Race No. 18
Honda Indy
Surfer's Paradise
Gold Coast, Australia
October 16-18, 1998
Friday Quotes from Australia:| MARK BLUNDELL | GIL DE FERRAN | DARIO FRANCHITTI |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | PAUL TRACY | ALEX ZANARDI |
| TONY KANAAN |
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Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
| ALEX ZANARDI | |
| It was a very good day. It feels very good to be between these two guys [in the position occupied by the provisional pole-sitter at the post-qualifying press conference]. I haven't had this feeling after qualifying in quite awhile, although fortunately, I've had it a number of times on Sunday afternoon. I really want a pole very badly. I haven't had one this year and I'll be doing my best tomorrow [Saturday] to keep the position I've had today. I'm very happy with the car, nevertheless, I think we can improve the car for tomorrow. Maybe we'll get some real good Australian sun and it will get so hot that the course will not be as fast. I felt pretty hooked up this morning in practice, then this afternoon, we improved more than two seconds - an incredible amount - so I think the pole [time] will be in the low 1:31s, or maybe the high 1:30s. It remains to be seen. | |
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Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Ford |
| GIL de FERRAN | |
| It was a pretty good day for us. We started struggling with a lack of traction this morning, but we made a few changes and the car worked quite well. The car is handling quite well and I hope we can stay in the top three for tomorrow. I think that would be great. | |
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Hollywood Reynard Mercedes |
| MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| That was a pretty bad session. I had to abort a couple of laps on the first set of tires, and I had a spin. Basically we didn't have a car that could go any faster than 1:35, which is three seconds off the pace. The car is just not stopping well. It locks up the rear brakes very easily. We made an aerodynamic change, and it made an improvement, but I never got a lap because of the red flag. At least we have a direction to go in tomorrow. We'll definitely be in the slow group tomorrow, and that doesn't help. But we have always run competitively here, so I'm sure we'll find something overnight. | |
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PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes |
| MARK BLUNDELL | |
| We had a productive qualifying run. Unfortunately, our best run was cut out by the red flag at the end of the session. Otherwise, I think we could have been on the third or fourth row. We're struggling to get the tires up to working temperature, but apart from that, the day was pretty good. This is probably the best street circuit in the world, and it's always a pleasure to come to the Gold Coast. It's a little bit late in the season for fireworks, but it's encouraging to be making such strong gains. | |
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LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda |
| TONY KANAAN | |
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The car has been pretty consistent, and I think we have a really good car.
Unfortunately, I am the rookie. I have a disadvantage because I don't know
the track and this track is pretty tricky. There are a lot of places where
there is just one line, and I was doing a lot of corners wrong. I followed
Jimmy (Vasser) for a couple of laps and I found a better way, but still I
know there is a lot to come from myself. I can't help my guys too much
right now. I have to improve my lines and my lap times to do well.
Everything is on me right now and that is part of the learning curve.
The track is nice but it is so difficult. I think it's fun but I am not enjoying as much as I should right now. When I run a little bit faster for sure I will enjoy a lot more. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| This morning, it was time to get down to work after all the fun on the Gold Coast. Normally, the car has been fantastic out of the box on street courses. This morning, we tried a number of things that didn't work. But we made some changes between [practice and qualifying] sessions and got the car more to my liking. I know Alex will be pushing hard for the pole because it's his last road-course event in the Champ Car series. I think the [pole-winning] time is in the car. I'm going to try and go quicker, and I know Gil's going to try and go quicker and there are another 10 guys behind us who are going to try to get up there, too. | |
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Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| I'm pretty happy in general with the car that Team KOOL Green has given me today. We just need to work on putting the power down and we'll try some new things for tomorrow like gear ratios. The key here is getting off the corners well and you can't do that when you've got wheel spin. But the handling is pretty good and we'll work on it again tomorrow. | |