Bourdais

SURFERS PARADISE, Australia -- Rookie Sebastien Bourdais of France will join Newman/Haas teammate Bruno Junqueira of Brazil in the front row for the Gold Coast Indy on Sunday after posting the quickest time in final qualifying Saturday.

With 13 minutes to go in the 40-minute qualifying session, Bourdais, who has already clinched rookie of the year honors, had a time of 1 minute, 31.718 seconds, the fastest of the weekend.

Junqueira, chasing Paul Tracy for the CART drivers' championship, was second Saturday in 1:31.994. He won Friday's provisional pole and was guaranteed a spot in the front row under CART qualifying rules.

Tracy, who has a 28-point lead over Junqueira with two races left, will start in the second row after qualifying third in 1:32.000 with fellow Canadian Alex Tagliani fourth.

Tracy was the first and last car on the track in the session, but his final lap after the checkered flag went out only pulled him to within one-third of a second of Bourdais.

It was Newman/Haas' sixth pole in Australia.

Sunday's 65-lap race will be held on the 2½-mile temporary Surfers Paradise street course.

Jimmy Vasser managed only two laps before he had to leave the track after reporting smoke in the cockpit of his American Spirit Ford/Cosworth.

"We lost the electronics, it dusted all the wiring in the car,'' said Vasser. "I was on my second timed lap and it was looking really good until then.''

Tracy, who won in 1995, will try to become the first repeat winner in the 13-year history of the race.