Bryan Herta felt the pressure after messing up the lap that was supposed to be his fastest in qualifying for the Indy Racing League's first road race.
"I couldn't afford any more mistakes," Herta said yesterday. "I knew that next lap had to be right."
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It was.
Herta, considered a top road racer during his nine years in the rival Champ Car World Series, was almost perfect on his next trip around the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit in downtown St. Petersburg, Fla.
He lapped the course in 1 minute 2.51 seconds (103.665 mph) -- good enough to take the pole for today's inaugural Honda Grand Prix.
"I made a couple of big mistakes and I kind of got away with something," said Herta, whose first IRL pole came two weeks ago on the one-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway. "I was just hoping that last lap was going to be good enough."
The IRL came up with a unique qualifying procedure for its first road race in its 10-year history, with each of the drivers entered starting with a single qualifying lap. The six fastest then had 10 minutes on the track to determine the first three rows of the 21-car lineup for the 100-lap race.
Dario Franchitti turned in the fastest time in the single-lap qualifying, trailed by Helio Castroneves, Tomas Enge, Herta, Sam Hornish Jr. and Tony Kanaan.
It wasn't a totally new experience for most of them.
Although this is the first non-oval race in the IRL's history, Franchitti, Castroneves and Kanaan also had extensive road racing experience in Champ Car, and Enge is a former Formula One test driver.
• FORMULA ONE: Fernando Alonso had the best time during the first qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir, where he will attempt to win a second straight race.
The Renault driver was timed in 1 minute 29.848 seconds on the 3.367-mile circuit. Jarno Trulli of Toyota followed in 1:29.993. Michael Schumacher, racing Ferrari's new car for the first time this weekend, was next in 1:30.237.
"I lost some time in the final corner but I had some margin," Alonso said. "I will need to push the car even more tomorrow morning in order to maintain the gap."
Alonso, who leads the drivers' championship, captured the Malaysian GP two weeks ago from the pole position.
• BUSCH SERIES: The scheduled Sharpie Professional 250 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway was postponed because of rain. The race will be run tomorrow.
