Denver, CO (My Sportsbook) - Brazilian Bruno Junqueira captured the provisional pole for Sunday's Grand Prix of Denver. The No.1 Newman/Haas driver circled the narrow 1.647-mile, nine turn, temporary street course in a record one minute, 01.438 seconds (96.507 m.p.h.). Junqueira beat his old mark of 1:01.703 which he set last year.

Junqueira earned one championship point for the provisional pole and a guaranteed front row starting position for the race. With five races remaining in the 2003 season, series points leader Paul Tracy owns a 27-point edge over Junqueira (192-165).

Because the course is so tight, CART officials changed the qualifying session's procedures so that each car would run three timed laps without anyone else on the track. There have been a number of races this year in which competitors claimed that other drivers were intentionally blocking qualifying runs by slowing on the course.

Adrian Fernandez (1:01.583) was the second-fastest qualifier. Darren Manning (1:01.869), Tracy (1:02.056) and Mario Haberfeld (1:02.100) completed the top- five.

Former Formula One driver Mika Salo of Finland is making his debut in the series this weekend with PK Racing. The 36-year-old veteran, who made 110 F1 starts with a best finish of second in the 1999 German Grand Prix, was 17th fastest of the 19 drivers.

The second qualifying session is scheduled for Saturday at 3:45 p.m. (et) with the race set to begin on Sunday at 3 p.m. (et).