McHale: "Good afternoon. Welcome to the CART Media Teleconference. We're pleased that you all could join us today, and we'd like to extend a special welcome to our trio of guests this afternoon. Owner Tony Bettenhausen of Bettenhausen Motorsports Team Alumax, owner/driver Bobby Rahal of Team Rahal, and Championship Auto Racing Teams President and CEO, Andrew Craig.

"Bettenhausen Motorsports was formed in 1986, and has earned more than $5mil in PPG CART prize money since. Driver Stefan Johansson earned a 'Friends of June Truman Rookie of the Year Award' for the team in 1992, and Bettenhausen has another strong candidate for that award this year with 1996 Player's Toyota Atlantic Champion, Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier gave the team it's high point of the '97 season to date, when he qualified an impressive third for the April 27th Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix presented by Toyota at Nazareth, PA. He and Dario Franchetti of Hogan Racing, LLP, are currently tied for the Rookie of the Year lead, both with five points.

"Team Rahal was formed following the 1995 season, and is headed by three time PPG CART World Series champion Bobby Rahal, and entertainer David Letterman. Rahal, winner of PPG Cups in 1986, 1987, and 1992, teamed with Bryan Herta to form a two car entry during the team's first season in 1996. Both were top-ten finishers in the PPG Cup standings, Rahal finishing seventh, and Herta taking eighth.

"Most recently, Bobby turned in an electrifying drive in Sunday's Hollywood Rio 400 at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, leading 102 of 133 laps before unfortunately running out of fuel just over a lap from his first PPG CART World Series victory since Nazareth in '92. He heads into the May 24 Motorola 300 at the brand new Gateway International Raceway in Madison, IL, ranked twelfth in the PPG Cup race, with 18 points. Team mate Herta stands eleventh, with 25 points.

Craig: "Thanks T.E., and good afternoon to everybody. It's not so much a statement as a quick look into what we're doing right now. May is a very busy month for us indeed. We've just come back from Rio de Janeiro of course, which was what I think everybody regarded as a very successful event. A lot of work has been carried out on the track. Last year, of course, was the first time we went there, and we were looking for some significant improvements. I think our promoter, a company called INTAG, really delivered in full.

"The track's surface was significantly improved in the corners. The paddock layout and all of the paddock facilities were improved to what is really a very high standard. Of particular importance, we tried an experiment in Rio, where, for the first time, we installed a tire wall system at critical points on the track. I'll probably leave Bobby [Rahal] to comment in more detail on that. We, at least I, think it was highly successful, and certainly in the view of our Director of Medical Affairs, Dr. Steve Olvey, it saved Mauricio Gugelmin from potentially a very serious injury. We were extremely pleased and extremely encouraged by the results of this tire wall system.

"Next weekend, CART is not racing, but IndyLights is. On the 18th of May we will debut IndyLights at Savannah, [GA]. This is the first time that IndyLights has raced in this country, in the USA, on a stand-alone basis. We do already have a stand-alone event at Trois Rivier in Canada. But it's the first time we've tried this in the US, and we're extremely interested to see how IndyLights will perform as a stand-alone show. We're racing, as I said, on a brand new track, on Hutchison Island, which has been built specifically for this event. Savannah, of course, is a wonderful town that has a particularly strong Convention and Visitors Bureau. They are very good at getting people into the city. We're hopeful of a good crowd for our first race in Savannah, of course the first race by Championship Auto Racing Teams in a southern [US] venue for many, many years.

"In addition to the IndyLights race, there will be a demonstration by the PacWest Team with their Indy-car team, and also the Super Touring cars will run there, which is also sanctioned by CART.

"I haven't been to the track in St. Louis in the last few weeks, but our Chief Steward, Wally Dallenbach, has been down there. He's very pleased with the track itself, and we're very pleased with the way in which the facility has been developed. The grass is planted, let's hope it grows quickly. It's been a very tight schedule for Chris Pook, our promoter, to get the track finished in time, but everything moves forward well. We are in good shape for St. Louis.

"So, it's a busy month for us, an exciting month. I must say that Rio was a good start for us. A good, exciting race, and with that I'll hand it back to T.E. McHale."

T.E.: "Just a quick reminder, we have a lot of people on the call today, so if you'll limit yourselves to one question, we'll move through as many people as possible, and we'd really appreciate it. With that, we'll open it up for questions."

Steve Ballard - USA Today: "Bobby, I wanted to congratulate you on running up front again, and send along my condolences that you didn't have one more gallon of gas in that thing. Andrew, I wanted to ask you if there was any concern at all. Just reading off of the result sheet from Rio, there were eight or nine cars that went out with mechanical problems and didn't finish the race, and the unfortunate incident on the parade lap...are you feeling snake-bit at all this time of year with people that are watching these things [races] and making comparisons? Do you wish that kind of stuff wasn't happening?"

Craig: "Obviously, we were disappointed by the rate of attrition. Most of all by losing three good competitors before the start of the race itself. That was extremely unfortunate. It happens from time to time where we'll have a relatively light field [of cars] at the end of the race. Obviously, we hope it only happens occasionally."

Craig: "If I could just address that first, then I'll leave it to Bobby and Tony. Obviously we haven't seen that this olive branch, as you characterize it, may well be presented. It's kind of hard to comment in any detail at all. What we're doing right now, as we've made very clear, is that we've got a busy season ahead of us, and a busy month ahead of us. We're very much focused on our championship. If the Speedway were to come forward with some sort of proposal and it's constructive, I'm sure our board of directors would want to look at it."

Bettenhausen: "Well - I would just echo what Andrew said. It's very hard if not impossible to speculate what they may or may not say. Our team is based here in Indianapolis, and everybody is of the opinion that they might eliminate the 25/8 rule. Until we see it happen, it's really hard to say."

Rahal: "I would agree with Tony, but I think that everybody has always made it clear that we'd love to go back there. It was a fight we certainly didn't want, but I guess when an announcement comes out on Friday, we'll go from there I guess."

Craig: "Once again, we're speculating right here because there is no agreement. If there is some sort of an agreement, then obviously we work something out in the future. At this stage, it really would be wrong to speculate as to what we would do. Suffice to say, we're committed to St. Louis...we're pleased with the track...we like the marketplace...and we intend to race there for many years."

Bettenhausen: "Pretty much, we could sit here and speculate all day long. I would go so far as to say this much. I think CART is not only committed to our race tracks, but I think we're committed to our engine manufacturers as well. That's about all I'll say. Everybody else can kinda read between the lines. I don't see a lot of CART teams going back to another event here in Indianapolis unless the cars happen to be fairly similar."

Rahal: "I would just like to echo Tony for a moment, and just say that there are a lot of issues that separate us at this moment. Until you find out what issues they want to address, you can't go. It would be wrong for us to speculate, but there are a lot of issues that separate us at this time."

Rahal: "To be honest with you Mark, I've got a race in St. Louis that I want to win. Particularly after last weekend, I want to make it stick this time. I don't mean to denigrate or anything, but my thoughts are really on St. Louis. There's no question, as I've said all along, that when you went to some place for fifteen or sixteen years, it's odd not to be there. We've got a tough race to win...an extremely tough race to win on that Saturday, and I have to tell you, it takes all my time thinking about it to mount a competitive effort. I think you saw the qualifying grid in Rio. It got so ridiculous...it was so ridiculous in fact that Bryan [Herta] and I qualified the exact same times. Forgetting the fact that from third to eighth was less than a tenth of a second [separation]. I gotta tell ya, as much as I can be wishful and nostalgic, I have to focus on the job at hand."

Bettenhausen: "Well - I think it ought to be a whale of a show. There's lots of incidents I can think of right now that when teams go into a circuit without any testing, everybody's pretty even. I think the tire companies will both bring a quality product down there. I think all the teams have a pretty good idea, from the simulation programs that we're able to run, what the circuit's going to be all about. Wednesday [May 22] will be a real plus cause we get to practice two forty-five minute groups. I just think it ought to be a great race. Everybody's going in with the same amount of knowledge. I think it'll be as competitive as all of our other races have been this year."

Rahal: "We've done this before you know. We've gone to other events that were first time events whether it was Detroit in '92, or New Hampshire. It's an extra challenge for the teams, but historically, I think everybody really gets with the program pretty quickly. Certainly, the next year, when everybody comes back, there's just that much more information to go by. I don't think that will have any effect on the overall show. I think the race will be extremely competitive, and I think the teams will respond to the information they're getting, and then we'll all go racing on Saturday."

Rahal: "Well I'd just like to say that...let's face it...ovals are dangerous and they're expensive. When you hit the wall your crash budget gets depleted very rapidly. Anytime you can minimize the risk from not only the human standpoint, but also minimize the cost involved with an incident, all the better. This tire wall, I thought, was fantastic. It is limited in it's uses...or in the places that it can be used. Where I think it's potentially most useful is in places where you could potentially hit the wall head-on or dead backward. Or if something broke on the car, which usually means where you're on the entry to a corner. I don't think it would necessarily work on a glancing blow, like you would see from two-thirds of the way out of a corner to all the way out. If you noticed at Rio, we did not have...it was still possible to hit the wall...but that would always be at the exit of a corner where the deflection and angles and everything else don't pose as much of a threat.

"What this wall was...and a particular reaction is like the accident that Mark Blundell had at Rio last year, where something broke on the car, and he literally went straight into the wall at a very high rate of speed...fortunately for him without much injury, but I think he beat the odds there frankly. As Andrew was saying about Gugelmin, and I saw the tape, their was no question that this wall protected him from, potentially from some very serious injuries. As Andrew said also, in practice there were a number of incidents where maybe a rear wing got broken, but had that wall not been there, it may have been a right rear corner or a left rear corner, or even maybe a gear box. As I said, when you go front end or back end in on an oval, that's an expensive fix, irrespective of what happens to the poor guy sittin' in it."

Chris Jenkins - The Sporting News: "I was wondering, your co-owner, David Letterman, being an Indiana native...I was wondering how he felt about the split between CART and the IRL?"

Rahal: "I think he made it pretty clear publicly last year. He had feelings, and I can't speak for him, and wouldn't want to, but I do know he's going to be in St. Louis, so I guess I'd let that do the talking."

Craig: "I believe that at some stage, the idea of CART leasing the track may have been raised in casual conversation. I'm not here to speak for the Speedway, though I can't imagine that's anything that he'd want to do. I think Tony's made that pretty clear. And that's the beginning and the end of the matter."

Jason Von der Schmidt: "Could you elaborate a little bit more on the idea of CART leasing the Indianapolis track for another race."

Craig: "I really can't because that's probably about the beginning and the end of it really. I was just an idea that was knocking around. I don't even know how it was communicated to the Speedway quite frankly, but I think it was in good faith and in good spirits, but it's obviously not something that will be pursued."

Craig: "With any new engine manufacturer, it always takes a while for the program to become fully competitive. There's lots of evidence to that in many branches of [motor]sports. We certainly kept a close watch on the Toyota program, and they are, of course, an immensely welcome and respected competitor within our engine manufacturer ranks. Yes indeed, there has been some correspondence between myself and Toyota. The correspondence took the form of looking for ways in which we could help them to speed the process of the engine development. Certainly, it's been suggested elsewhere that we were saying that perhaps Toyota shouldn't be in our series. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. My purpose in contacting them...I have very good friends at Toyota, and they are a very good friend of the series and support us in many, many ways.

"We said 'look, is there any way that we could help you with perhaps a relaxation of our practice rules' or whatever and so forth. To help them get the program up and running maybe a little faster than it is right now. The letter was received extremely positively within Toyota, and we are indeed looking at some areas where we might be able to help them. There's nothing unusual about this kind of correspondence. This kind of discussion takes place with many different kinds of organizations within our series, and even with drivers from time to time. It's not an unusual procedure, but for whatever reason, this appears to have gotten a little bit more publicity than I would normally expect. It's what we would normally consider to be a confidential matter between ourselves and Toyota TD [Toyota Development].

Janet: "OK, can you tell me if you've heard anything from Jacques Villeneuve...about him coming back to CART?"

Craig: "Only what I read in the press, but Jacques is a fine competitor, and he's very welcome any time."

Lynne Huntting - PR Snoop: "Was there anything specific that you requested of Toyota? Did you give them any deadlines or request any specific action on their part? What will be CART's next step?"

Craig: "Not at all. It wasn't the sort of letter where we're putting deadlines on Toyota. They're very welcome and a much valued part of our series. It was a letter which I put forward as an offer to help them to move their program forward at a slightly faster rate. There are no deadlines attached to it, but we're obviously in regular discussion with them. If there are ways that we could help, we will help."

Lynne: "Can you also comment on the Chief Steward situation. Will Wally [Dallenbach] be acting as Chief Steward 'til the end of the season, and where Dennis Swan fit in the CART structure?"

Craig: "Dennis, I'm very pleased to say, is now back at work. I think everybody knows that Dennis had some health problems in Australia and he's now back at work. I haven't seen him yet, though I did see him just before I went to Rio. We'll be looking at the whole situation with Dennis and Wally. I think you'll find we'll make an announcement very shortly."

Joe Siano: "After what happened at the US 500 last year, which is a very embarrassing start obviously, and I think you'd agree, how much of a talking to are you going to give everybody before the start at Gateway?"

Rahal: "I think Wally's doing a pretty good job of keeping everybody in line as of late. I'm sure Wally will forget where and when, just for the fact that you should be able to start any race without an incident."

Craig: "It's a good question, and appropriate. We certainly do want to race in Europe. We think it's an important part of the development of our series. If I could digress for just one second...the reason these international events are so important is because they bring extra value to our sponsors. In a sport that is 95% financed by sponsors, value is a critical issue. Cost, of course, is an important aspect of racing, but in the end, if we provide value that exceeds the cost, we'll have sponsors. If it ever goes the other way, well, obviously we won't. In these days of globalization of business and more and more brands becoming world brands by nature, if we look at Bobby's team for example, he's got Shell, which is actually the best known trade mark in the world. And he's got Miller, which is forging international business for itself throughout the world. So the international side is important. We will only race in a very few select places overseas.

"The rest of our internationalization will be through television. Certainly Latin America was important to us, and Japan is extremely important to us indeed, because it's such a strong racing market and such a strong corporate market. Obviously, a race in Europe would be the logical extension. Within Europe, quite clearly our preferred option would be to race in Germany. I like the idea, and I think the teams like the idea of linking the three auto racing power houses of the world...America, Japan, and Germany together. I think it's a bit of a nice fit there. Obviously the critical consideration for us is exactly where and when.

"As far as the when, it's going to take us a couple of years before we can absorb a European race into the schedule, so don't look for anything before 2000 or 2001 or somewhere around that area. Obviously we have to make sure that we have a partner who is ready to go, and that we have a race track that's suitable to race on. We will only race on ovals, with exception to Australia, which is a 'grandfather' arrangement. There are a couple of good reasons for that. One is our relationship with the FIA, our international governing body. But I think just as importantly, and I think probably more importantly to us...we don't want to go overseas and look like another race series.

"So when we go to an overseas race, we want to bring something which is different and new for the fans. A race in Germany, then, is certainly high on our list of priorities, and if we don't get one in Germany, then we'll certainly get one somewhere in Europe, and we hope to do that in the not too distant future."

Paul: "The main reason for my question is because of an American audience. Our publication addresses the military community here in Europe, and the average GI would crawl across a field of broken beer bottles to see one of these CART races. That's the main reason I asked. Not so much for the Europeans, but for the GI's here who want to see these races while they're stationed over here."

Craig: "Well, we'd love to bring a race to them, and I'm sure there'll be bottles that won't be broken either."

Rahal: "I'd like to say something along that line. When I raced in Europe in Formula 2 and Formula 3, I always loved going to Germany with Armed Forces Radio Network and everything else, it was like going home. I can imagine that it would be very popular for both sides...for us and for them if we were able to go over there."

Rahal: "For me, Mike, there's a big difference between this situation and what happened in the '60's with the NFL and the AFL. During that point, they were still playing the same game...they just had different leagues. This is not the same game. The cars are totally dissimilar, the engines are totally dissimilar, I mean there's really nothing in common whatsoever. So it just wouldn't be possible I don't think. I'd just like to echo Tony's opinion there, because there is no such thing as inexpensive racing. Competition breeds cost. It's just like NASCAR ... NASCAR used to cost probably half of what it costs today. The competition gets greater and there's more money, and the next thing you know racing costs more. If we were to run an IRL program, we would not do it any differently than what we're doing right now. We obviously couldn't afford to do both as I'm sure most teams couldn't afford to do both. I'm quite happy with our series. I think it's tougher than ever. Even though I didn't win on Sunday, I derived a great deal of satisfaction from outrunning all those young guys for most of the race. I think it's unfortunate what's happened, but there's a whole lot of issues on the table that go way beyond this 25/8 rule."

Rahal: "I think, from just our standpoint, next year we've got nineteen races. That's a lot of racing. If there's another race in Savannah or Germany or God knows where, now we're talking about twenty races. That is a ton of racing. Frankly, what I think made open wheel racing so popular is the fact that we've had races like Toronto and Vancouver and Long Beach...and these races exist on their own right because they're great events in those areas. I think that's what's grown the series, is that we can point to seventeen or eighteen very strong venues, and you can go to your sponsor and say 'hey, you're going to get your money's worth out of these venues.' We are getting to the point where, no question Mike, we can't do any more races. We don't want to be a NASCAR with thirty-two, because if you talk to those guys, they all wish they raced as often as we did. I think we need to make our individual races like Vancouver and all the races I've mentioned, just make them stronger, and stronger, and stronger every year. That's going to grow the series, there's no question about it."

Craig: "We're in the process of working on the schedule for 1998 right now. Scheduling is one of the most difficult things each year, because you have to interweave television availability and transportation back and forth. Obviously the race in Japan is a big consideration because that's a big trip. I frankly don't want to get into discussing what may or may not happen in the month of May because it's all so speculative. I'll put it this way...I have to plan on the basis that we're going racing in nineteen venues next year, and that's the whole essence of what I'm doing right now, is trying to organize a schedule of nineteen races. Until such time as that changes, and I stress that's all highly speculative, then I'm going to continue planning and scheduling nineteen races."