Elkhart Lake

Race No. 14

Texaco/Havoline 200
Elkhart Lake — Wisconsin
August 15 — August 17, 1997

Saturday Quotes from drivers and managers at Road America:
Index of Quotes available

MARK BLUNDELL DARIO FRANCHITTI MAURICIO GUGELMIN
BRYAN HERTA BOBBY RAHAL ALEX ZANARDI

Blundell PictPacWest Motorola
Reynard Mercedes
MARK BLUNDELL
"The car underneath me the past five or six races has been very consistent. It's given me a lot of confidence. The team has already given us a good race car in these kinds of conditions [when Blundell drove to his first PPG CART World Series victory at Portland in June]. What's going to be interesting is if we have a downpour like we had today. That could put a real damper on things, no pun intended.

It's great for us as a team to be on the front row but both Mauricio and I have our own races to run."


Herta PictShell
Reynard Ford
Team Rahal
BRYAN HERTA
"It's a shame we didn't get another chance to qualify [because of the rain]. But I think we have a good car for the race. We came through the field twice last year and Bobby was second and I was fifth. We just scrubbed our two sets of qualifying tires for the race during that session. It was just too slippery on the backside of the track to go fast. Hopefully, we'll have good weather on Sunday. Racing in the rain won't be fun."

Zanardi PictTarget
Chip Ganassi Racing
Reynard Honda
ALEX ZANARDI
"I'm very confident we have a good race car. We've made some changes and adjustments [in morning practice] and we gained a lot, not only in speed but also from a consistency point of view.

[Starting third] doesn't really change things too much. Starting from first or third in this place is not a big difference."


Rahal PictMiller Lite
Reynard Ford
Team Rahal
BOBBY RAHAL
"The back session of the track was just too wet to run during qualifying. We were able to scrub two sets of tires for Sunday and that's about it. We've clocked our cars at over 200 miles per hour in three different parts of the track. That's scary if you're on slicks and it rains. It's a handful at this place when it rains. I remember in 1986 when we had to race in the rain here. The race was red-flagged and we had to come back and race in September."

Gugelmin PictHollywood
Reynard Mercedes
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
"We ran the whole session basically working on the race setup. I wasn't concerned [about losing the pole]. It helped when the rain came down. We didn't have to sweat too much.

Yesterday, we really had to work hard to beat these guys. Today, it rained. Maybe my luck is changing."

Franchitti PictHogan Racing
Reynard Mercedes
DARIO FRANCHITTI
"I would have preferred to get a shot at the pole. We were veryquick this morning with old tires, so I think we would've had a shot. But,you never really know. We could've been on the pole or we could've beententh. Fourth is a good starting position, but it's a long race. The carwas good this morning, so I'm confident we'll be in good shape for therace."