Saavedra takes Indy Lights pole

UPDATE Note: Herrington's time was disallowed after his car failed post-qualifying technical inspection.

07/10/09 AGR's Sebastian Saavedra won the pole position for Saturday's Firestone Indy Lights race ahead of James Hinchcliffe and fast man from the morning James Davison. Richard Philippe and Stefan Wilson rounded out the top-5.

Sebastian Saavedra #27 AFS/AGR driver: "I'm very happy about getting the pole position today. The AFS/AGR guys worked so hard and we found the perfect setup for this particular track. It's very bumpy and slippery but I think the car handled it very well. I am looking forward to the race tomorrow."

QUOTES:

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Firestone Indy Lights pole winner): "It's great. I'm very happy. We found a setup and that's what it's about at this track. It's really bumpy and it's really slippery and you'll never get close to a perfect car. I'm really happy for my team. They did a terrific job putting the car together. I'm looking forward to the race." (About turning his luck around): "The last two races we haven't been very lucky, but that's the past. I'm just taking the positives from them. I learned a lot from both of those races. Now I have to be prepared as possible for tomorrow and get the best result I can."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 7 Hinchtown/Sam Schmidt Motorsports, qualified second): "It was a good day but it didn't come easy. We struggled a bit at the beginning of the session and then we had a spin in Turn 3 when I went in a little too hard. I was so furious when they brought out that yellow flag because that means that you lose your quickest lap. I knew from there it would be a bit of an uphill battle. The Sam Schmidt guys gave me a great car. We were able to put together two laps, almost identical, at P2 speed. So not only was it fast, it was consistent. It's a great way to start. It's great to be here in Toronto. I have to thank all the fans, the team and my friends and family that show up for this race."

RICHARD PHILIPPE (No. 37 Palm Beach International Raceway, qualified fourth): "I'm happy considering two to three days ago I didn't even know I was going to be here so starting fourth is pretty good. The car feels really good, I was driving really hard and trying to push it a lot. I was really pushing and I'm happy – tomorrow's a long race so we'll see how it goes."

STEFAN WILSON (No. 19 Walker Racing, qualified fifth): "I'm semi-happy with it. It's a lot more competitive here than it was at Watkins Glen. We got the car handling a bit better around this street track. We were quite quick in the practice this morning. The first practice we were third and second practice fourth so I really thought we could be in the top three. We were close at one point on getting in the front row – that's where I really wanted to be."

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