SpeedCenter: "Attendance at the most of the tracks has been up this year, and this being the final race, I'm sure more records will be broken this weekend."

Andrew Craig: "Yes, overall across the whole season attendance has been very good. Most of our tracks are working near to capacity, although a race track will never tell you that because, obviously, from their point of view that as far as they're concerned, there's always room for one more [fan]. But, most of the tracks are working pretty near to capacity."

"They're selling all of their hospitality which is very important, and they're obviously selling all their grandstands seats, and seem to be pretty much selling out all the general admissions. So, popularity of IndyCar racing is very, very strong right now, which is very, very pleasing for us."

SpeedCenter: "The hospitality at an IndyCar race is comparable to the luxury suites at a baseball or football game in entertaining the sponsors, is that true?"

Andrew Craig: "Yes, absolutely. 95% of the revenue that goes to a racing team comes from the sponsors. Unless their sponsors can entertain corporate guests, competition winners, staff, etc., they probably wouldn't continue because that's [hospitality entertaining] a major, major part of this. It's not the only reason to become a sponsor, but it's certainly one of the four or five key activities to a successful program."

SpeedCenter: "Where do you see IndyCar going from here? The interest is growing in Europe and possibly other countries."

Andrew Craig: "The most important thing is that IndyCar is and will always remain an American racing series -- that's what we are -- culturally, that's what we are, and what we want to do is to export that very American product, which is very attractive to many parts of the world. We want to export it into markets where we think it's high appeal for what we do."

"And in a perfect world -- I can't do this -- but in a perfect world I'd like to dress all the officials in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and so forth, because that's how we want to position this thing is being quintessentially an American race series."

"So, when we go abroad for the export of our races, as opposed to Formula One, who are by definition, international -- they have that internationality. We only want to go abroad into three or four major markets."

"One of those is Brazil, which we added this year. We're going to go to Japan in 1998, in fact as we speak, the contract is being finalized in the back of the bus [coach]. Probably to Europe in 1999 or 2000, and that's probably it on the overseas side."

"On the other hand, from the television point of view -- we're very aggressive indeed -- we're already seen in 185 countries, and I believe we're now up to 192, so there's not much more room for international TV exposure, but we do intend to develop the quality of international TV coverage, and that's very important because in a series, like I said, where 95% of the revenue come from the sponsors, the critical issue is giving those sponsors value."

SpeedCenter: "Where would you like to see the move in Europe go?"

Andrew Craig: "Probably to Germany. I like the idea of linking Germany, Japan and the USA as the three powerhouses of the automotive industry -- I like that idea. I also like the idea that they are the world's three largest economies."

SpeedCenter: "Are you receiving interests from these markets in building oval tracks?"

Andrew Craig: "Oh yes. First of all, when we go overseas we only want to race on ovals and the reason for that is why go to Japan and look like Formula One? We want to take what defines the difference between us [IndyCar] and Formula One and that's oval racing. So, we only want to race on ovals overseas, with Australia being exception to that, but that's just an exception."

"Yes, there is interest in Germany and actually, there is also a group in England who are interested in building an oval, especially for us and in Japan they are finishing one right now. It's a place called Motegi and that's 60 miles north of Tokyo, and we will be racing there in 1998."

SpeedCenter: "As for the Brazil race, that runs pretty close to the same time as the Formula One race. Has there been any talk as to adjusting the schedule for that?"

Andrew Craig: "Yes. We do cooperate with Formula One. They are the world governing body, or the FIA is, so we want to cooperate with them, obviously, and we hope to field some separation between those races."

SpeedCenter: "When will we see the 1997 schedule?"

Andrew Craig: "I think within 10 days [September 17th]. It's pretty well done. There are still a few issues to define."

SpeedCenter: "How many races on the 1997 schedule?"

Andrew Craig: "At least 17, maybe 18. That's again where we increase in value with the sponsors. Certainly 17, that's for sure."

SpeedCenter: "How many races per year do you see IndyCar peaking out at?"

Andrew Craig: "Well, the traditional view is that we should never run more than 16, but I think that over time, you will see us run up to 20 races. And again, that has to do with auxiliary value, and there are many, many good markets that we need to be in."

"One of the limiting factors that we have with everything that we do in this country is the weather. In many parts of the U.S. we can only race in a very, very limited window. In the mid-west you can only really race there in May through August, and in many parts of the south, you can only really race in March though May."

SpeedCenter: "Considering that we [SpeedCenter] are an Internet site, what are your thoughts on the Internet in the future?"

Andrew Craig: "I think we're all just scratching the surface of the Internet, I really do. I think it's going to fundamentally change the way in which we communicate with our fans. I think it presents a wonderful opportunity for a far more intimate level of communication."

"I think that sometimes people see the Internet as a stand-alone thing and perhaps they shouldn't see it that way. They should see it in the context of radically changing the patterns of television viewership -- far more choice in television -- with even more choices to come. Fragmenting the audiences -- much smaller TV audiences -- but audiences that are very committed to what they are watching."

"If you are watching the 'Gardening Channel' then you really care about gardening. You're not watching it because you happen to be flicking the channels. So, I think that people will become far more discriminating on how they view television."

"It follows that the things the Internet are going to provide people more choice and again, become far more discriminating as to what sites they enter and so forth, and I think the real challenge is to understand people's needs to make sure that you, indeed, provide to them an Internet service, or whatever it is, that will meet their needs in full."

"One of the things that we [IndyCar] will do next year at our site is provide pretty well real-time scoring in the races so that when you're watching [TV] at home and with your laptop or whatever, you will be able to get pretty well the same timing and scoring data that Roger Penske has in his pits. With the lap times coming out and...."

SpeedCenter: "Well, it's [live timing and scoring] not to bad now."

Andrew Craig: "No. No. But, we're going to be making it even better. And that's definitely in the future for us in providing people with the sort of information which 5 years ago was unthinkable."

SpeedCenter: "That opens up a lot of doors worldwide with the Internet being worldwide. There's a lot of people that send email to SpeedCenter and they are curious -- Maybe a little sheltered by where they live."

Andrew Craig: "I think also -- you're right -- at IndyCar we have an English language site and that's crazy. We should have a Japanese site, a German site and a Spanish site for sure and at least one Latin language site, because there's so many fans out there."

"We're still a little introverted about doing these things but I think that the potential is enormous."

"And if I understand this correctly, the quality of screens [video cards, monitors] will improve dramatically in years to come which will obviously make the visual elements much more appealing. More interactive. Even to the point of the possibility of choosing your camera view."

SpeedCenter: "So, was everyone pretty much shocked at the U.S. government's (pending) decision on tobacco sponsorship regulations in motorsports?"

Andrew Craig: "I don't think we were shocked. I think it was very well anticipated. I must say that we have a big problem with it, quite frankly. Let me say from our side that we are in total agreement with the government and totally in agreement with our tobacco sponsors that we want to find every reasonable, sensible means to ensure that our tobacco promotions don't reach out to our children."

"And I must say that we have spent a lot of time with our tobacco sponsors. Certainly the people that we work with in IndyCar are very responsible in this respect, and we go to incrediblelengths to make sure that children do not become directly involved in these promotions."

"Where I have a problem, is that it sounds great that we are going to do this and it'll stop short of doing that. I mean -- who says? Who says?"

"The fact of the matter is that there are many bad substances that are on advertising and we seem to be awfully appealing to children, but the solutions, to me appear to be cosmetic and perhaps popular."

"Whether they work seems to be a relevancy issue, but we must do something."

SpeedCenter: "But don't you see that type of education of our children beginning in the home and not the United States Government?"

Andrew Craig: "You're absolutely right. I also believe, but that's part of my background, but if you keep children very, very actively involved in sports at a very young age, that's probably the absolute best way that you can make sure that children are competitive athletes in some way in some sport, is actually the best way to keep children away from all the sours from all things, including tobacco; there's no question in my mind."

SpeedCenter: "With other sports there is physical fighting, drug use, etc. IndyCar seems to be immune to this and families can come to the track and watch the races -- A wholesome event."

Andrew Craig: "Yeah, we're pretty clean actually. We never get any problems with performance and hi-speed drugs, like steroids and so forth. This is a pretty-drug free environment, which is good."

SpeedCenter: "You can just feel the family atmosphere. Not just with the drivers and their teams, but within the entire CART organization as a whole."

Andrew Craig: "Well, we have about 60 full-time people on staff and we also have 75-80 part-time people who give-up their weekends to come racing, and they pretty much give up every day of their holiday [vacation] to come racing, which is remarkable and this is what they love, and we [IndyCar] are eternally grateful to them."

SpeedCenter: "IndyCar racing is something that is presented as very special when it comes to town."

Andrew Craig: "We have various economic impact studies and they range in the different markets from about $25 million to $35 million, into which we consider Motels, Restaurants and other guests that come in and I would think that this track [Laguna Seca] would be in the range of $30-$35 million dollars going into the local community as an result of this race."

SpeedCenter: "That's absolutely amazing!"

Andrew Craig: "Yes it is."

SpeedCenter: "Thank you, Andrew, for taking your time to answer our questions."