|
©1998 SpeedCenter
CART Teleconference, October 6, 1998 |
|||
|
T.E. McHale: Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us this afternoon. Our guest this afternoon is the 1998 Jim Trueman Rookie-of-the-Year award winner in the FedEx Championship Series, driver Tony Kanaan of the Tasman Motor Sports Group. Tony, welcome, congratulations from all of us at Championship Auto Racing Teams. Thanks for being with us today.
Tony, driver of the No. 21 LCI Reynard Honda clinched the Rookie-of-The-Year award and the $50,000 prize which goes with it by finishing third at Sunday's Texaco Grand Prix of Houston in Houston, Texas. That performance gave him an insurmountable 86 to 33 lead over second place Helio Castro-Neves of Bettenhausen Motorsports in the rookie point standings, with a maximum of 44 points available in the season's final two events. Tony's outstanding rookie season has seen him score PPG Cup points in ten of 17 starts, including five of the past six. He is closing the season with a rush, having recorded both of his career best third place finishes in the season's two most recent events on September 13th at Laguna Seca and last Sunday at Houston. Tony's consecutive top three finishes have made him the first FedEx Championship Series rookie to record back-to-back podium performances since Alex Zanardi finished first and third respectively at Mid-Ohio and Road America in 1996. Alex went on to win that year's Rookie-of-the-Year award and past winners of the same honor have included Jacques Villeneuve in 1994 and Nigel Mansell in 1993. So Tony is in some pretty select company. The 1997 PPG Dayton Indy Lights champion, Tony heads into the October 18th Honda Indy at Surfers Paradise, Australia, in ninth place overall in the PPG Cup point standings with 86 points. The Honda Indy, round 18 of the FedEx Championship Series, will be televised via tape delay on ESPN, on Sunday, October 18th, beginning at 8:30 p.m. eastern time. With that, we will open the floor for questions. Question: In watching the TV Sunday, you seemed to be ecstatic about the rain there.
I knew it was a lot more risky, but I love rain, so I knew what I could do. I was completely -- I was very excited, very happy.
In these kind of situations, to be honest, we have to have a lot of luck, because there's nothing you can do about it. You can't see very much. You can't brake because it's completely slippery. You need to be lucky, to be in the right place at the right time.
But I remember all my records, I went through that. My mom give me a call after the race, and they said -- I was asking her how many races I won in the rain. We have tape and everything, my go-cart races. Every race was winning in my go-cart in Brazil, all my five years, I won all five of them. So I was approximately 15 races in five years under the rain, and I won all of them.
But it's honor. I have a lot of respect of him. I always said it's more than a team-and-driver relationship. We became very good friends, very close friends. Like I said, it's honor. I'm glad he give me a lot of confidence and he stays with me on the radio all the time. One of these last race in Houston was that. He like try to keep me calm and concentrate. I knew at some point of the race, Adrian was a lot faster than me. I could see in my mirrors, I ask him, "How is my lap time?" "You were the fastest car in the track, don't worry, go ahead. I like, "What he talking about?" I know I have a lot of guys faster than me. It's a good relationship, it's a good feeling. To be perfectly honest, I try to follow his advices all the time because he has a lot of experience. He found Bobby, wasn't just him, Bobby, it's a very good talent. There's no doubt about that. His results prove that. But Steve has a big part of that, as well. I don't know. I hope one day I can became -- when I grow up, going to be like Bobby. I don't know.
I think, to be perfectly honest, looking at the type of track, it's my type. I love street courses. I think we have a pretty good chance over there. It's the last road course of the year. It's going to be my last chance to try to win a race in the road course. I'm going to try. I clinched the rookie again, so I probably will be a little bit more I would say comfortable, not worry about too much things. I already won the rookie, so I don't have to worry about which place I'm going to have to go, which place I have to finish to clinch again. So I can probably try to risk a little bit more. Of course, always, you know, evaluating the car that I have, if I don't have the car to win, I can try, but I don't have to do stupid things and don't finish the race. The goal now is to finish in the Top 10 in the championship for points. So I'm going to try to go there and win. For sure, we've been two consecutive podiums, so I'm happy. I'm start like to go there. So I'm going to try to keep doing this.
I told Chip, I'm pretty happy where I am. I like my team. You know, I wasn't expect to move. So that's completely up to Steve. I have to put those guys in contact. They call. Steve start talking to him. Suddenly I think Chip find another way to go, just said, "Thank you, Steve. Thank you for your attention, but I'm going to go something else." That was it. I didn't try -- I don't try to get involved too much because I was still playing for the rookie, still going to do my job that could make me lose concentration a little bit. Of course, Ganassi is a good team. The results prove that. They won the last three championships. But I love my team. I really like Steve Horne. He gave me the opportunity to drive the Champ car for the first time in my life, gave me the opportunity to win the Rookie-of-the-Year. It was completely up to him, was his decision. They talk, and actually Steve didn't have to decide anything because Chip really move up before he had to do that. I'm just proud because somebody else was looking for me, but I'm happy where I am. That's where I'm going to stay for two more years.
I told him, "Steve, I'm very happy where I am. I don't want to change anything." That's what happen. I mean, to be perfectly honest, Steve is a guy who can answer you all the questions because I didn't got involved at all. I receive one phone call. I sent to Steve and he did everything.
So I trust in my team 100%. To be perfectly honest, I 23 years old, I taking my time. I know I can win a championship. I'm not hurry. I have a lot to learn. Going to a big team right now, you never know, I still think I have a lot to learn. I don't know can you say. To be perfectly honest, I think Tasman have a pretty good chance. They give me the opportunity, and I want to give them the first championship for them, the same way they give to me in '97.
Why not have fun? Why be so tense all the time, so stress about results and everything? You know, if you have a talent and a good team and you are completely -- you're doing your job the way you're supposed to do, the results will come. So that's one thing why I'm having so fun. The other thing is because, I mean, it's my dream come true. Everything's going so well for me. Like I said, I am at the place that I always wish to be. So, I mean, that's the way. I remember when I was young, start racing go- carts, I had a lot of fun. The night before the race, I couldn't sleep because I couldn't wait for the time getting into the go-cart and go to race. Then I went to Italy. Since '93, through to '97, last year, I lost this little moment to having fun. I was completely tense just to do well, to achieve my goal, to achieve my dream. Last year after all the problems that I had in the beginning of the season, I had the problem with my neck, my leg, I cut a nerve and I lost the movement, I had a really hard time to pick up the pace. My teammate was winning all the races. I found that I should have fun again, the way when I was 13 or 12 when I started racing go-carts. Since then, exactly a year ago when I won the last championship, I decide that I will have fun again. That's what I'm doing. Seems work. I'm going to keep doing that.
I wouldn't have fun if I would play soccer, have the same fun I would have to driving race car. So I should work myself to find a way to have fun, because that means if I had fun before, why not have fun again? So that's what I did. I found the way again, so. The way I would say set goals that you want to achieve and try to do that. The beginning of this year -- last year in the middle of the season, I said, The goal is to win the championship. Right now I'm second, what I have to do? I just have to try to do my best and win the most of the races and finish in the podium to win the championship. At the beginning of this year, I said, We can go ahead and try to win the Rookie-of-the-Year. A couple podiums will be good. We already did both. But I did both before the season end, so I set another goal now, probably try to win a race, the last two races, let's see which one we can do it, finish in the Top 10. That's the way it's going to be. When we finish the championship for next year, I'm still have to think about what I want to do, which goals I'm going to set for next year.
I think, to be honest, be by myself on the team is very good at one point because I have all the attentions on me, everybody's concentrate to do the job just for me. But I had a very good teammate last year. He was pushing me. All the time I went to the track, I knew if I made a single mistake, he going to catch me and pass me or start in front of me. Sometimes this is good to push you, to bring the level up, you know, to make you go for it. We are human beings. We sometimes are like, let's say we are running 55.5, that's the limit, someone runs 55.1, I can do that. Then you try to do a 49.9. You like 44 -- 54.9, sorry, the guy like, "How he did that?" He try go better than you. That's the challenge. Sometimes you need to be to challenge you inside your team, to give you the little boost. I learned this from Steve, because when he give me two years, I say, "Listen, Steve, what you trying to do here? You trying to go me crazy?" He's going to give me a lot of work. He's like, "Yeah, that's why you're here."
I would say 60 days is too much in a year. But I would say, you know, not ten as well. Too much is too much. I think some teams doing too much. What's happening by the end of the year, the drivers are completely stressed out and completely tired. They like, "My God, I have to go testing. My God, I have to go there." It's a pretty stressful. It's 19 races. Next year is going to be 20 races, plus the test and everything. Travel, planes. I would say too much, you're right, is too much.
To be honest, I learn in a very hard way. I never had the money to race, so I never could race for the best teams because when you're in the small, if you don't have the money to pay the good teams, they not make you race. I always had the medium to the worst teams, so I had to work really hard to try to bring my team at the top, to the top teams, without too much money, but learning a lot about mechanical stuff and everything. Because of that, when I went to Italy, where I didn't have any money as well, so I live at the shop for three years. All the three years I was in Italy, I live at the shop. I learned a lot with my mechanics and engineers. To be perfectly honest, not exaggerating, 24 hours a day in the shop because I live there, I wake up there, I did everything there. That was a very good. I realize that now. At that time I hate that because I was really young, 17 years old, want to go out, want to have fun. I was in Italy always at the shop. That's why I learned a lot, doing a lot of tasks. Try to learn the most that I could because I knew that will help me a lot. That's what it was.
I would say when you go to a new track, then somebody else been racing there for three, four, five years, you're a little bit behind. I would say the team have a very good setup for there. I think I'm going to need three, four, five laps to getting used to the circuit, then I'll be ready. I wouldn't say I will have any advantage, but I will be in the same level than everybody.
To be honest, my first time in Disneyworld was last year, so I had a lot of fun. I love that.
You have to be smooth in the throttle coming out of the corners. But they all look the same. In the rain, you have to drive very slow and very careful.
Yeah, it is worse because the cars are much bigger, so the spray is much wider. In the starts, when we have like three cars wide, taking all the straightaway, for the people behind, the spray is completely unbelievable.
| |||
|