In Tuesday's sceduled CART teleconference with guests P.J. and Parnelli Jones, the father and son talk about Toyotas, racing families, new race tracks, and rainy days. Here's a transcript from the interview. WARNING! You might find the lengendary Parnelli Jones almost as long on replies as he was on race track speed. The transcript contains over 4,700 words! He still tells it like it is.

"Parnelli Jones is, of course, a name which needs no introduction. He has won the Indianapolis 500 as both a driver and a car owner, and has won numerous championships both on and off-road. He is a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Motorsports Hall of Fame, the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, USAC's Midget Racing Hall of Fame, and the San Diego Auto Museum Hall of Fame. He's a definite Hall of Famer, no question about that.

"We're honored that you've taken the time to join us today, and with that, we're going to open it up for questions. We'll begin with Erik Arneson of USA Today."

Eric: "Good afternoon gentlemen. A question to PJ. Growing up in such a racing family, I was curious whether or not you ever considered doing anything else?"

PJ: "Uh, No. I was, I think, two weeks old and I was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And I think the first pair of underwear you get has race cars on them, the first pillow you get is a race car, the bed you get to sleep in is a race car, so I didn't have much of a chance. My mom and dad tried to deter me from being a race driver, but it's something that we (P.J. and brother Page) chose to do, they never forced us into doing it. I'm very happy with my decision."

Bill Schrider - LA Daily News: "I'm curious P.J., could you just take us through the Long Beach course and tell us a little bit about how you might drive it?"

PJ: "OK. Long Beach probably is one of my favorite street circuits. It's very conducive to racing. A lot of the street circuits we go to make it very hard to pass, like Surfer's or Detroit. Long Beach gives us a very good opportunity for passing. There's the long straightaway down the front main straightaway, which doesn't really tend to do that well for us in our Toyotas right now. There is a lot of opportunity to pass going into turn one. It's very wide. It does narrow up a bit at the entrance. It's a track that you can really drive hard on. It's a pretty simple race track, but turns one, two, and three, are pretty tight...lefts...rights, with not much room for passing Then turn four is very important to get off of because it leads into the long back straightaway. It's a momentum turn, and probably one of the most difficult turns on the race track. All the way down the straightaway, then you have to be careful of your braking going into five. It's a little rough and uneven with a lot of man hole covers down there. A fast right-hander going into a little short straightaway going into a left hander. It's a sweeping left-hander which is kind of uncharacteristic of a street circuit. Kind of a wide sweeping left that sets you up for the hair-pin leading onto the front straightaway. Another place that's very important because it leads onto the front shoot."

Skip Mezliknski - Chicago Tribune: "P.J. good morning. One for you and one for your dad. You often hear of sons with famous names, and that that can be a burden when trying to live up to the legend of the father. It can be pressure. Have you ever felt that burden or extra pressure because of that? And the one for Parnelli...P.J. just mentioned that you tried to deter him from going into driving. Why did you do that and what convinced you to let him get into the field?"

P.J.: "I guess I'll go first then. I guess 'til the beginning of the teleconference I didn't know he was so famous...all these Hall of Fames. I didn't feel any pressure. I think it was more of an honor. I think it helped my career. Any son with a famous father that said it didn't help him...I think we definitely got a head start over somebody who's father hadn't been in racing. It opened the doors, but we had to keep our foot in the door. We had to prove our own talent. I think it kinda help by putting a little asterisk next to your name and got people to watch you, or open up those doors. I never felt any pressure, never that it was any kind of a burden, I never took it that way."

Parnelli: "First of all, I didn't want them to be race drivers. My wife and I felt that...well, lets face it, it is dangerous and when you have your own flesh and blood out there it's a little different story versus when your having your child do it. But like P.J. said, the kids get programmed right from the start. The first toy they get is a race car and it just doesn't get any better after that. We had tried to push our kids into little league baseball, and football and ice hockey. They did other things when they were young but those things didn't hold their interest. As soon as they got out of school they wanted to go to our race shop. They wanted mechanical things and you could see that they had a mechanical interest. As P.J. said, he went to Indianapolis when he didn't even know where he was at, but we did try to keep them away from racing. It just didn't work. One thing for P.J., he had to break a lot of ice. I know it was easier for Page, my younger son to follow P.J. than it was for P.J. to break in because when you are a race drivers son, and Al Unser, Sr. had told me that about Al Unser, Jr., he said 'you wait and see, you're going to have the same problems that I did.' What happens is that race organizations really seem to pick on that because that's where they (the sons) come from. P.J. had a rough way to go in a lot of cases. Some of the veteran drivers wanted to take him out and show him how the cow ate the cabbage, so to speak. He went through a lot of that and we had a lot of controversy. All-in-all, if I think you're not really doing well, then I'm going to be the first one to tell you. They've surpassed my thinking and knowing that they had some ability. I took P.J. out to the first go-kart race, and I think it was the second time we went out he won. What could I say."

Lee Schieder - The Orange County Register: "As far as the engine development at Toyota, how do you think it's coming along and what are you looking forward to at the end of the year?"

P.J.: "I thought during the end of the year last year that our reliability was getting a lot better. I thought we were making some small gains. We've had a couple of bad races and have blown up at the beginning part of the race. The real problem is that the engines that Juan and Hiro and myself have right now, they've done no real development on it. They've really kind of put all their eggs in one basket, the phase three engine which is the one that Max has right now. They had the problem with their manufacturing facilities where they had a big fire. That caused a set-back in the other three of us getting the engines. We weren't supposed to go this long without having them. It's really a tough question right now. We have a very good race team, and all our guys are doing a great job. We need some more horsepower and some more reliability and I think we could show how competitive of a race team that we really are. That's all we're lacking right now. I got some reports from Surfer's and we had some really great times. A lot of people were saying that we were really fast in the corners, but we got smoked down the straightaways. There's just nothing that you can do when you can't make up any time on the straightaways. We're just kind of hoping and waiting for the middle of the year hope that we can get the phase three to produce a lot more horsepower. We'll be a lot closer to what we need to have that way."

Dan Proudfoot - Toronto: "P.J. I have kind of a Canadian question here. I'm curious about your start in hockey. But beyond that, following up on the last question, last year you seemed to have the reliability. How come it's gone?"

P.J. "As far as hockey goes...I played from the time I was about four-and-a-half or five and played until I was about 16. We one the California state championship. I really loved it and I think it is a great sport. I think I was the aggressive kind of player that maybe had a few penalty minutes in my days of hockey. It was our kind of game and we really liked it. Not very many people from California really play ice hockey. I think it was a good place. It was better than football, which I think I played for one year and I didn't really care for it. I played ice hockey more than I played any other sport."

Proudfoot: "Did you ever play with Brian Stuart?"

P.J.: "No but I drove for Brian. We threatened to play a few times, but we never got out on the ice."

Proudfoot: "OK. What about the second question?"

P.J.: "As far as the reliability, we really don't know what happened. We've been kind of asking ourselves this question. We finished a 500 mile race at Michigan with the engine and we finished a lot of races last year with the engine. Then all-of-a-sudden, the last three races (Laguna last year, Homestead and Surfer's Paradise this year) we haven't finished. We don't know what's up. I don't know if we're getting some bad pieces, some bad parts, or if it's that they haven't been able to spend the time on the engine in trying to develop the other engine. I know they want to pin-point it. They definitely want us to finish at Long Beach, being that it's a race that they sponsor. They're really trying hard. They're really trying to develop this engine and they have a lot of work to do while they're trying to keep us on the race track racing. It's not an easy task to catch up to everybody that's been out there for four or five, even ten years. It was really Honda that raised the level to where you need to be."

Proudfoot: "How is it that Max (Papis) got the new engine first. What was Dan Gurney's thinking in letting the engine go to the other team first?"

P.J.: "What happened was that, with the American Eagle chassis, last year we were not 100% competitive. We were scheduled to run the Eagles again at the beginning of the year. Not knowing how they were going to come out, they didn't want to gamble on the first couple of races. We were only supposed to not have the engines for the first one or two races. Definitely by Long Beach time we were supposed to be running the new engines. It wasn't going to be a big factor. I think they wanted the engine to go into a Reynard first. Then what ended up happening was that we decided that we were going to start the season with Reynards too. We weren't able to get our '97 Reynards until Australia. The new engine will only fit in the '97 car and not in the '96 car. So there was no real decision to make. It had to go to Cal (Wells.)"

Ron Martin - Focus on Racing Radio: "I have questions for both P.J. and for Parnelli. We'll start with Parnelli. When you look back at the days that you started racing and the group of drivers that were around you to blaze the trail and compare them to the young drivers today, how do you compare the two groups?"

Parnelli: "Back in the days when we drove you had to be a little rougher than the drivers today. The reason I say that is because you had to be more diversified at it. We not only had to run IndyCars, but you also had to run the dirt and you had to run Midgets, Sprint Cars, Stock Cars, and everything else. Today, because of the sponsorship and all that, most of the Indy-car drivers, that's about all they do. It's more sophisticated. In todayâs racing, you have things like driving schools and things like that and you have a lot of different forms of racing. You get a lot of tigers coming out of a lot of different divisions. We have a lot of young aggressive drivers that really don't get an opportunity today. Back then, if you showed the talent that some of these drivers show today, you'd certainly have people begging you to drive their cars. Today, you may have a young talented driver that never gets a shot at it. That's one of the problems we have today. We're losing a lot of our talented race drivers to stock car racing because of that."

Martin: "P.J., we all know the history of your dad and all of his achievements, but when you look over at your dad, what do you see that we may not see?"

P.J.: "Probably the father that he was. He made us do a lot of things on our own. In our younger days of racing, I think that everybody thought that we just showed up at the race track, went to school during the week, and didn't really know much about the car. They though we just showed up at the track and somebody prepared our car. In the early days when we were racing go-karts and Sprint Cars, and Midgets and all of that stuff, we were at the shop every day. As soon as school was out we were right there at the race shop working on our own cars. We were staying up late and missing our proms and our school functions to be working on our cars, and I think that was a great experience for us. We learned the mechanical side of racing. In todays time, when you're on an Indy-car team, they won't let me near the race car. At least I have the knowledge to kind of look back and find out the problems, and be able to help the guys out with that. I think he was very supportive and a very good teacher, and...you know...just the father side of it. His accomplishments everybody can see, and I think we're very proud of him for that."

Martin: "A final question for Parnelli. What do you see as your greatest achievement?"

Parnelli: "Well, probably having two fine sons. In racing, I'm kinda the guy that likes to see what's on the other side of the hill. Obviously, winning at Indianapolis is the major league of automobile racing. Winning there really gives you a stature that really helps you every place you go. It certainly opens a lot of doors for you. By far, winning Indy has been my biggest thrill. I've had a lot of different thrill winning different kinds of races in different kinds of cars, and championships and stuff like that, but winning Indy's really it."

Billy Edwards: "Parnelli, I'm sitting here in my office and right above my desk is a painting by Kirk Sterner/Jim Swintel. It's of you and Mario back in '67 at the Indy500. Now P.J. is running with that next generation with Michael and Al, Jr. You spoke of the danger thing when they're racing, but what other feelings to have when you see your son out there racing with the next legends in CART racing?"

Parnelli: "We used to have the super team when Mario and Al Senior drove for us. Of course with Al winning Indianapolis a couple of times for us in '7- and '71. Of course, when I started my family, P.J.'s heroes were Michael and Al Unser, Jr. I can remember when little Michael and little Al were racing each other when they were just little kids. P.J., at just about that time, was just hanging on to their cars. He watched them grow and go through their racing careers, and obviously, they've kinda been his heroes. When you're in a racing family like we are, and I'm not just talking about my family, but I'm talking about all of the camaraderie and the closeness we have in racing and in our families such as the Unsers and the Andrettis and many more. We're all kinda like a family. We fight amongst ourselves, but don't let anybody on the outside jump in or we'll all jump on them. It's that sort of thing."

Edwards: "P.J., now that you're racing along side these heroes of yours, do you sometimes have to pinch yourself a little bit and ask yourself if this is really happening?"

P.J.: "I waited so long to get into Indy-car, I was in GTP, I though it would be a lot sooner, but it was the way I went and I wanted to deal with Toyota and stick with them. From the aspect of finally being here in Indy-car, I waited a long time. Definitely [I'm happy] to be able to race with the people that I respect and the people that I had admired when I was younger, like Rahal, Michael, Al, Jr. Those are the guys that, to me right now, are the class acts. They are the people, the veterans who have been at it a long time, and who are out there and not in trouble every weekend. It's definitely an honor to be out there racing with them."

Doug Wiloby - High Tech Bulletin: "I keep reading through your bio, and I find success here and there, poles here and there. How do you deal with the frustration of having all these trophies in your career up to now, and then having the troubles that your having with the engine. How do deal with the frustration level?"

P.J.: "Well, I hope it's not over yet, as far as getting poles and wins. It's really difficult. We were just talking this morning about this being my fourth year into this project as far as Indy-car goes. We ran two very successful years in GTP racing and other kinds of racing with Toyota FireHawk. I won a lot of races for them. Outside of Toyota, with Sprint Cars, Midgets, and all sorts of stuff. I think the most frustrating thing is showing up at a race track and you have a few of the younger guys like Greg Moore, then Adrian Fernandez, and all of them being competitive day in and day out, running up front and on the verge of winning a race. I think to myself 'man, here I am on my second year driving and fourth year into this Indy-car project and we're still not competitive yet.' It's hard, but I have to be able to have faith in Toyota, I have 100% faith in the team and Dan (Gurney). I really enjoy being there. It's like a big family. There are a lot of people out there that are winning races, but they're not happy with their situation, their not happy with their team, or they don't get along with their car owner. We don't have that, and I think it makes it easier to hang on. It's hard...don't get me wrong. Hopefully we're looking around the corner for the time when we can dominate the series."

Mike Hollander - Racing Information Systems: "Parnelli can you give us an update on how Page (P.J.'s younger brother) is doing on his recovery?"

Parnelli: "Yes. I'm glad you asked. Page is really doing well. He still has some physical problems and goes ... we've got him going to therapy about three days a week. He's sharper than a tack mentally, and is really enjoyable to be around. He's getting better every day. It's just been very slow. He probably will never race again, but he hasn't given up thinking that he might. He went out the other day and ran on a fast track. He drives with me in my golf cart every once-in-a-while. We've really enjoyed him, and his friends have certainly not left him. Everybody comes and takes him different places. They do a lot of activities with him like taking him to miniature golf and stuff like that. We're really proud of where he's come, and the big thing is we got him back. We almost lost him."

Hollander: "P.J. can you talk a little bit about the track that's coming up in Southern California. Have you seen Fontana yet? And what will it be like to be on an oval track in Southern California?"

P.J.: "I'm glad to see that we're getting all of these new race tracks. It's been a long time since we've seen race tracks being built, and all of a sudden they're popping up everywhere. To be able to race in your home town, which is what I call all of L.A. basin, and to be able to do it twice a year, with even an oval is great. Last time I saw Fontana was over a year ago, but I've seen some pictures and it's really coming along. They have a Cup (Winston Cup) race there in June. I'm looking forward to having another race track like this in Southern California. We get to do the Long Beach Grand Prix at the beginning of the year, and then to do Fontana at the end of the year. I think it's great, a real plus plus."

Bill Slaughter - Los Angeles Daily News: "P.J. if I could get you to take me around the track one more time and just mention what speeds your hitting at the various parts...in the various straights and in the various curves?"

P.J.: "Well, going down the straightaway I think we're at about 180mph+, then you slow it down going into turn one to around 60mph. Through turn two your probably right around 50mph, then you accelerate up the short chute between two and three doing between 80 and 100mph maybe. Then the right hander is about a 40-50mph turn and accelerate up to about 80mph approaching turn 5. This is a very tricky kind of off-camber corner. Down the back straightaway accelerating to about 150-160mph to a sweeping right which is probably about an 80mph turn. Accelerate to about 100 again for the sweeping left which is probably down around 60-70mph. Then you're hard on the brakes for the hair-pin, which is the slowest part of the track at about 20mph. Then hard on the gas accelerating down Ocean (Blvd.).

Slaughter: "Tell me, what did you learn in your first trip around the CART circuit last year?"

P.J.: "I think a lot of it was knowing how these guys race. A lot of races, if we can just survive, we can usually get real close to scoring some points. I found out that our team is very good in the rain. We pray for rain every weekend. Then the team, having less horsepower, it really helps us out trying to hook the car up. We do that really well. We got a lot more experience on the ovals. We haven't been racing on ovals for the last couple of years being in GTP. We got a lot of oval experience and just learning the CART circuit in general. I'd been running IndyLights in '89, '90, '91, so I'd been on all the race track. It was kinda like a refresher."

Skip Mizlinski - Chicago Tribune: "Parnelli, a strictly local question for you. Your name has been connected with a track down in Kankakee. Could you tell me how that project's going and if ground is any closer to being broken?"

Parnelli: "Umm..Yeah, I don't know anything about that."

Parnelli: "Incidentally, P.J. said he hadn't been out to the Fontana track. I've been there in the last month, and I want to tell you the track is absolutely gorgeous. They've really done a professional job out there, just like all of Roger Penske's projects. He does things right I guess, and this is no different. It's really a nice facility."

Mizlinski: "P.J. your dad mentioned earlier that when you first started out that some race organizations were prejudiced against you and that the drivers taking you to show you how the cow eats cabbage. Did you feel that, and how tough was it to get through that?"

P.J.: "Most of that was in the beginning stages in the Midgets and stuff like that. Our battle was with Sleepy Trip who was the USAC Midget star. We started coming in and winning races and kinda showing a presence. He was the bully of the block, so we got in some good battle. We're all pretty good friends now. In fact, they come over quite often to see Page, so it's kinda funny how it ends up. It was hard. We had some fights and suspensions and some fines and we were taken out of races. We were in there trying to do the best job you can and trying to look for the future and trying to make a name for yourself. It was pretty aggravating."

Ron Martin: "A couple of months ago we were talking with Dan Gurney. He said that P.J. has an awareness and respect as to the history of the sport. I would imagine that he inherited or learned that from you. If you could speak to the young drivers of today, what would you try to get across to them in that area."

Parnelli: "I think obviously, even in all sports, but in racing, you can teach somebody how to drive. What you can't teach them is the desire and the will to win. I think the most successful drivers are those who have that desire and will to win. However, there's nothing wrong with experience. There are different personalities in drivers. There are driver's drivers, and then there are those who just know how to make a car finish. You know you can't win unless you finish. There are talented drivers in that way, and then there are charger type drivers who wind up tearing the car up. It's their desire. I think it's all in individuals and if you have what it takes to be a winner. It's just a matter of getting as much experience as you can, and then knowing how to win. For an example, you can go back to Al Unser, Sr. and even Page (Jones), it took them a long time to win their first race, but once they'd won their first race they became almost unbeatable. It's just that self confidence that they have to build in themselves, and you have to do that by running a lot of races."

Martin: "P.J. did you inherit the respect and awareness that Dan was talking about?"

P.J.: "I think so. We knew what racing was really all about before we ever got into it. We were raised around it and around the people, and if we did anything wrong, he'd probably kick our butts. I think we had a lot of respect for racing and the people involved in it."