KEY POINTS:
Scott Dixon was seconds away yesterday from claiming pole for today's Indy 300 but was overtaken by Will Power late in qualifying.
Power claimed his third straight Indy 300 pole position, recording a time of 1 minute, 34.9451 on his final lap of the 4.5km (2.8 miles), 14-turn
temporary street circuit.
Indy 500 winner and Indy Racing League champion Dixon had posted the fastest time on the previous lap, but Power was 0.82 seconds quicker to take the pole for the Gold Coast race.
The Team Australia driver hasn't had much luck leading from the front in the past two years, failing to finish those races after collisions.
Only three pole-sitters have won the Australian race - Nigel Mansell in 1993, Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and Dario Franchitti in 1999.
"We've been really fast all week," said Power, who led both practice sessions on Friday. "I just hope we can hold it all together tomorrow."
Australian Ryan Briscoe was third fastest, followed by Franchitti, who is making his return to open-wheel racing from an aborted stint in Nascar.
American Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won here in 2003, was fifth fastest and will start alongside two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, who qualified sixth.
The 18th version of the race today is also the first under the Indy Racing League banner, and is a non-points event. The IRL and Champ Car World Series, which formerly staged the Surfers Paradise event, unified in February. Under the IRL qualifying format, the 24 cars were divided into two groups in a session lasting 20 minutes each. The top six of each of those groups advanced to a second round of qualifying of 15 minutes, and the top six from that group went into a final 10-minute session to determine the pole winner.
The first group that included Danica Patrick had light rain falling when their session started. Patrick's bad run in her Australian debut continued, crashing into the wall on her first lap. Patrick, who became the first woman to win a major open-wheel event in Japan in April, finished with no time and will start from the back of the grid today. Hunter-Reay was the best in the drizzle in the opening qualifying group but 19 seconds slower than the top practice time set earlier in the day on a dry track.
"It was pretty messy out there," said Briscoe, who just sneaked into the second round of qualifying by finishing sixth in the first group.
The rain eased slightly for the second group but the wet track left cars slipping and sliding all over the track and brought the yellow flag out three times during the session.
Power, on his last lap, finished with the fastest time in the second group, 1.45 seconds quicker than Hunter-Reay.
With more showers approaching, officials started the next session, with the 12 fastest cars, early and the track dried for most of the session.
Today's race could be the last for the Gold Coast's Indy 300.
With the race's future yet to be confirmed, thousands of Indy fans are gathering at what could be its swan song on the glitter strip this weekend, ending a 17-year history.
US Indy bosses and the Queensland Government are still debating the finer details of another outing for 2009 and beyond, with a change of scheduling understood to be the sticking point.
The IndyCar schedule for 2009 has already been released, but does not include a trip to Australia.
- AP, AAP