Gonzalez takes Milwaukee Barber Dodge pole.

Puerto Rican driver Victor Gonzalez took pole position for Saturday's Barber Dodge Pro Series Race at the Milwaukee Mile after recording a lap of 29.706secs around the 1.032mile oval.

It was a close run thing for the first time polewinner, however, as series points leader Leonardo Maia came up just 0.005 seconds short in his bid for top spot, and will start alongside Gonzalez for today's 60-lap race. Series returnee David Wieringa secured the third position with a time of 29.748secs.

The only oval race of the 2003 Barber Dodge Pro Series season utilised the Champ Car qualifying format, which gave each driver the opportunity to qualify alone on the track, with the qualifying order determined by inverting the order of the fastest speeds of the weekend, with the fastest drivers going last. The format created some drama, as Wieringa qualified early in the session, and held on to the pole until the late in the session. The entire field qualified within a second of the pole, underscoring the extremely competitive nature of the series.

Chris Baker scored his career-best qualifying result with a fourth place run in his RABCO car to start next to Wieringa in the second row, while Antoine Bessette carded the fifth-best time and will start alongside Burt Frisselle on the third row. Chris Green and Memo Rojas make up the fourth row, with Canada's Dan di Leo and France's Nelson Phillippe on row five.

Gonzalez scored a championship point for the pole, and is looking forward to going racing on Saturday with a car that he feels is very competitive.

"I knew from the start of the weekend that I had a good car, and it showed here in qualifying," he said, "I am really happy to be starting the race from the pole tomorrow, especially with how competitive this field is. This is a different track from the last time I ran on an oval, in the Barber Dodge Pro Series race in Nazareth, so the experience is a little bit different, but I am looking forward to tomorrow."

Maia was disappointed to lose out on a potential pole position after losing time on his second flying lap.

"My first lap was good, and then I pushed a little harder on my second lap, and got a little sideways in turn one, but was trying to make up for it in three, and just didn't get back to power as soon as I should have," he admitted, "It's such a small difference, but it was enough that I didn't get a championship point today. We will just concentrate on the race start tomorrow."

Wieringa, who returns to the Milwaukee Mile to race in the Pro Series for the first time since October 2001, having run in the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 2002, got back up to speed quickly this weekend to take third spot on the grid.

"I had a slide on my second lap, and that cost me the pole, but I'm happy to have come up to speed so quickly this weekend," said the son of former Sigma Autosport's boss Tom, "It takes a little bit to get used to this car after driving the Atlantic car, but Oswaldo Negri, the Barber Dodge test driver, has helped me out a lot getting used to the car again.

"I think traffic will play a big role in what happens tomorrow, as well as how guys take care of their tires for the end of the race. If we have yellows, and restarts will play a role. I am glad I qualified up here, since it would be a lot of work to get up here in the race tomorrow."