Greg Moore: "Thanks, it's nice to be here."

T.E. McHale: "With last Sunday's victory at the Miller 200 at the Milwaukee Mile, Greg became the youngest driver ever to win a PPG CART World Series event at the age of 22 years, one month and ten days. Al Unser Jr. had previously earned that distinction when he won at Portland in 1984 at the age of 22 years, one month and 29 days. Greg's first career CART victory came after three runner-up finishes. At Nazareth in 1996, and in Australia and Rio de Janeiro this year. He narrowly missed the podium by finishing 4th in the season opening Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami presented by Toyota at Homestead, Florida, and he enters Sunday's ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix ranked fourth in the PPG Cup standings with 65 points. The ITT Automotive Detroit Grand Prix, eighth round of the PPG CART World Series will be televised live at 2:30pm Sunday on ABC."

Greg Moore: "We wanted to win last year. We wanted to win one race, and finish in the top 10 of the championship, and to win rookie of the Year. We only got one of our goals last year, which was top 10 in the championship. Alex Zanardi had a great season and beat us to Rookie of the Year, but, you know, we were in a position to win a bunch of races, and they didn't happen because of some bad luck. This year is to first get that first win, and then sort of work at it from there, and I think we can still win two or three races this year."

Dan Proudfoot, Toronto Sun: "Talk a little bit about street races if you will, since we are going into Detroit. Obviously you have had success in Lights in street races, but didn't get the kind of finishes you'd want last year. Can you talk a bit about that?"

Greg Moore: "Well, last year actually was pretty good on the street courses for me. We went to Australia, a track I had never been to, and we finished third, and then at Toronto we finished fourth; Detroit we didn't finish because I made a mistake in the rain. But I enjoy the street courses. When you first come into a series - in Indy Lights you do street courses, but before I had never done it, so there is a big learning curve as you go along learning street courses, how to drive them. But I am really looking forward to these next few street races. With our new '97 Reynard we went to Australia with about 100 miles on the car and finished second there. We were in contention to win that one. Long Beach we were quite fast also, so I am really looking forward to Detroit and then Toronto, Vancouver, these next few street races."

Greg Moore: "Well, you go from driving ovals and permanent road courses, which have many wide open turns and you can see all the way through the turns and things like that, then you get to a street course and you are surrounded by cement walls and you don't know what's gonna be around that corner. You've gotta sort of program your mind that you can go into that turn as fast as you want and there's not gonna be anyone there, because you are a little bit timid at first."

Greg Moore: "I really don't know. I think that - I would like to say that there is something in the water, but I really don't know what it is. I just think that a lot of us have had the opportunity to showcase what we've got. You know, there's major corporations that are behind us like Player's and Molson, behind the younger drivers, and they try to push them to their maximum. That's probably why - because we drive on some very difficult, daunting tracks, such as Mosport, places that really tax a driver. and then you go down to the States and we have the ability, an because we've got the sponsorship and the teams behind us, we're able to showcase what we've got in a competitive environment."

Tim May: "Who all did you race against coming up?"

Greg Moore: "I raced against a few people coming up. In 1600's I raced against some Canadian champions and things like that; Formula 2000 I raced against Dave Da Silva; Indy Lights I raced against Robby Buhl, Bryan Herta, Steve Roberts, a bunch of people, and you know, I think we've done allright."

Greg Moore: "No not at all. I knew that it would be very very difficult coming into the Indycar and the CART championship. Just because of the guys I was up against and the experience they all had. But I knew that I would have to come in and sort of showcase what I've got immediately, because a lot of those people had never driven against me. I had to show them what I was capable of and that I was capable of doing a good job out there with these guys, and I think we did that. I was fortunate that I was with a very good team, and everyone in the Player's Forsythe team gave me the opportunity to do it - we did like 40 days of testing before the season opened, which was really good for me, because it gave me a lot of experience driving a CART car. Once we got to the first race it was almost - I was ready, and I knew in my mind that I was ready and then we went to Brazil, where we should have probably won that race, but we had a motor failure.

"But no, it hasn't been easy at all. To go 22 races without a win, for me that is my longest dry spell. To finally get that win; it was just a dream come true to win my first indy car race."

Greg Moore: "Not really, I mean I've got some friends in Formula One. I made friends with Jackie Stewart last year at Detroit and Montreal, and I made friends with David Coulthard, and a couple of the other Formula One drivers, but, you know, my goal was, my dream was to race indy cars, and to race at tracks like Portland, Vancouver and Toronto, against Al Unser Jr. and Michael Andretti and all these guys. You know - Formula One is always sort of looming on the horizon. You can say if you do a good job in the CART championship, if you want, there is a possibility to go into Formula One with a good team, but, you know, former, Indy car is my dream. I want to win a couple of Indy car championships and I want people to say that Greg Moore was one of the best CART drivers that was ever around, before I even think about going anywhere else."

Greg Moore: "I think I am still on Cloud 9, really, it's still setting in, that we have finally done it. Everyone on my team worked so hard to get to this point. Myself, my engineer Steve Jolliffe, and my dad, we've been working on this since 1991, in Formula Ford. It was the dream of all us to win a CART race, and now that we've done it, it's ... you know - we are savoring it for this week, let's put it that way. We are really enjoying it. That's something - you only get one time in your life when you get to have that first win. We are gonna enjoy it for this week and see how we can do at Detroit."

Doug Riley, This Week in Motorsports: "Just to touch a little bit more on the 'spirit of winning.' How important is that to you and your particular team, and as you mentioned, the fact that the first one is easy - will this give you new respect from people in the garage area, and would you touch the subject of the 'greatness of winning' if you would, please?"

Greg Moore: "As far as the respect goes, I think everyone in the garage has had some respect for our team and for me - just for the Player's Forsythe team in general. But to finally get that first win, they'll realize that we are a force now. We've always been fast, but we've had some inconsistencies, with myself, with a few other problems, but everything is now sort of going quite well. I had one of my mechanics say to me, it's very difficult to load up that truck on Sunday with all these dead monkeys laying around. That's finally off our back. I think many people realized that this was the first of many for everyone on the Player's team and me. I think that winning - that gives you a feeling inside - that race in Milwaukee, it was a dream come true, and my interview at the end, I looked a little bit silly, because I was so excited. It was just the emotions came flowing out and I just kept saying 'I was happy, I was happy' and I just couldn't explain how I felt. Now that I have had time to think about it, I am probably, I am not as happy - the immediate spark isn't quite there anymore now - but I am probably enjoying it more now than I was when I first won the race. I am really looking forward to getting the third and second ones, too, now."

Greg Moore: [laughing] "Let's just say it's on a much more global scale. I mean when I won my first Indy Lights race, I wasn't on three or four different teleconferences, you know, I was doing home-town media in Vancouver and Maple Ridge and stuff like that, but it wasn't really to the extent of what it is now. I think in Indy Lights in '94 it wasn't quite as popular or as well taken as it is now. Indy Lights now is sort of - everyone looks at it now as THE feeder series to the CART championship, but in '94 everyone thought 'there's a few guys who have come out of it and have done quite well, we don't really know.' '95, you know, that was when it was getting on a more North-America-wide scale; and now my phone has been just ringing off the hook from friends and family. I have been doing interviews all day yesterday, I have a few more today, but they are starting to die off now as the leave comes up for Detroit now on Sunday."

Greg Moore: "Yeah, I would have to say that I have gotten a lot of that under control. I think last year I was probably a bit overwhelmed a tiny little bit, just with the whole world-wide scale of the CART championship. I think now, I realize what it takes to be competitive and also to be one of the drivers people are gonna cheer for and that the press wants to talk to. The fans, you know, are one of the most important things in any sport, you know, pure and simple. I really enjoy my interaction with the fans, but what I have done is, I have tried to - instead of going out and signing autographs or 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there, I try to go out and do it for 20 minutes, three of four times a day, instead of doing it constantly by doing it going back and forth. I have just taken more time for myself to just sit down and relax, think about what I am doing, think about how I can make the car better, how I can make myself better. My team has been very good at that, too. They supported me well last year, but this year we are more of a big group than a few individuals. Everything is gelling really, really well, and I just don't want it all to stop now."

Ron Martin: "Did that getting yourself under control lead to the victory or was it at least a part of it?"

Greg Moore: "I would have to say that it was a part of it. Milwaukee was the race where our pit stops have been the best in the last year and a half; I mean we had a couple of under ten seconds stops. You know, I think that everything is just gelling so well now - the way I am handling myself and the way the team is handling itself; we are just working as a real cohesive unit now. I think this is just the start of something good for us."

Greg Moore: "I would have to say that now it is very close. Goodyear won three races, from Nazareth, Rio and St. Louis with Paul, but you look at the street courses and Firestone has been very fast, too. I think that it could surprise some people how competitive the tire war is getting, and no one has a single advantage. On one race weekend someone might have a slight bit of an advantage, but then they go to the next race and then the other company has the advantage. I am really happy with the Firestone guys. I think they really know how to make a real consistent tire, which is really how you win - you don't win races by being the one-lap-wonder by going out and doing one lap really fast. You go out and do it by being able to go ten tenths for the whole race instead of on a couple of sets of tires, and not have the tires go off. That's really how it's all won and Firestone is really quite good at that."

Greg Moore: "First is passing. It's a very difficult track to pass on. Because is such a difficult track to pass on, qualifying is really of utmost importance. You gotta go out and you gotta qualify well, because if you qualify tenth or eleventh, it's very very difficult to work your way up through the field, because there is not a lot of great passing areas. There is a couple of areas where you can sort of work on someone, and hope they make a mistake, but when you are racing there you have got to really really work on being consistent and staying out of trouble, because there is so much attrition in the Detroit race, with people hitting each other, or people falling out with mechanical problems. Everyone at the Player's Team is really excited about how we can do at Detroit, just because we have done quite well on the street courses this year."

Christian Mack, St. Croix News: "Where do you stand right now with you sponsorship with the tobacco restrictions in Canada right now, and who do you fear the most?"

Greg Moore: "This year, Player's has been given the green light to go about with their actions for this year and next year. and then there is some other things on the table that Player's and the Canadian government are working towards for the future, but right now everything is pretty much as it has been. We're just going out and take it race by race by race and I think that we are really excited about the chances that we have. Player's has a really good history in the CART championship already with Jacques winning the championship in '95, and we've now won my first race for them and everyone in the Player's Forsythe team is really looking forward to the rest of the season now; now that we've got the first one, I hope that the other ones are gonna be a lot easier.

"As far as fearing drivers. I don't really fear anybody. There is tracks you go to where you know different people are gonna be fast. You know going to an oval that Paul Tracy is gonna be very fast, going to a street and road course, Michael Andretti is gonna be quick, and Al Unser Jr. is always looming there; Gil de Ferran, I mean there is so many guys - Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi - there is so many guys that we are in a close fight with, race to race to race, that there is not one person that you can really fear, because there is ten to twelve guys on a given race weekend that can win a race. That's what makes the CART championship so exciting."

Christian Mack: "What's up with the Mercedes engine?"

Greg Moore: "The Mercedes - they have really stepped up their program this year. I think it may have caught some off-guard, a little bit on these ovals. But, you know, that's good, because I've got a Mercedes and I am really happy about having the Mercedes. We've had a few problems last year - just a few reliability problems, but everything is worked out very - exceptionally - well this year and I just keep my fingers crossed that Mercedes keeps the slight advantage that I think they have right now, and that we can go on and win a couple of more races for them."

Greg Moore: "I mean it was dominated by Honda and Ford last year, but Mercedes was never really super far off the pace. Last year Honda had a slight advantage for a while - just pure and simple, they won more races. This year, Mercedes, with the new rules, the 40 inch rule and trying to keep the fuel mileage close to the same, because we've got 35 gallon fuel, I think that the Mercedes is probably the most fuel efficient motor out there. You look at Rio where Rahal was the fastest during the race, but he used a little bit more fuel than Paul and I both did, and that probably cost him the race. In Milwaukee, we went 82 laps on one tank of fuel. So you know, it's quite exciting how good the Mercedes can be. This year each engine manufacturer won a race (except for Toyota), each tire manufacturer won a race, almost every chassis manufacturer won a race; so the CART championship this year is just so competitive that I don't think anyone has a huge specific advantage over anyone. We've gone to tracks where it has suited different types of engines. The Mercedes is very good on a broad power band such as on an oval, like Nazareth, St. Louis or Nazareth, and the Honda is very good on road circuits, and the Ford is very good at street courses. I think each engine manufacturer learns from each other almost, because they see that the Ford is a little bit better on this part, so the Mercedes works on that, and so is the Honda. They sort of learn who is faster where and try to work on their motors that way also."

Greg Moore: "The Player's development program was very important to me, because at the end of 1994 we were running a family-owned team. My dad, Rick Moore, owned the team, and basically was my sponsor, my biggest sponsor. You don't really know how close we were to not running the '95 Indy Lights season, because we had no money. We did some winter testing, because we wanted some experience in case somebody did come along. Jerry Forsythe and Player's did come along and said we want you to be involved in our Indy Lights team; we'd like you to be a driver and you can bring your whole team, your mechanic and your engineer. That was the start of something beautiful for me. I mean, to win 10 of 12 races in '95 in Indy Lights was great. Jacques was the first 'product' of the player's development program, and, you know, I think I am gonna call myself the second, because they took me from Indy Lights. They helped me through the Indy Lights season where we won 10 of 12 races, and then we went to the CART championship last year and finished 9th, had a couple of very good races, a couple of good results, and this year we are just continuing. We've won our first race now and everyone on the Player's Forsythe team is really looking forward to winning some more."

Greg Moore: "I would say my driving style is - I am very aggressive when I need to be, but I am learning to be patient, which is really part of a racecar driver. I mean, a guy can go out and be the fastest guy in the world, but if he is not smart and takes too many chances, sooner or later, he is not gonna finish a race. Even if he is the fastest, he is not gonna win. That is something I have really worked on - trying to be patient and just wait for the opportunity to open itself up. I won't make a hole to get past somebody. I just wait for somebody to make a mistake or wait until we get into traffic to get there. When I am racing wheel to wheel with somebody, I am a very aggressive little guy, though, that's for sure."

Tim May: "You talked a lot about Michael Andretti. Did it just add to the feeling last week, of winning that first race and not beating some wanker. I mean, you had Michael Andretti breathing down your neck. Could you feel - did that add to your happiness there at the end?"

Greg Moore: "Oh, for sure. Because I have looked up to Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr. and these guys for a long long time. Ever since I have been ten years old I have been watching Indy car races. To be racing wheel to wheel with Paul, who is known as one of the most aggressive, as one of the best drivers out there, by he media, by the fans and all the other drivers, and to race wheel to wheel with him, to pass him two or three times on the race track, that was good. And then, like you said, at the very end then to have Michael Andretti breathing down my neck, just waiting for me to make just any tiny mistake - but fortunately, I didn't make any mistakes, and we still got the race win, which is what it's all about."