As the 4th of July rolls on, the IndyCar series finds itself at one of America's finest and most historic racing circuit's, Watkins Glen. At one time the venue of choice in the US for Formula 1, the track now plays host to NASCAR, IndyCar and a number of other formulae.

Watkins Glen marks an important spot in the IndyCar calendar. The race, officially called the Camping World Grand Prix is the half way point in the season and in 2010 marks the beginning of a five race stretch on road and street circuits, before the season finishes on a four oval run.

With eight rounds completed, Will Power leads the Championship by 12 points over Scott Dixon, with Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves close behind. Power has shown such immense skill on the road and street tracks that he could potentially build quite a lead in the title hunt before the final oval stretch.

Power's advantage on the road courses received a further seal of approval yesterday evening when the Australian nabbed pole position ahead of teammate, Castroneves. The highest qualified rookie was Takuma Sato in 5th spot, while last year's winner, Justin Wilson lines up in 6th alongside Sato.

Irish driver and former A1GP Champion, Adam Carroll has so far made a startling impression in the series with a 10th place qualifying run for his Andretti Autosport team; out-qualifying Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick and Ryan Hunter-Reay in the process. Later an indignant Hunter-Reay blamed his low position after being blocked by the lamentable Milka Duno - Duno herself, qualified in 24th, some 11.174 seconds slower than pole-man Power. With every race, criticism for the Venezuelan driver appears to be getting louder and louder.

Prior to the IndyCar race, the Firestone IndyLights will also run and Canadian James Hinchcliff will be starting from pole at the 30 lap run. Stefan Wilson (brother of Justin) starts from a career best of 2nd, while Championship leader and 2009 Macau Grand Prix runner-up, Jean-Karl Vernay starts from row number 2.

Both races will be broadcast on indycar.com, with the IndyLights race starting at 18:30pm (GMT+1) and the IndyCar Series race getting off at 20:30pm (GMT+1). The IndyCar race will also be broadcast live on Sky Sports 4 from 20:30pm (GMT+1).