Race No. 18
Honda Indy
Surfer's Paradise
Gold Coast, Australia
October 16-18, 1998
Saturday Quotes from Australia:| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | DARIO FRANCHITTI | TONY KANAAN |
| PAUL TRACY | ALEX ZANARDI |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
| ALEX ZANARDI | |
| Wehad a little problem with the gearbox. I can't doanything but shake Dario's hand, but I'mdisappointed that we didn't have an opportunity tofight for it. Certainly, for myself I wanted to get thepole. I can't allow Dario to win the race. I've got togo out and try to win. I've got to help Jimmysomehow [Teammate Jimmy Vasser standssecond in the FedEx Championship Series pointsrace, in which Franchitti stands third]. I definitelythink we have the car to win. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| Yesterday we didn't have a really super day. Imanaged to flat-spot all four of my sets of tiresthanks to a braking problem. But we were able toget the problem corrected today. Alex had a smallengine problem today when he could have had agreat run for the pole, and when I saw him comein, I thought, "This could be my day." I got out onmy second set of tires but I ran into some trafficand that's where I lost it. [Joking] When I went pastthe place where I had the accident [last year], Iwas lifting, because I was scared. If it hadn't beenfor that, I'd have been on the pole. | |
 | LCI International Tasman Motorsports Group LCI Reynard Honda |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| It wasn't a good day for us. We made some changes that didn't work on thecar. We need to go back and evaluate what happened. I'm not too happy withthe car right now. We have a lot of understeer and actually it became apower oversteer going out of the corners, so we had no grip at all aroundthe track. It's not one problem. It's five problems at the same time. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| The KOOL car was very good, but I'm mad at myself for losing a littletime in the first chicane on the back straight. But, I can't complain. We'vegot a good starting position, which is critical on this track. It's a long raceand getting good fuel mileage and conserving your tires will be important. Akey to finishing up front will be, if you can, to cut a few fast laps, whileeverybody else is in the pits. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| It was a wild lap. I was sliding around in the KOOL car and a little out ofcontrol in some places, but I got the job done. I braked too late in somecorners and didn't brake late enough in one corner. I got off the brakes, gotsome speed and hammered the curb, but I made it around! We have a good race setup. The car is more turned for racing thanqualifying with the way we've got it setup at the moment. So, I'm lookingforward to tomorrow. The key to winning will be survival, keeping the caron the track, not getting caught up in anybody else's accident, saving thetires and having a good strategy. | |