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Merrill Cain: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's CART media teleconference. I'm Merrill Cain with CART public relations. We're very pleased to bring you a very special teleconference today featuring CART's three Mexican drivers, Adrian Fernandez, Michel Jourdain, Jr., And Mario Dominguez. We'll be joined by each of the drivers individually. First up we'll talk to a true hero in Mexico, Adrian Fernandez, driver of the No. 51 Tecate/Quaker State/Telmex Honda/Lola/Bridgestone for Fernandez Racing. Adrian is in his 10th year of CART FedEx Championship Series competition. He has had seven career victories to his credit and owns two pole positions, including one in the first event of the 2002 schedule, last month in his home country at the Tecate Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix. In addition to his talents as a driver, Adrian is also in his second season as a team owner with Fernandez Racing. Adrian, thanks for joining us on the teleconference this afternoon.
Question: You've been in this game 10 years. I remember talking to you years ago. You told me one thing that you wanted to do was be a team owner. You learned the business from the inside out. Reflect on those 10 years. Has it been what you expected? What kind of challenges? Where you do you go from here?
Now having my own team, it's another accomplishment that I knew was going to be hard to get, especially because you need the support of your sponsors, Tecate, Quaker State and Telmex. It's a big commitment from them. Everything happened for a reason. We managed to finish second in the championship two years ago. That really was a key thing for me, for being able to get the confidence from the sponsors and Honda, get people like Tom Anderson and now Don Halliday to be with us, be able to form a team from scratch. It's quite a big commitment. At the end, in the long run, I believe it's been the best decision. Question: Talk about this weekend's race. Any challenges coming up? How do you feel about your package?
The pole position in Mexico was an indication that the potential is there. We just have some details that we have worked since the Mexican race. Hopefully that will help us to complete the efforts that we started in Mexico. Unfortunately, we just didn't finish in the race. Question: You mentioned the pole position that you won in Mexico. You were the first guy to really test the new rules, qualifying rules, for the CART in road course situations last month. Talk about what the feeling was like for you seeing your hard work as a team owner come to fruition in the first race of the year. Last year was a difficult year for you guys, first year as a team, always is for first-year teams. What was that like as you won the pole in front of a home crowd in Mexico?
Question: What did you think of the new rule situations for qualifying? You were the one that benefited from that, getting the quick qualifying time on Friday, guaranteeing yourself a front-row starting position, then also coming up in the rain with a good performance on Saturday which enabled you to win the pole.
It's something that last year was very unfair the way qualifying was. That was a big part of our performance last year. You can just never recover. We were affected by that rule. Now it's a lot better. Everybody has the same opportunity. Even racing is a lot better now. I'm excited. It's a new thing for CART. CART is looking in the right directions. We're proud to be part of it. Question: You as a team owner, also as a driver, can speak to this. There's been a lot of resurgence of CART, more positive news coming out since Chris Pook has taken over leadership of the company. What do you feel about CART, the direction that Chris Pook is taking the company? Are you encouraged by this? As we kind of reflect back on Chris here at Long Beach, he created this race, thus far really an indication where CART is going, how this race is going, really turned the city around.
We're really looking forward to future. The direction he's taking I think is the right one. You can see it. Sponsors are getting confident in him, promoters. He's really taking care of everything. We're pulling together, working hard together, to get CART where it should be. Merrill Cain: Adrian, thank you very much for taking some time to join us on today's call. We know you have a busy day at Honda. We'll say good-bye and we wish you the best of luck at this week and Grand Prix of Long Beach. We welcome Michel Jourdain, Jr., Driver of the No. 9 Gigante Ford/Lola for Team Rahal. Michel is in his seventh car of Champ car competition. He's coming off his best finish on a road or street course at last month's season opener in Monterrey, Mexico where he finished fourth in front of his hometown crowd. Thank you for taking some time to join us today.
Merrill Cain: Sounds like you are right next door.
Merrill Cain: Let's open it up for questions for Michel. Question: How much better do you feel about your situation now than even a month ago after the result in Monterrey that kind of reaffirmed your feelings about Team Rahal and stuff, just given a chance with a good team, you'd be able to show something? What are your thoughts going into Long Beach in that regard?
The team is professional. You know, we have a couple of tests after that in Sebring and at Homestead. We were very fast in both of them, too. I feel very good about the whole season. I feel we're going to have a very good year. Question: What do you like about the track at Long Beach? What gets you going about this track and this event?
Question: Who won that race?
Question: I didn't figure you did. You were talking about you felt before the season started you guys were on to something special. Are you still kind of getting to know each other a bit team-wise? Bobby Rahal said he wanted you to have a little bit of patience this year and let things kind of come together. Do you feel you're already in a situation where you can definitely compete and challenge?
Once I arrived, the car was okay. Jimmy and I have similar driving styles. I was not saying something they -- both Jimmy and I were saying the same things about the car. It came very quick. I felt like I had been working with them already for some time. Question:. Michel, we are obviously on today's call accepting questions for you in both Spanish and English. You have signed on with a brand-new sponsor, Gigante, great addition to Team Rahal, great sponsor for you. How important is that for you to incorporate a new sponsor like that into the series, develop that relationship? Because of the Mexican races that CART has added on the last couple years, developing the interest in the Mexican fans to bring on a sponsor like Gigante, how important that is?
For me it was great to be able to get a relationship with a company like this. They are working very, very hard in Mexico, here in the States, promote the CART program. Monterrey was crazy. They bought like 20,000 tickets for the weekend, invited a lot of people. They are doing very good stuff. I think it's great to work with people like this. Merrill Cain: Thank you for your time today, Michel. We wish you the best of luck in this weekend's race in the streets of Long Beach. Thank you for taking time to join us on today's call.
Merrill Cain: We now welcome in Mario Dominguez, driver of the No. 16 Herdez Ford/Lola for Herdez Competition. Mario is in his rookie season in the Champ cars after competing the last three seasons in the Dayton Indy Lights Championship. Mario finished 17th in his first race with Herdez Competition last month in Monterrey, Mexico. Mario, we appreciate you taking the time to join us today as we welcome you on board the call.
Merrill Cain: We'll open it for questions. Question: What do you think of CART now that you're in it?
Question: You mentioned the technological advancements that are different in a Champ car. What is that like? You spent the last few years in an Indy Lights. Can you talk about the difference? Is there a way you can explain the difference between the two cars and compare those? What was it like when you first got a ride in a Champ car?
Once I got used to the power of the Champ car, it was much more fun. I love it. I really enjoy driving these cars. Especially with the engineers, it's just a little bit easier to work. Question: You mentioned the engineers there. Oftentimes it's difficult for a rookie, first-year driver in the series, to get that comfort level with the team. Where are you in terms of that with the Herdez Competition team? You have one race under your belt. You've done a fair amount of testing here in a little break between the first and second races, and also pre-season. Where are you in terms of your comfort level with the team right now?
I think the chemistry is great. We're learning more every time I get in the car. I definitely still have a lot to learn. We're still learning a lot from each other. But I think we're definitely on the right track. I feel very good about it. I think we have a very, very strong team. I think we can surprise some people this year. Question: I also wanted to ask you, the focus of the Mexican fans, we saw very drastically in Monterrey, Mexico last month where nearly 100,000 fans turned out on race day. Tremendous support for the Mexican drivers, as well as the other drivers. What do you think Mexico City will be like? How have you seen the interest in CART and open-wheel racing grow with the Mexican fans over the last couple years?
Even with me, I'm a rookie, it was absolutely unbelievable, just the thousands of people just cheering for me, the wonderful support I got from all of them was sensational. Long Beach is the closest thing to that. We get a lot of Mexican Americans to come here to watch the race and cheer us on. Indy Lights, they came to me, cheered me on, best wishes. This is also a very big race for us. Question: What's it going to be like in Mexico City?
The good thing is by the team we get to Mexico City, I will definitely have a lot more experience under my belt. It's just going to make things easier for me. We'll try to give them a very good result. Merrill Cain: Mario, thank you for joining on today's CART media teleconference this afternoon. We look forward to seeing you in action at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Merrill Cain: We expect nothing less.
Merrill Cain: Have a good day. Thanks to all who participated on today's call. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be seen this Sunday, April 14th, on the FOX Network, air time scheduled for 3:30 p.m. eastern time. Thanks again to all who participated in today's call and have a very good afternoon. | ||||||
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