Arciero-Wells Pre-Race Notes For Australia and Long Beach

Check out the latest Sports Guides from Starting Blocks Int'l
Arciero-Wells Pre-Race Notes For Australia and Long Beach
©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
About street courses, frequent flyer miles, and racing coasters
Max Papis Quote About The Sunbelt IndyCarnival Australia Event: "Going back to Australia is very nice for me since I have not been there since I was 16 years old when I was there for a go-kart race in Sydney. I have many special memories from that trip including finishing second in what was a very important race. I remember Australia to be a beautiful place and I am really looking forward to visiting a different part of the country, the Gold Coast. The race track is going to suit us quite well because it is a street circuit. I like street circuits because you can always push the car a little bit more which is not always possible to do on an oval because the ovals are not as forgiving."
Max Papis Quote About The Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach: "Long Beach is now my home grand prix and the home grand prix for Arciero-Wells and Toyota. We will have a lot of guests at that race and I am looking forward to racing in front of all those people. Last year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the first CART race that I ever saw in person and I am very excited to be a part of the race this year. For certain, there will be great expectations of us but we are going through a development program and my goal is to take the car to the end of the race and to achieve a good result. Finishing and finishing in the top ten would be great."
Max Papis Settles In At His Newport Beach, Calif. Home: After making 28 trips between America and Italy last year, Max Papis turned in his frequent flyer mileage benefits and moved to Newport Beach, Calif. His new home is 26.1 miles from the Arciero-Wells shop, 6.9 miles from Toyota Racing Development, 28.4 miles from Toyota Motor Sales USA, and 20.2 from downtown Long Beach, the site of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. In comparison, Milan, Italy is 6,034 air miles from Los Angeles.
"Newport Beach has been very good to me. I feel like I am at home here but I also feel like I am on vacation. There's the sun, the beach, and the sea, things that I don't have at my house in Italy. There are also a lot of things here that make me feel at home. There are several coffee houses, a bakery, a newsstand that sells Italian newspapers, and I just hooked up my satellite dish and found some Italian television stations."
Arciero-Wells Uses Toyota RV8B At Australia And Long Beach Events: The Arciero-Wells CART team will use the new version of the Toyota powerplant, the RV8B, on the street circuits in Gold Coast, Australia and Long Beach, Calif. Max Papis will make his debut at these two events driving the No. 25 MCI Racing Reynard 97I/RV8B car.
"We are certainly more prepared to race on the street circuits of Gold Coast and Long Beach than we were a year ago," said team co-owner Cal Wells III. "The RV8B powerplant has proven to be more reliable and with the number of test we have held since Miami we are making substantial improvement with the overall performance. These two races will be key in the development of Toyota's RV8B engine for street circuits."
"In addition to the engine aspect," continued Wells, "a new challenge we are facing this year is that we have expanded our program to two entries with two different configurations. As the lead development driver for Toyota, Max Papis is driving the only RV8B-powered '97 Reynard and Hiro Matsushita, like the other Toyota drivers, is supporting this effort by driving the '96 Reynard with the RV8A engine. This definitely increases the work load for our crew, but I feel with the guidance of people like Richard Buck, Gordon Coppuck, and Ed Nathman we are handling this challenge very well."
One year ago Arciero-Wells debuted the Toyota engine at these two street circuits, scoring an 18th in Australia and 26th at Long Beach. The team's top finish last year was ninth at Road America.
Getting To Australia: To support the CART entries of Max Papis and Hiro Matsushita, Arciero-Wells will be taking 16,000 lbs. of equipment (excluding the cars) to the Gold Coast for the Sunbelt IndyCarnival Australia event.
The manifest list includes: four Reynard cars, eight Toyota engines, two timing/engineering stands, 20 sets of BBS wheels, four engine stands, four transmission stands, four engine heaters, 12 wheel guns, four radiators, fifty 24"x30"x24" boxes of car parts, 40 gallons of oil, 10 quarts of brake fluid, 20 axle sets of brake rotors, 42 axle sets of brake pads, 25 regulators for nitrogen, 25 air hoses, four body work stands, six undertray stands, 50 radios and headsets, 25 MOMO fire suits, four fuel helmets, 12 Snap On Tools toolboxes, four starter carts, and 10 starters.
The equipment will be loaded on the cargo plane headed for Australia on Thursday, March 27 and will return on Monday, April 7. Additionally, 40 crew members will attend the event to support the Arciero-Wells team.
Papis Attends Windjammer Debut At Knott's Berry Farm: On Wednesday, March 26, Max Papis and the MCI Toyota race car will be featured at the debut of Knott's Berry Farm's fourth major steel roller coaster, Windjammer. Noted to be the nation's first major outdoor dual-track racing coaster, Windjammer trains race against each other through side-by-side vertical loops, a 60-foot drop, and a plunge into a twisting, turning steel spiral. Knott's Berry Farm is located in Buena Park, California 30 minutes south of downtown Los Angeles.


		Check out the latest Sports Guides from Starting Blocks Int'l

		Arciero-Wells Pre-Race Notes For Australia and Long Beach ©1997 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc. About street courses, frequent flyer miles, and racing coasters Max Papis Quote About The Sunbelt IndyCarnival Australia Event: "Going back to Australia is very nice for me since I have not been there since I was 16 years old when I was there for a go-kart race in Sydney. I have many special memories from that trip including finishing second in what was a very important race. I remember Australia to be a beautiful place and I am really looking forward to visiting a different part of the country, the Gold Coast. The race track is going to suit us quite well because it is a street circuit. I like street circuits because you can always push the car a little bit more which is not always possible to do on an oval because the ovals are not as forgiving." Max Papis Quote About The Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach: "Long Beach is now my home grand prix and the home grand prix for Arciero-Wells and Toyota. We will have a lot of guests at that race and I am looking forward to racing in front of all those people. Last year's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach was the first CART race that I ever saw in person and I am very excited to be a part of the race this year. For certain, there will be great expectations of us but we are going through a development program and my goal is to take the car to the end of the race and to achieve a good result. Finishing and finishing in the top ten would be great." Max Papis Settles In At His Newport Beach, Calif. Home: After making 28 trips between America and Italy last year, Max Papis turned in his frequent flyer mileage benefits and moved to Newport Beach, Calif. His new home is 26.1 miles from the Arciero-Wells shop, 6.9 miles from Toyota Racing Development, 28.4 miles from Toyota Motor Sales USA, and 20.2 from downtown Long Beach, the site of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. In comparison, Milan, Italy is 6,034 air miles from Los Angeles. "Newport Beach has been very good to me. I feel like I am at home here but I also feel like I am on vacation. There's the sun, the beach, and the sea, things that I don't have at my house in Italy. There are also a lot of things here that make me feel at home. There are several coffee houses, a bakery, a newsstand that sells Italian newspapers, and I just hooked up my satellite dish and found some Italian television stations." Arciero-Wells Uses Toyota RV8B At Australia And Long Beach Events: The Arciero-Wells CART team will use the new version of the Toyota powerplant, the RV8B, on the street circuits in Gold Coast, Australia and Long Beach, Calif. Max Papis will make his debut at these two events driving the No. 25 MCI Racing Reynard 97I/RV8B car. "We are certainly more prepared to race on the street circuits of Gold Coast and Long Beach than we were a year ago," said team co-owner Cal Wells III. "The RV8B powerplant has proven to be more reliable and with the number of test we have held since Miami we are making substantial improvement with the overall performance. These two races will be key in the development of Toyota's RV8B engine for street circuits." "In addition to the engine aspect," continued Wells, "a new challenge we are facing this year is that we have expanded our program to two entries with two different configurations. As the lead development driver for Toyota, Max Papis is driving the only RV8B-powered '97 Reynard and Hiro Matsushita, like the other Toyota drivers, is supporting this effort by driving the '96 Reynard with the RV8A engine. This definitely increases the work load for our crew, but I feel with the guidance of people like Richard Buck, Gordon Coppuck, and Ed Nathman we are handling this challenge very well." One year ago Arciero-Wells debuted the Toyota engine at these two street circuits, scoring an 18th in Australia and 26th at Long Beach. The team's top finish last year was ninth at Road America. Getting To Australia: To support the CART entries of Max Papis and Hiro Matsushita, Arciero-Wells will be taking 16,000 lbs. of equipment (excluding the cars) to the Gold Coast for the Sunbelt IndyCarnival Australia event. The manifest list includes: four Reynard cars, eight Toyota engines, two timing/engineering stands, 20 sets of BBS wheels, four engine stands, four transmission stands, four engine heaters, 12 wheel guns, four radiators, fifty 24"x30"x24" boxes of car parts, 40 gallons of oil, 10 quarts of brake fluid, 20 axle sets of brake rotors, 42 axle sets of brake pads, 25 regulators for nitrogen, 25 air hoses, four body work stands, six undertray stands, 50 radios and headsets, 25 MOMO fire suits, four fuel helmets, 12 Snap On Tools toolboxes, four starter carts, and 10 starters. The equipment will be loaded on the cargo plane headed for Australia on Thursday, March 27 and will return on Monday, April 7. Additionally, 40 crew members will attend the event to support the Arciero-Wells team. Papis Attends Windjammer Debut At Knott's Berry Farm: On Wednesday, March 26, Max Papis and the MCI Toyota race car will be featured at the debut of Knott's Berry Farm's fourth major steel roller coaster, Windjammer. Noted to be the nation's first major outdoor dual-track racing coaster, Windjammer trains race against each other through side-by-side vertical loops, a 60-foot drop, and a plunge into a twisting, turning steel spiral. Knott's Berry Farm is located in Buena Park, California 30 minutes south of downtown Los Angeles.