Reinbold) 9th, Jeff Ward (Ganassi) 15th, Ricky Treadway (Treadway & Associates) 17th and former winner, Kenny Brack (Ganassi) 21st.

In only her second IRL race for 2002, Fisher has been delighted with the performance of the G-Force chassis with the Dreyer & Reinbold team."As I kept getting more confident in how the car would perform, it kept getting better and better," she said."No matter where I go on the track, this car does what I want it to. It never strays."The performance of the G-Force has delighted representatives of the Braselton, Georgia-based chassis manufacturer."

Part of Don Panoz's Elan Motor Sport Technologies group, G-Force has twice previously claimed pole position for the Indy 500. It also has two previous victories with Arie Luyendyk (1997) and Juan Montoya (2000).

"We have put a lot of work into improving the car in the off-season and that hard work is starting to pay off," Panoz said."The entire team at G-Force has put a lot of resources into the wind-tunnel program for this car and everybody is very pleased with the progress."

"Although we are waiting for the news as to who will be the approved manufacturers for next year, we have already done a great deal of work on a 2003 car and have already received a lot of inquiries."However, getting pole position is one thing, the aim of the G-Force guys will now be to assist our teams to work on their race set-ups."

Qualifying - Pole Day:
1Junqueira (G-Force) 231.342mph
2Buhl (G-Force) 231.033mph
3Boesel (D) 230.613mph
4Giaffone (G-Force) 230.326mph
5Kanaan (G-Force) 239.253mph
6Cheever (D) 229.786mph
9Fisher (G-Force) 229.439mph
15Ward (G-Force) 228.557mph
17Treadway (G-Force) 228.039mph
21Brack (G-Force) 227.240mph