Race No. 14
Texaco/Havoline 200
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
August 16-18, 1996
Saturday Quotes from drivers and managers at Road America: |
#99 Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
GREG MOORE | |
| [qualified 11th]: "It's a little discouraging. It seems that we
had those mechanical and electrical problems again. I guess
that's the way it goes sometimes. The times that we did this
morning would have put us around seventh and I'm sure we could
have improved on that. At least we showed during this morning's
practice that we can be competitive.
"We're putting in a new motor overnight and the guys will scan it very closely. The qualifying session wasn't a complete loss because we found a good set of tires for the race tomorrow. I think that we've got a good race car, as long as things hold together." | |
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#3 Marlboro Penske Mercedes |
JAN MAGNUSSEN | |
| [qualified 10th]: "Al Unser, Jr. said that the Penske chassis is tough to figure out on road circuits. He's right about that. We did find a good setup during this morning's practice [when Magnussen recorded the fourth best lap, at 140.127 mph], but the track was very dirty by the time we went out to qualify. We have been concentrating on gaining speed at the exits of the slow corners during this session. We changed to stickers. [Goodyear's optional tire] with about 10 minutes remaining, but could not get clear of traffic until the very end." | |
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#6 Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Lola Ford Cosworth XD |
MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| [qualified third]: "Actually, I think we had a little more in the car but third is fine. The balance of the car was coming together and I thought we could get more out of it on the last lap but I ran out of gas. We never really got a chance to improve. Considering the way things have gone, and the fact that this is my best qualifying of the season, I'm happy. Hopefully that will bode well for the race. Lots of people from Texaco/Havoline will be here. I won the race in my hometown [Nazareth], the race that Carl [Haas] promotes [Milwaukee] and the one in Kmart's hometown [Detroit]. I'm looking forward to winning the Texaco/Havoline 200. We were looking for a new hook. It would be nice to win their event." | |
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#21 PacWest Reynard Ford Cosworth |
MARK BLUNDELL | |
| [qualified 13th]: "I started this morning's practice with my
primary car, with some modifications to yesterdays set up, but
it soon became obvious that I was going to struggle to improve
my times.
"I swapped to the T-car for the second part of the session and immediately felt a lot happier. Although the car felt a bit loose, with some rolling into the corners. Overall, I gained much more confidence in the package. I am disappointed that I have not more time in the car and feel that I have 'missed a day' but now that I've got a more balanced car, I can go forward to tomorrow with renewed vigor and a real opportunity to improve on my times so far this weekend." | |
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#11 Kmart/Budweiser Lola Ford Newman/Haas Racing |
CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| [qualified fourth]: "We took a gamble on the tire compound. They took away yesterday's qualifying time and we had to start over because we switched compounds. It was a gamble but it paid off. I really can't tell any difference between the tires yet because the track changed. I started ninth here last year and will start fourth this year. It's always good to make an improvement. I hope we make the same improvement in the race tomorrow. Pit strategy is very important here because it's a fuel race. Brian [Lisles] is good at calling our stops. We just need to hang in there in the race and hopefully score a bunch of points. The race should be really exciting with the championship heating up." | |
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#25 MCI Arciero Wells Reynard Toyota |
MAX PAPIS | |
| [qualified 23rd]: "We had to change the engine after this morning's session unexpectedly. Unfortunately, the replacement engine wasn't as quick. It was not really what we expected, so I pushed harder and harder to try to catch the two guys in front of us who were very close in times. Towards the end of the last lap I pushed it too hard in the final left-hand turn, trying to go a little bit faster. I lost the car and I crashed." | |
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#8 Pennzoil Special Reynard Honda Hall Racing |
GIL de FERRAN | |
| [qualified second]: "I thought we had a good shot at the pole. On the second set of tires, I got boxed in between Al Unser Jr. and Robby Gordon. Al got off the track and left a lot of dirt on course. So, that messed up that lap. Then, on the next lap, I just got caught to close to Al and some other traffic. I'm pretty confident the way the car is running and I have confidence in the Goodyear tires. Fuel strategy is going to be very important in the race." | |
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#28 Shell Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal |
BRYAN HERTA | |
| [qualified sixth]: "We were sliding around quite a bit out there, and battling a bit of understeer. We had a couple of laps that could have helped us improve, but I messed up on one of them and we ran up on traffic on the other. I'm disappointed we didn't hold onto the pole. As I said yesterday, though, the pole time was going to be a lot quicker than where we stood after Friday. We're still the fastest Mercedes and I know we've got a good car for the race, and that's what matters most." | |
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#4 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda |
ALEX ZANARDI | |
| [qualified first]: "It's not easy to get the pole. We worked very, very hard to get this pole. The team stayed very late last night trying to figure out what to do with the car. We were number nine yesterday, which isn't nowhere, but it's not where we expected to be. We really changed the set-up between yesterday and today. We turned the car upside down. We discussed everything we could do and then we made the changes. The balance of the car is very good and everything looks under control." | |
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#32 Tecate Beer/Quaker State Lola Honda Tasman Motorsports Group |
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| [qualified 14th]: "The car feels much better. At the end of the session I tried to bring the car around differently and I managed a better time. I was taking my time and trying not to make a mistake and just wait for the tires to get a good balance between the front and the rear. That's how we managed to improve our position. Your starting position is always important but for tomorrow the most important thing is how the tires are going to last for the race. I think we made the right choice with the tires." | |
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#5 Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Reynard Ford |
ROBBY GORDON | |
| [qualified 15th]: "We had understeer in the beginning. Then, it got better, but we just ran out of time. And on the last lap, we ran out of fuel. But, I think the car will be a good race car. The key here will be pit strategy and our team has always been good at that." | |
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#16 Bettenhaused Racing Alumax Aluminium Reynard Mercedes-Benz |
STEFAN JOHANSSON | |
| [qualified 21st]: "Well, once again we've been encouraged by our morning practice performance and have come away disappointed after qualifying. It's like we're taking a step forward and then two steps backward. Today, we lost the engine on the second lap and basically we've gotten six hot laps in qualifying for the entire weekend. I do think we have a good car for this race, but starting where we now are, I do have my work cut out for me." | |
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#10 Delco Electronics High Tech Team Galles Lola Mercedes |
DAVY JONES | |
| [qualified 19th]: "We seem to be going in the right direction in the car. We made some pretty drastic changes after Mid-Ohio, and whenever you make changes like these, you really need to test one or two days. We're making gains every session, just not as quickly as we want. I'm starting to feel a sense of relief because I'm at the confidence level that I can start to squeeze a bit more out of the car. If I would have pushed the car prior to this, it would have been coming back on a wrecker." | |
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#18 Miller Racing Reynard Mercedes-Benz Team Rahal |
BOBBY RAHAL | |
| [qualified ninth]: "Oh, for a little more fuel! We ran out on the lap after we took the checker and the car was definitely better at that point. It might have been a 2.5 or 2.6 lap maybe [his best lap of the session was 1:42.9]. The car was much better getting through the corners. We were sliding a bit still, but we had some grip for the first time this weekend. We'll see tomorrow." | |
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#17 Hollywood Reynard Ford |
MAURICIO GUGELMIN | |
| [qualified fifth]: "Chassis wise the car was very good. I was
happy with the balance and the car was feeling very comfortable.
I did my fast lap on the first set of tires. The second set of
tires had a lot of promise - I was only 2 seconds off my
quickest lap on my out lap. Unfortunately I got into traffic and
also had a brakes problem, so didn't get a chance to push
harder. I was probably doing more than I should have and
possibly overdriving.
"I am very happy with the car and the engine, with the car running in a way which suits our horsepower and suits me. It is not often that you find traffic as I did today and I was just unlucky." | |
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#1 Brahma Sports Team Reynard Ford Cosworth |
RAUL BOESEL | |
| [qualified 17th]: "It seems like our fuel pickup problem is solved, but now we have another problem. We had enough fuel to do one more lap and the engine started to misfire. We don't know what caused that. We're a second quicker, but we didn't improve as much as we would have liked. I think the track today is a little bit slower. Of course, this is the first session we didn't run with a lot of fuel so it's not like we had a lot of time to work on our qualifying setup. I just hope running all the sessions with all that fuel enabled us to learn something for the race." | |