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T.E. McHale: Good afternoon to everybody. Welcome to the CART Media Teleconference. Thanks to all of you for being with us this afternoon. Our guest today is Bryan Herta who will compete for Walker Racing in this weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach as well as in the April 30th Rio 200 in Rio de Janeiro Brazil. Welcome, Bryan, thanks for being with us this afternoon.
T.E. McHale: Bryan will be substituting for the injured rookie driver Shingi Nakano who continues to recover from several small bruises on the brain sustained in a May 31st testing accident at the Milwaukee Mile. Bryan is on loan to Walker Racing from the Forsythe Championship Racing Team with whom he is currently under contract. Bryan is a six-year veteran of the FedEx Championship Series and owns two victories both from the pole at Laguna Seca Raceway in 1998 and 1999 and seven pole positions including one at Long Beach in 1998. He also owns back-to-back third place finishes at Long Beach in '98 and last year when he was driving for Team Rahal. He has made 94 career FedEx Championship Series starts. Bryan and his wife, Janette, recently became parents for the second time with the birth of their son Colton on March 30th. They also have a two-year old daughter, Calysta. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the second round of the FedEx Championship Series, will be broadcast via one-hour tape delay on ESPN on Sunday April 16th, beginning at 5:00 P.M. Eastern time. Before we get started with questions for Bryan, I should mention that he joins us from a test session today so his time with us is somewhat limited. I'd appreciate it if you keep your questions limited to maybe one and a brief follow-up so that everybody on the call who wants to ask Bryan a question will ask him one. With that we will take questions for Bryan. Question: Recently you were involved in a test with Swift out there at Phoenix. Do you think that that is a chassis that can still be competitive in this series?
So we had a tough road to hoe and we were making progress just not as quickly as anybody would have liked. But I still think that the potential is there for car to be competitive in the future. Question: Why do you think then that Forsythe dumped using the chassis this year then?
Question: For those of us who don't kind of parachute in for the CART Series when it gets to Long Beach, tell us how the last six months came to pass when you were starting the season without a ride?
Question: How frustrating was it for you to be looking for a ride and facing this situation considering you have done so well on the tour and with Long Beach coming up early, with two-thirds there, I mean, as of last week, I guess you didn't think you were going to be there?
Question: After talking to you yesterday I assume you have been in the seat. How is it working out with the Reynard for you? We talked about that last night.
I am very pleased with the progress we have made so far. We have just broken for lunch; we have done about 50 or 60 laps, I think, and we are going pretty quickly and feel like there is definitely more to come. So I am pretty pleased with the progress we have got to date. Question: Was it an easier transition to the Reynard than you thought or were there more surprises in it with the new design?
Question: You will run two races with Walker?
Question: Then what?
Question: Are you nervous about that?
No. 1, my year is shot, you know, there is no way to compete for the Championship or to realistically look at anything like that because even if we get -- even if Forsythe gets cars now and we were able to enter competition, say, at Motegi which would be the first race that I am available to drive again for them, even at that, turning up four or five races into a season with a brand new car against guys that have been testing all winter and have got four, five races under their belts is not your ideal situation. But Jerry has reassured me that we are going to go racing and I don't know in what form or when that is going to be. I can tell you that the team is still completely intact; that nothing has been disbanned on the team personnel-wise and they are all sitting at the shop anxiously awaiting word on when they can get their hands on a race car and get it ready so we can go racing again. Question: Is there extra pressure on you at Long Beach this weekend?
Question: Can you comment a little bit about what is working with the team right now and what is not?
Question: As far as how the car feels, as far as how you are getting used to your crew, I mean, what are the good things and what are the bad things?
There is little communication things that as time goes on, you start to know each other better, it gets a little easier. So I think it is just the unknown of not having worked together quite as much yet. That would probably be the negative, things like we have never done a pit spot together and all those communications and things that happen during a pit spot are important, but they are not insurmountable either and I think that the experience the team has an experience I have hopefully will allow us, to a large extent, overcome those disadvantages. Question: You are on loan to a team that does have the capability of winning and you said that you don't really feel a lot of pressure because, really, the pressure is off going into a race for you but at the same time, what is your motivation for this race? I have got to think that if you do have a real good performance, you are going to show -- open up a few eyes out there.
Question: You and I go back a long way and we have talked a number of times. In general, how - for lack of a better word - ticked off were you that other drivers who didn't have the talent that you had got ride, when a guy like you who has talent, experience didn't get a good ride this year?
So it is a fickle business and there is a lot that goes into performance on the racetrack, not just the driver alone or the team alone. There is a whole, sort of, complex equation there that goes into it. So I think you just have to look at it as taking your opportunities when they come in. I think probably the thing I should say is that what I really wanted to do was stay in CART and which I have been able to do. I have had opportunities over the last several years and certainly over this winter to do a lot of different types of things so it wasn't like Bryan Herta couldn't still be a race car driver. But it was looking to I would be able to race in CART anymore. That is what I was hoping really to be able to do. And now when Steve Horne departed the Forsythe team and then here was Swift, what could have potentially been a pretty good year, has kind of turned into an I am just going to try and make as much out of it as I can. I have got this opportunity for the next two races and it is a good opportunity, so I am not trying to look too far behind that right now. I am going to try to do a great job right now in these next two races and put a lot of pressure on Jerry to go out and get me a car. Question: Could you just talk briefly about how all this opportunity came about? Did Derrick approach you directly? Did you see an opportunity out there and did you go chasing it yourself?
It made nothing but sense. I am hoping that I will be -- it will help me out because it will get me out racing and hopefully can do a good job and put up some good performances and it helps them out in the short team here to keep them racing while Shinji is healing up so he can come back. Question: Here we have a team which currently has a new chassis and new sponsor, temporarily a new driver. When you go back there what do you see as the future of Forsythe Championship Racing and where do you fit into that future if there is one?
Question: You talked a little bit about the frustrations of the off-season. It looked like you were going to have a deal trying to get together with Gurney; then your name was associated with Mo Nunn. Everything that was said was attached to the idea of sponsorship. Why is it that you and other American drivers seem to be having trouble locating and securing, in your view, necessary sponsorships when they are younger and less accomplished drivers, you have won races and what not, but foreign drivers, they are able to come in with the money and displace guys like yourself, why do you think that is?
Question: You mentioned Jerry's promise. I understand he has told you that if he gets his franchise that you certainly will be racing with him next season. Do you think that is likely or is this one of these things where it seems a little bit hollow considering the way things have been coming down?
T.E. McHale: With that, we need to let Bryan get back in the race car, so we want to ask you to please forgive us for not taking an open round of questions as we usually do on these calls. Bryan, thanks for being with us today and thanks to Derrick Walker for working with us to arrange this call. It is good to have you back. Best of luck in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend. We hope to see you frequently during the remainder of the FedEx Championship Series season.
T.E. McHale: Thanks to all of you who joined us this afternoon. We will talk to you next week. | ||||||
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