Race No. 9
Budweiser/G.I. Joe's 200
Portland, OR
June 23, 1996
Saturday Quotes from drivers and managers at Portland International Raceway:
| Index of Quotes available | ||
|---|---|---|
| MARK BLUNDELL | RAUL BOESEL | JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II |
| EMERSON FITTIPALDI | ROBBY GORDON | BRYAN HERTA |
| STEFAN JOHANSSON | P.J. JONES | GREG MOORE |
| BOBBY RAHAL | PAUL TRACY | AL UNSER JR |
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#99 Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
GREG MOORE | |
| "I'd like to
be on the pole, but considering where we qualified during the
last races, I'm very happy to start in the top 10 [eighth]. Our
times were constant during the entire session indicating the
quality of our car for tomorrow's race. "It will be important to stay out of trouble at the start because of that first right turn. After that, my plan is to be more aggressive. On this type of track, you need to stay close to the frontrunners, because it is very easy to quickly lose ground." | |
 |
#3 Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
PAUL TRACY | |
| "The car is getting better – the balance is there. We made some good gains over yesterday and were able to move the Marlboro car up a spot on the grid. The competition is so close that we're only a half a second off the pole, and we're in seventh position. It's a long race, and fuel mileage is important. Fortunately, the Mercedes is good on mileage so we should be in good shape tomorrow." | |
 |
#2 Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
AL UNSER, Jr. | |
| "We had a new setup
for today's qualifying and the car felt better. We're a half of
a second quicker than yesterday, and we could have gone probably
two-tenths of a second quicker. The setup came from Paul's
[Tracy's] car, and I really liked it. My car has a little bit of
understeer going through the corners, so we'll keep working on
it and we'll go from there. "Going into the Festival corner is the only downside to starting this far back, so we have to be a little bit careful at the start of the race. My advantage going into tomorrow's race is that I'm driving for Marlboro Team Penske." | |
 |
#21 PacWest Reynard Ford Cosworth |
MARK BLUNDELL | |
| "We seem to have hit a brick wall. The strange thing is that we've made so many drastic changes on the car yet, it doesn't have any effect on our times. After all we've done, it seems like we're right back where we were yesterday after our first practice." | |
 |
#9 Marlboro Hogan Penske Mercedes-Benz |
EMERSON FITTIPALDI | |
| "My
Penske Mercedes is more consistent to drive today. Of course, I
am feeling much better than I did on Friday [Fittipaldi had a
stress headache and stomach pains Friday afternoon] which could
account for some of the improvement. "We changed the front wing and nosepiece twice during this qualifying session and that change gave us an improvement of nearly seven-tenths of a second. We should be in good shape tomorrow for the race." | |
 |
#28 Shell Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal |
BRYAN HERTA | |
| "We thought we had a shot at the pole. But the track heated up a bit and there were cars everywhere [off the track] on the last couple of laps. So, I didn't get a clean lap. But, it feels good being the first Mercedes car, and the first Goodyear car. We've got the car balanced well, and I believe we have a good car for the race. I think the Hondas still have the horsepower over the Mercedes and Fords right now, but we're getting closer. Pit stops will be very important on Sunday, since I can gain a position or two in the pits." | |
 |
#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford |
ROBBY GORDON | |
| "We were still sliding out there. And, we still need to
find more straightaway speed. We went quicker, but so did
everybody else. [On his spin at the end of today's session]: "I got loose in Turn 4 and wasn't in the right position heading into Turn 5. So, I spun it. "We really need to do well I the race here tomorrow. We're overdue way overdue and we've worked too hard this year. It'll be tough starting 14th, but a lot can happen during a race." | |
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#16 Bettenhaused Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
STEFAN JOHANSSON | |
| "We are still having the same kind of problems with handling we've been experiencing everywhere, although we did make some improvement with the changes they made to the car from Friday. Time wise, we picked up a bundle today, but theoretically, we should have been in the 60.5-second range. We still aren't where we want to be, but the car was definitely better than it was on Friday. I think it will be different for the race." | |
 |
#18 Miller Racing Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal |
BOBBY RAHAL | |
| "We had a brake problem this afternoon. I didn't get much time on the track. Bryan [Herta] and I were trying different chassis setups, and obviously, Bryan's worked and mine didn't. Coming from the back of the field is not what we wanted here." | |
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#98 Eagle Mk-V Toyota |
| photo Mike Levitt | |
P.J. JONES | |
| "We may have improved nine-tenths [from practice to qualifying] but we could use another nine-tenths. We are struggling with the car. I don't know what's wrong, but we'll get some data and take a look at it. The race is tomorrow, not today, so it will be a whole different picture." | |
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#36 Eagle Mk-V Toyota |
JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II | |
| "We improved our lap time [by six-tenths of a second], and I think the Eagle Toyota is running better right now. We could have run a little bit faster, but unfortunately, I over-revved the engine going into the fast chicanes, and so maybe we lost a little bit because of that. It is hard sometimes to look for the right time. Sometimes, traffic is a bit complicated, but we tried our best. We have to keep working tomorrow in the warm-up." | |
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#1 Brahma Sports Team Reynard Ford Cosworth |
RAUL BOESEL | |
| "We improved
the car today, especially in the fast corners. Still, we are
having a problem with oversteer coming out of the slow corners,
and this is what really hurt our time. "Starting 17th on the grid here is not very comfortable, especially in the first chicane. We'll need to be careful and have a good race strategy, and a good pit stop strategy, which, of course, Barry does so well." | |