Wilson claims first IndyCar pole at Toronto

Autoracing Betting Lines

07/17/2010 - Toronto, Canada (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Wilson will start on the pole for the first time in his IZOD IndyCar Series career after posting the quickest lap in Saturday's qualifying for the Honda Indy Toronto.

Wilson lapped the 1.721-mile, 11-turn Toronto street circuit in one minute, 0.2710 seconds for his maiden pole in his 43rd IndyCar start. The 31-year-old Englishman also set a new track qualifying record.

I think this is a great boost after having a couple of difficult races," Wilson said. "We've been working really hard, but we just haven't got the results. To come in and get a result, we've been close in the Firestone Fast Six a few times, but it's just not quite happened, so this really is a big morale boost for everyone on the team. We're just going to enjoy the race tomorrow."

Wilson, in his first year driving for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, gave the team its second pole. Sarah Fisher recorded DRR's first pole in 2002 at Kentucky.

Will Power from Team Penske qualified 0.19 seconds behind Wilson to grab the outside pole. Wilson denied Penske from winning its ninth straight pole.

"I didn't get the most out of the last sector, but [Wilson] laid down a really quick time," Power said. "To have the car on the front row, we'll see if we can beat him in the race tomorrow."

Power, the current points leader, has scored the most victories so far this season with three, including a win two weeks ago at the Watkins Glen, NY road course.

Helio Castroneves, also from Penske, qualified third, while Ryan Hunter-Reay from Andretti Autosport took the fourth spot.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon will share the third row. Franchitti, the defending series champion and last year's race winner at Toronto, qualified fifth, while Dixon took sixth.

Power's lead is 32 points over Franchitti.

Ryan Briscoe will start seventh, followed by Tony Kanaan, Alex Tagliani and Marco Andretti.

Danica Patrick had her best road/street course qualifying performance so far this season with a 12th-place finish.

"I was pleased with our qualifying run today," Patrick said. "It was a good step in the right direction. I'm happy with the car, and hopefully we can have a decent day tomorrow."

Canadian Paul Tracy will start 24th in front of his home crowd. Tracy spun out during his run during the first qualifying session.

Sunday's IndyCar race at Toronto is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. (et).

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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