Motor Racing: Canadian keeps Mansell off pole

NIGEL MANSELL will start from the front row of the grid for today's Texaco/Havoline 200 race at Road America here, but despite lapping inside the old track record he will not be on the pole. That honour fell yesterday to the Canadian Paul Tracy, who had set the previous fastest lap around this circuit last year.

This is Tracy's second pole for 1993, making him the only driver in the series apart from Mansell to win more than a single pole.

During qualifying Mansell pushed himself and the car to its limit trying to beat Tracy's time. He described it as, 'hanging on at every corner hoping the car's got grip when you come out of it.'

Finally with three minutes left to qualify, choosing wisdom over heroics, Mansell radioed in, 'I can't do any more. I'm not going to risk the car.'

Pole position was a considerable achievement for Tracy. He had suffered bruises, a badly sprained ankle and an injured neck in a violent, head-on confrontation with the wall in practice on Friday, but courtesy of the state-of-the-art medical rescue and trauma care provided by the IndyCar organisers, he was able to drive to his full potential on Saturday.

Mario Andretti edged the Brazilian Raul Boesel out of third spot on the starting grid, while Emerson Fittipaldi finally found the speed that has eluded him all weekend and moved into the fifth spot for the start of the race.

Mansell needs to hold Fittipaldi at bay a while longer if he wants to be the first driver to win the PPG IndyCar World Series championship in his rookie year. Fittipaldi's improvement for qualifying puts Mansell on notice that tomorrow's race needs to be a good one.

TEXACO/HAVOLINE 200 (Elkhart Lake, Wis) Final qualifying: 1 P Tracy (Can) Penske-Chevrolet C, 134.072mph; 2 Nigel Mansell (GB) Lola-Ford Cosworth XB 133.516; 3 Mario Andretti (US) Lola-Ford Cosworth XB 133.118; 4 R Boesel (Bra) Lola-Ford Cosworth XB 133.059; 5 E Fittipaldi (Bra) Penske-Chevrolet C 132.985; 6 A Unser Jr (US) Lola-Chevrolet C 132.331; 7 S Goodyear (Can) Lola-Ford Cosworth XB 131.836; 8 R Gordon (US) Lola-Ford Cosworth XB 131.703; 9 M Smith (US) 1991 Penske-Chevrolet B 131.515; 10 B Rahal (US) Lola-Chevrolet C 131.450.