RIGHT BACK IN THE GAME; Newman-Haas fumbles; Tracy recovers.(Motorsports)

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

Paul Tracy has no intention of going quietly. Though his hopes for defending his first Champ Car title had faded in recent weeks, at Vancouver he demonstrated the fight is far from over.

Tracy qualified on the pole and then dominated all 85 laps to score a convincing win in the Molson Indy Vancouver. But it was no runaway, more of a weekend-long scrap as Tracy overcame one setback, then another. "That wasn't quite the demo we were looking for,'' Tracy said of the performance, but it did serve notice the series titleholder cannot be counted out.

In first-day qualifying Tracy earned the provisional pole with a lap of 60.819 seconds at 105.421 mph, just a tick slower than Cristiano da Matta's 2002 lap record. Tracy was then declared guilty of blocking by race officials, and his best lap thrown out. But his second-best lap, 60.87 seconds, was still good enough to retain provisional pole on Friday and, as a series of strange breaks would unfold, fast enough to stand for top spot in qualifying overall.

Two red flags late in the final session on Saturday-the first when Bruno Junqueira's Newman-Haas Lola shattered a front lower wishbone on the curbing and wobbled into the tire barriers, the second when Oriol Servia and Gaston Mazzacane each had incidents-prevented the usual final-moments qualifying battle. Tracy kept the pole, while Sebastien Bourdais, winner of three poles this year and points leader with four wins, would have to be satisfied with third on the grid.

"I think we have to feel very lucky, as we did not put it together today... every time we got out on new tires, we got a red flag,'' said Bourdais. After suspension repairs, his teammate (and second in points) Junqueira would start well back in eighth. Tracy dodged an additional bullet in qualifying: His car was damaged in the final session, which would require an engine and gearbox swap overnight.

Along with all the necessary spares, Tracy's Forsythe Championship Racing clearly brought a good chassis setup for the tricky little 1.781-mile, 12-turn street course, as teammate Rodolfo Lavin gridded second, by far his best qualifying effort to date. As many of the usual front-runners were left stranded on pit lane by the red flags in the final session, Mario Dominguez slotted in fourth, while Memo Gidley, in just his second Champ Car start since 2001, snatched fifth.