  Will Power lines up to leave pit row during Honda Indy Edmonton qualifying on Saturday. Power won his second consecutive Edmonton Indy pole, and his fourth straight in the IRL series. (AMBER BRACKEN/QMI Agency) |
This guy is going so good right now he can even stop to admire a massive bolt of lightning in Turn 13.
Well, not stop, exactly.
But admire.
“It was very pretty,” said Will Power.
“Wow,” he said was his first thought.
“Oh, yeah, I’ve got to turn,” was his second.
The great roll continues for the driver from Toowoomba, Australia, in the IZOD IndyCar Series this year.
And it’s having the same effect on the rest of the best as the lightening bolt.
For the second year in a row Power won the pole here Saturday.
In six races in Edmonton, Power has now won half of them. He also won one in ChampCar.
It was his sixth pole-position start of the season, his fourth consecutive in the series and the eighth of the last 17 races in which he’s competed in the series as he goes for his fifth win of the season Sunday not to mention his third in a row.
Power, used to the pole, won his first ever IRL race here last year.
Helio Castroneves gave Penske a third 1-2 start this season, to go with the third pole in three Edmonton races, a 193rd pole in open-wheel racing and a 389th all-time pole across all levels of racing.
All you can do is sit back and marvel said Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti, who will start on the second row behind Power.
The two Target Chip Ganassi drivers have both been the hot shoe in the series themselves in previous seasons. They know what it’s like to be sitting in his seat.
“Things just seem to flow. Little pit calls, little risks you take sometimes. Everything seems to pay off. It’s a bloody good feeling,” said Franchitti, the Scotsman who has won the series title twice and went into the Honda Indy Edmonton sitting 42 points behind the driver from Toowoomba.
Dixon, who won the Edmonton race and the series title in 2008, agreed.
“It’s just kind of a wave and you’ve got to ride it for as long as possible. It can turn quickly and go the other way.
“I don’t know. It’s never one thing. As Dario said, you get a little bit of luck and you have to have great speed. With the way the competition level is right now, you’ve got to enjoy it and keep trying to ride it.”
Power tries not to think about it.
“To me it’s not focusing on what sort of streak you’re on, it’s just getting all the little details right and making no mistakes. It’s just all those little things in motorsport coming together. If the team doesn’t make any mistakes, you don’t make any mistakes. You obviously have to get fast and, yeah, get everything right. That’s how you win championships.”
It all made for an unusually light-hearted atmosphere in the interview room.
“I beat you, you sneaky little bugger,” said Power when teammate Castroneves entered the room.
“I don’t trust you, man!” the Australian grinned of the competition between the two teammates.
“That’s wise,” said Brazilian Castroneves.
Sneaky little bugger?
“You would ask that,” Power responded to my follow-up question.
“We’re always playing around. You know he calls me sneaky. I call him sneaky, too. We’re pushing each other, looking at each other’s data, trying to hide little details from each other, so ...”
Castroneves picked it up there.
“Everytime we go walk the track, we’re like ‘Hey did you take that curb, man?’ ‘Oh, yeah.’ Kind of play off each other like that.
“It’s a good atmosphere because this guy is certainly pushing it to the limit. It’s good for all of us, especially for Team Penske. For me it makes me a better driver. It makes me find some areas that I was never able to see. So for me it’s great. It’s great for the team.
“As Roger Penske always says, only one car is going to win, but the team is going to win. We got to take that as it comes.”
There was no specific little bugger incident out there this day they both were able to say.
“No, it was just that he was so fast out there,” said Castroneves. “It was so, so close. I had a very good one. But like he said, it’s about not making mistakes. Unfortunately I did. He ended up taking the pole position.
Another Power pole.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
