Haberfeld aiming to break into top ten.

Mario Haberfeld will be hoping for some luck this weekend at Las Vegas as the Cummins Walker Racing driver attempts to climb into the top ten of the Champ Car World Series standings.

Haberfeld heads into the Bridgstone 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on the back of a seventh place finish last time out at Laguna Seca - where he finished higher than his qualifying position for the tenth time in eleven starts.

"The Cummins Walker Racing team has not qualified as well as we would have liked, but that is because we are working with the only Reynard in the field," Haberfeld said. "However, when it comes to race day our preparation and hard work have been paying off. The crew has done a great job in the pits all year and our race strategy has been very sound. We set a goal for ourselves to finish in the top-10 in every race and in the top-10 in the standings and we are very close to achieving that goal."

The Bridgestone 400 will be the first superspeedway oval race and just the second oval event of the year in the Champ Car series. For Haberfeld it will be just his fourth career oval race and his second in superspeedway competition.

The Brazilian's first trip to a big oval resulted in the best qualifying performance of his career when he started fourth at EuroSpeedway Lausitz last year. He ended the day in fourteenth place. In his two other oval races Haberfeld has finished in the top-ten twice at Milwaukee, taking seventh last year and tenth this year with a best starting spot of tenth in 2003.

"This will be just my fourth race on an oval and just my second on a big oval," he said. "I am still getting used to oval racing, which is different from road racing. The biggest thing about oval racing is learning to setup the car. Also, some of the techniques, like drafting, take some time and experience to learn. Fortunately for me the Cummins Walker Racing team has a lot of experience on ovals, which will be a big help especially setting up the car.

"Las Vegas Speedway has a special meaning for me. Before my first oval race last year in Germany I tested at Las Vegas. That was the first time I ever ran on an oval. This will be our second oval race of the year and obviously it is different than Milwaukee. It is not just that it is a bigger oval. At Milwaukee you have two very fast corners where you have to lift. At Las Vegas the whole track is flat out, so you not only have to have the car working for qualifying, but you have to make sure you can run flat in traffic. Getting the setup correct for both situations is the key to success at Las Vegas."