Allmendinger secures third straight Atlantic pole.

AJ Allmendinger did not go faster than his time from provisional qualifying on Friday, but turned a lap quick enough to pace final qualifying and add to his Toyota Atlantic championship lead heading into Sunday's Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres.

In Saturday's final qualifying session, Allmendinger clocked a best lap of 59.338secs to head the field of 15 qualifiers, and earned an additional championship bonus point. He now leads Ryan Dalziel by 29 marks heading into round eight of the 12-race series.

The Californian starts from the pole position based on his track record speed of 59.296secs from Friday's provisional round of qualifying, and chalks up his third consecutive top spot, and the fifth overall of his amazing rookie season. It was also the sixth consecutive Toyota Atlantic qualifying session that he has sat atop the time charts and, in each of the previous four races that he started from the pole, he went on to win the race.

It was Allmendinger's eighth consecutive top-three qualifying performance, and he has not failed to start outside of the top three in his Toyota Atlantic career. With five poles this season, Allmendinger has the most poles for a driver in a single season since Anthony Lazzaro had five poles en route to the 1999 CART Toyota Atlantic Championship title - and it appears as though the reigning Barber Dodge Pro Series champion could be about to follow suit.

"I think it was a really thought out and planned session that we had," Allmendinger insisted, "The tyre stops that we made were perfectly timed. We did it when we wanted to. I think the track probably wasn't as good, especially as it was this morning. With the Trans-Am race, I think that the rubber that got laid down was a little bit
different. Other than that, we had a pretty good car.

"I got a pretty good lap in late in the run. Burke Harrison, my engineer, is doing a great job - I love working with him. He was giving me good updates on how quick Michael was, because he was pretty much the one setting the pace for the whole session. I was just fortunate enough to get a good lap in, with not many mistakes on the lap, and I think the car can definitely get better tomorrow for the race. I'm very pleased, especially because all that does is add another point to my championship, and that's really what's most important. I look forward to the race tomorrow."

Starting second will be defending Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres champion Michael Valiante, who paced the final qualifying session for the first two-thirds of the session before Allmendinger turned his fast lap late in the running. Valiante posted a best lap of 59.454secs, and starts inside the top three for the third consecutive event. It is his fourth straight top-five starting spot.

"The session actually went pretty well," the Canadian revealed, "The car was really good at the beginning and it kept improving every lap I did. Unfortunately, when we put new tyres on, I think I had a tyre going down, so I never really got the full potential. But the car was really good, and the best thing about it is it's a really good race car. We've just been trying to improve all weekend long."

Dalziel starts third after clocking a best lap of 59.526secs to depose Team Rahal's Danica Patrick from the top three. It was the Scot's seventh consecutive top-four starting spot, and his ninth top-four starting position in ten races dating to a third place qualifying performance at Montreal in 2002. He goes into the race looking to
continue his streak of top-five finishes to six consecutive races, and prolong his championship challenge to Allmendinger

"It has been a pretty interesting couple of days for us so far," the Scot reported, "We've had some engine trouble, and we've missed a lot of track time, but every session we've improved and we've gotten closer to AJ and Michael, who've pretty much set a benchmark all weekend. We're pretty happy to start in third place.

"I think it's going to be a tough race. It's a pretty tricky place to overtake, but I've just got to keep my nose clean and I've got to think about the championship and take it from there. I think we've made so many improvements over the past couple of days that I'm pretty confident we can find something for tomorrow to at least challenge."

Patrick, despite losing her overnight third spot, will still start a Toyota Atlantic career-best of fourth, based on her Friday time of 1min 00.052secs. Her previous best starting spot was fifth at the season-opening Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix, where she went on to become the first woman to finish on the podium of an Atlantic race.

Patrick beat Allmendinger's RuSPORT team-mate Aaron Justus by the narrowest of margins to secure the second row spot, and he will start fifth with a time just 0.001secs slower than the Team Rahal car. It was Justus' third straight top-five qualifying performance and will be his fourth top-five start in five races. He goes
into the race looking for his seventh top-five finish in eight races this season.

Dorricott Racing second-year pilot Luis Diaz will roll off the grid from the sixth position after turning in a best lap of 1min 00.231secs for his best starting position since
he started fourth for the GI Joe's 200 at Portland International Raceway three races ago.

Joey Hand will start seventh, snapping a streak of top-five starting positions at four races. After switching to his back-up car due to a crash during provisional qualifying on Friday, Jonathan Macri qualified eighth, and would have started inside the top five had he been able to use his primary car.

Trois-Rivieres native Stephan C Roy equalled his best qualifying performance of the season by putting his car ninth on the grid in front of the hometown folks, while second-year driver Alex Figge fills out the top-ten on the starting grid.

Qualifying times - Trois Rivieres

1. AJ Allmendinger RuSPORT 59.296secs 92.343mph
2. Michael Valiante Lynx 59.454secs 92.098mph
3. Ryan Dalziel Sierra Sierra 59.526secs 91.987mph
4. Danica Patrick Team Rahal 1min 00.052secs 91.181mph
5. Aaron Justus RuSPORT 1min 00.053secs 91.179mph
6. Luis Diaz Dorricott 1min 00.231secs 90.910mph
7. Joey Hand DSTP 1min 00.251secs 90.880mph
8. Jonathan Macri Polestar 1min 00.390secs 90.671mph
9. Stephan C Roy P-1 Racing 1min 00.478secs 90.539 mph.
10. Alex Figge Pacific Coast 1min 00.763secs 90.114mph
11. Kyle Krisiloff Sierra Sierra 1min 00.944secs 89.846mph
12. Louis-Philippe Dumoulin Lynx 1min 01.236secs 89.418mph
13. Alex Garcia Transnet 1min 01.462secs 89.089mph
14. Eric Jensen Starwood Team Jensen 1min 01.752secs 88.671mph
15. Philip Fayer Starwood Team Jensen 1min 01.937secs 88.406mph