Blundell pushed aside at Gateway.

Despite not exactly having a love affair with the track that nearly ended his career last season, Mark Blundell buckled down and put in 110% with a car that was virtually undrivable on Friday to give himself a shot at a top 12 grid position going into Saturday's single qualifying session for Sunday's Motorola 300 at the Gateway oval in St Louis.

Mark was a miserable 23rd after Friday's practice sessions with his Reynard-Mercedes looking almost impossible to control. However the team made some major changes to the set-up overnight and Mark was far more comfortable in the final practice session and was looking to challenge team-mate Mauricio Gugelmin for the honour of being top PacWest qualifier.

As it turned out, Blundell will start as the best placed PacWest entry, but only after Gugelmin failed a weight check after his run and was demoted to 24th. Blundell had no problems as far as his weight was concerned, his main problem being that his car simply refused to turn in when asked.

"I simply had way too much push in qualifying and you see the time as a result," Mark said of his 26.154 second effort, a full eight tenths off pole position. "We made up 1.3 seconds in the morning session compared to Friday, but we were still a fair way down the list. It's sad because we definitely have a quicker car under there somewhere."

Now that he is on the driver market for next year, Mark will be trying harder than ever as he looks at his options for 2001 and with his sponsor, Motorola, also putting their name to the race, Mark will want to do well for the company which have supported him for so long. However with overtaking likely to be very difficult around the 1.27-mile circuit, Mark knows that he has a tough task ahead of him.

"It is going to be a long day tomorrow, but maybe we will finally get some luck go our way and we can make up plenty of time in the pits and on the re-starts," added Blundell. "It would be nice to finish with a points paying finish with Motorola sponsoring the race this weekend."