When it rained yet again at Circuit Gilles Villenueve in Montreal, Marcos Ambrose was in the driver’s seat.

The hard-charging Ambrose, who grew up in rainy Tasmania, turned a fast lap of 80.905 mph over the rain-swept 2.7-mile road course Saturday to capture the Nationwide series pole. He easily beat Carl Edwards, whose best lap was 80.116 mph but more than a second slower as dusk was beginning to fall.

“It’s better to be lucky than good,” Ambrose said. “It worked out perfectly. I had a great draw. I went out first in my group, which helped me get clean track. The conditions worked in our favor. The track deteriorated, the daylight disappeared, and we got lucky. We’ll take it.”

Qualifying began about 45 minutes late and ended as darkness fell and a heavy mist was settling over the track. The cars were fitted with windshield wipers and brake lights for the conditions.

“Nobody expected to qualify in the rain,” said Ambrose, who won at Watkins Glen three weeks ago. “It’s been an interesting day.”

Defending race winner Ron Fellows, Canada, qualified third in 79.717 mph, followed by fellow road race ace Boris Said. Brad Coleman was fifth, and former Formula One star Jacques Villeneuve, who made a gallant run on the track named after his father despite standing water all around the course, was sixth. Series points leader Kyle Busch will start 12th.

Showers are in the forecast for today’s race. Last year’s Nationwide race in Montreal was the first and only NASCAR race ever run on rain tires.

That wasn’t the forecast Busch was looking for. Neither was Saturday’s.

“It was not too much fun. NASCAR cars are not made for this,” Busch said after his qualifying effort. “I had windshield wiper problems, defogger problems, staying on course problems, problems overall. It’s a fiasco, but we’re making the best of what we’ve got.”

Angelelli wins in Grand-Am

Max Angelelli and Brian Frisselle teamed to win the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.

It was the 14th career victory for Angelelli and the team’s second win of the season.

Angelelli led the final 12 laps of the 67-lap race in the No. 10 Ford Dallara and won by over a minute in a race that featured rain throughout.

While most teams opted to change to rain tires, SunTrust Racing kept Angelelli on dry tires, and he sprinted away for the victory to close within five points of the championship lead. Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard were second in the No. 12 Porsche Riley, followed by Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, who took over the points lead.

Ten Grand-Am series teams are scheduled to test Thursday on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Force India’s 1st F-1 pole

Giancarlo Fisichella gave Force India its first Formula One pole during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

The 36-year-old Italian got the pole with a lap of 1 minute, 46.308 seconds around the high-speed Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Entering its 30th race, Force India has yet to win a point by finishing in the top eight.

Toyota driver Jarno Trulli will start second ahead of BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld following a qualifying session that produced many surprises.

Overall F-1 leader Jenson Button will start a season’s worst 14th, while Braun GP teammate Rubens Barrichello will start fourth. Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel and teammate Mark Webber will attempt to take some points from Button’s lead, but begin from eighth and ninth, respectively.

Button will just hope to finish in the points as he leads Barrichello by 18 with six races to go. Webber trails Button by 20.5 points and Vettel trails by 25.