Yasukawa tops day three at Indy.

The third day of qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was once again blessed with warm spring sunshine as the returning Roger Yasukawa led a list of ten drivers to provisionally book their place in next Sunday's big race.

Saturday's actual qualifying activities took place for the most part in the first and final hour with the majority of the middle of the day devoted to open practice.

With most of the 22 cars already qualified prior to Saturday focusing on race running, Dan Wheldon actually claimed the fastest lap of the day at 224.895mph with polesitter Helio Castroneves and his fellow front row starter Tony Kanaan also in the 224mph bracket. However the main point of interest was a little further down the timecharts as 14 driver/team combinations made their penultimate bids for one of the eleven remaining grid positions in the 91st Indianapolis 500.

One of those combos, the newly announced Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals/Richie Hearn alliance, didn't take to the 2.5-mile Speedway on Sunday and will leave it right until the last moment on Sunday before they make their bid. But for the 13 others, Saturday was their first real chance to lay it on the line and throw caution to the wind and with another entry or two expected to make a last minute on Bump Day in addition to Hearn, there was an extra sense of tension on what has been something of a damp squib in recent years.

Yasukawa was among several drivers who made their four lap qualifying runs early in the day, setting a four lap average speed of 222.654mph in his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dallara. That would prove to be it as far as the battle for top time on the day was concerned with only the Panther Racing Dallara of John Andretti getting close.

Andretti was one of just two drivers to make a qualifying attempt during the early to mid afternoon and posted a four lap average of 221.756mph to take second place on the day and 24th place on the grid. The second driver, Al Unser Jr, set third fastest time at 220.876mph.

With Milka Duno and Marty Roth also making early qualifying attempts the field stood at 27 for several hours before no less than five drivers lodged a qualifying run in the final 60 minutes.

Fastest of the late bunch was the Beck Motorsports Dallara of Alex Barron, who slotted in ahead of both Duno and Roth in 26th position and was followed in quick succession by Jon Herb and Jaques Lazier in the best of the Panoz's.

Duno and Roth, in 29th and 30th places, will be slightly concerned over the positions in next Sunday's race but not as concerned as the two slowest qualifiers of the day, Roberto Moreno and Jimmy Kite who will both probably have to re-qualify at least once on Sunday to take one of the 33 starting slots.

Phil Giebler was looking good for a safe passage into the race in his Playa Del Panoz until he made contact with the turn two wall on his qualifying run leaving the A1 GP Team USA driver battling with the already confirmed PJ Jones, Hearn and any other late entries on Bump Day.