Full Throttle

Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge ensured a dream start to the weekend for the Panther Racing team by securing a front row lock-out for the Bombadier Learjet 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Scheckter set a fastest time of 24.4942 seconds to take his seventh career pole - and third at Texas - and admitted he was aiming to double up by adding a race win to he Marlboro Pole Award.

“I have a great car and a great team, and there are going to be no excuses this time,” he said. “I’m going to try to win every race, no matter where I qualify, no matter what position I’m in. I’ve been training really hard. Everybody has to get back to the mental level of winning again, and that’s what I’m going to do. I think Chevy has been putting in a massive effort or else I wouldn’t be sitting here. They really want to put a big effort in.”

Enge secured his place on the front-row by edging out Rahal Lettermans Danica Patrick for second and like his team-mate said the time had come for an upturn in fortunes for the Panther team.

“It’s good that we are back in front like we were in the beginning of the season,” he said. “It’s great results for everyone to be first and second. The engines are good, and the cars are good. We just need to finish the race, for me, no matter what position. I just need to see the chequered flag. And I think it’s the same for Tomas because we haven’t seen the chequered flag yet this year. I hope our luck has finally turned around, so we can achieve good results and put the car up front for Panther and for Chevy.”

Sam Hornish Jr joins Patrick on the second row, with Vitor Meira and Dario Franchitti completing the top six. Current championship leader Dan Wheldon will start eighth.

1. Tomas Scheckter Panther Dallara-Chevrolet 213.847mph
2. Tomas Enge Panther Dallara-Chevrolet 212.861mph
3. Danica Patrick Rahal Panoz-Honda 212.661mph
4. Sam Hornish Jr Penske Dallara-Toyota 212.049mph
5. Vitor Meira Rahal Panoz-Honda 212.041mph
6. Dario Franchitti AGR Dallara-Honda 212.034mph
7. Buddy Rice Rahal Panoz-Honda 211.792mph
8. Dan Wheldon AGR Dallara-Honda 211.718mph
9. Darren Manning Ganassi Panoz-Toyota 211.712mph
10. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Toyota 211.702mph
11. Bryan Herta AGR Dallara-Honda 211.278mph
12. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi Panoz-Toyota 211.159mph
13. Tony Kanaan AGR Dallara-Honda 210.838mph
14. Kosuke Matsuura SAFR Panoz-Honda 210.709mph
15. Scott Dixon Ganassi Panoz-Toyota 210.465mph
16. Scott Sharp Fernandez Panoz-Honda 209.751mph
17. Jimmy Kite Hemelgarn Dallara-Toyota 208.887mph
18. Roger Yasukawa Dreyer&Reinbold Dallara-Honda 208.750mph
19. Ed Carpenter Vision Dallara-Toyota 208.250mph
20. Alex Barron Cheever Dallara-Toyota 208.066mph
21. Patrick Carpentier Cheever Dallara-Toyota 207.441mph
22. AJ Foyt IV Foyt Dallara-Toyota No time