Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, September 23, 2006 – Mi-Jack Conquest Racing's Graham Rahal will have his work cut out for him tomorrow if he plans on taking home the Championship Trophy. With rain coming into play today during the final round of qualifying for the Gehl Atlantic Championship Finale, Rahal was unable to improve his starting position and will be starting third. Rahal was the second quickest driver in the session, behind Raphael Matos, but championship rival Simon Pagenaud had already secured himself a front row starting position by grabbing the provisional pole yesterday. Rahal's teammate at Conquest Racing, Ryan Lewis, seemed to be en route to putting in his best qualifying performance of the season but a red flag stopped the session when he was on a quick lap. His lap time of 2:02.859 puts him in ninth place on the grid. The Champ Car Atlantics season finale will be broadcast on Speed on tape-delay, October 8 at 5:00 p.m. eastern.

For Rahal to win title:

Rahal must win the race, which will also give him an extra point for leading a lap and Pagenaud has to finish no better than six. If they are tied in points, Rahal would be declared champion for having the most wins.


3rd - Graham Rahal

Qual 1: 2:19.304 (104.612 mph)

Qual 2: 2:01.769 (119.676 mph)


"We knew that it was going to be tough. It started to drizzle a bit before the session started and that makes it interesting. Once the track started to come up to temperature and the tires got warm, the times started to come down. The one lap I had I drove a bit off-line because I wasn't sure about the dry line. The next lap I took the dry line and was quicker, but the red flag came out so it didn't matter. It's fine to start third tomorrow. There are still 33 points available and there are 13 points between us. When you look at it like that, the difference is nothing."