TBK-Light.com

In rookie season of ups and downs, Raphael Matos found encouragement and further validation from a hot practice lap on the temporary street circuit at Exhibition Place.

Matos, driving the No. 2 Luczo Dragon Racing car, topped the 23-car field through two practice sessions with a lap of 1 minute, 1.4739 seconds (102.775 mph) on the 1.755-mile, 11-turn course.

"I'm very happy for the team and that we have a good car," said Matos, who's posted three top-10 finishes and leads the rookie of the year standing (by one point over Robert Doornbos) through nine of the 17 races. "I'm looking forward to improving the car just a little bit more and trying to find a bit more speed to hopefully qualify up front."

It wasn't a perfect 150 minutes of total time on the circuit; he spun and made light contact with the retaining wall in Turn 11 to bring the afternoon session to a close. There were 1,262 laps completed, with a number of bumps and breaks but no injuries.

"We're a little bit frustrated with things today, but I'm sure the Luczo Dragon crew will do an amazing job again putting the car back together," he said. "I'm confident that the car will be perfect again."

Matos competed on the circuit (modified slightly from the CART/Champ Car days) in Atlantics, as did his closest pursuers July 10. Justin Wilson was second on the speed chart (1:01.7627; 102.295) in the No. 18 Z-Line Designs car and Will Power was third (1:01.7722; 102.279) in the No. 12 Penske Truck Rental entry.

Both are former winners at Toronto - Wilson in 2005 and Power in '07.

"There's still room to improve (the time), but we never got to do a proper run," said Wilson, who provided Dale Coyne Racing's first IndyCar Series victory July 5 at Watkins Glen International. "We only got one lap on the new tires. I'm confident that we can ramp it up tomorrow and find some more speed."

Doornbos (1:01.8386) was fourth in the No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car, while Team Penske's Ryan Briscoe (1:01.8420) was fifth. IndyCar Series points leader Scott Dixon was P8 in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car (1:01.9617).

Scarborough, Ontario, native Paul Tracy, making his 17th start on the street circuit, was 13th on the chart in the No. 15 Ontario Honda Dealers/woundedwarriors.ca car for KV Racing Technology.

"We were reasonably satisfied with third while trying to find the right combination for qualifying," said Power, who begins a stretch of five races for Penske Racing. "I was struggling a bit under braking as I caught slower traffic and also while catching cars exiting the pits, but this should be better tomorrow with fewer cars on track. With rain potentially coming tomorrow, it could make things interesting."

The weather is a concern, which should mix up the three rounds of qualifying even more. If the racing surface is wet, will teams decide to put on the Firestone alternate tires at crucial times? Tune in to indycar.com July 11 to watch practice and qualifications. Wilson has been involved in the Firestone Fast Six session at all three street/road courses this season, and Power has competed in the 10-minute session that sets the first three rows in his two street course events.

IndyCar Series Race Distance - 50 laps
Indy Lights Race Distance - 85 laps

I swear these commentators are completely oblivious to the fact there's a race going on... they're just yakking about stupid stats.

All 4 AGR cars missed Q2.

IRL inaugural pole time is 2 seconds slower than CART's inaugural pole time in 1986