HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Santa Maria native Paul Edwards will get a good look at the start of Saturday's Rolex Grand-Am GAINSCO Grand Prix of Miami, this time from the front row.

The No. 07 Banner Engineering Pontiac GXP.R of Edwards and co-driver Kelly Collins will start from pole in the second race of the Grand-Am season, with a posted time of one minute, 19.717 seconds around the slippery road course-oval configuration.

“All is good,” said Collins, who set the time in qualifying. “The car is setup great, it suits my driving style. The only adjustment I made was to turn off the AC. On my fast lap I had to pass my teammate and boss Leighton (Reece) going into turn one, I almost went off into the kitty litter. I had a big smile on my face. I went into turn one faster than I did all weekend and just stayed on it to get the pole.”

The Banner duo come into this race after finishing seventh in the GT ranks at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, a race that they led until a 12th-hour accident involving Edwards and a Daytona Prototype car.

Collins and Edwards will be joined on the front row by another Pontiac GXP.R, that of the Stevenson Motorsports No. 57, which posted a 1:19.841.

NHRA Drag Racing

Schumacher down in Texas TF field

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BAYTOWN, Texas - Tony Schumacher and his Alan Johnson-tuned U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster have plenty of work to do after the first day of qualifying for the NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.

The four-time defending champ and his Santa Maria-based crew chief found themselves 10th on the early time charts with a run of 4.619 seconds at 313.22 mph; That total fell behind the provisional No. 1 time of Texas native Alan Bradshaw's 4.526-323.50.

“I'm not sure what happened in that second run,” Schumacher said. “Certainly, the conditions were as such that we should have been quicker. We'll just have to turn our attention to Saturday with the thought of moving up in the order.”

Things went better for some of his Schumacher Racing teammates: Cory McClenathan qualified fourth in Top Fuel (4.568, 326.79), while Ron Capps was fifth in Funny Car (4.886, 310.05). Gary Scelzi, however, was at the bottom of the 21-car flopper category, managing only an 8.430 at 92.38.

The last two rounds of qualifying take place today, with eliminations taking place on Sunday.

March 29, 2008