Vancouver 1996 PPG Indy Car World Series

Race No. 15

Molson Indy Vancouver
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
August 30 - September 1, 1996

Saturday Quotes from drivers and managers at Concord Pacific Place, Vancouver, Canada:
Index of Quotes available
MICHAEL ANDRETTI RAUL BOESEL JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II
ADRIAN FERNANDEZ GIL DE FERRAN CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI
BRYAN HERTA STEFAN JOHANSSON PARKER JOHNSTONE
P.J. JONES HIRO MATSUSHITA JAN MAGNUSSEN
BOBBY RAHAL ANDRE RIBEIRO AL UNSER JR
JIMMY VASSER ALEX ZANARDI AL SPEYER

Vasser Pict #12 Target
Chip Ganassi Racing
Reynard Honda

JIMMY VASSER

[qualified fifth]: "For certain we're better off than 17th! We changed the set-up today and it was better, but still not perfect. There wasn't any one thing wrong with the car yesterday, it was just a combination of little things -- the car bottoming too hard under braking and things like that. Traffic was tough today, but that's part of being in the slower qualifying group — and we put ourselves there yesterday!"

Magnussen Pict #3 Marlboro
Penske Mercedes

JAN MAGNUSSEN

[qualified 19th]: "The balance of my Penske PC96 is okay, but we're having problems with traction. The spare car's ride feels a bit better than the primary car, but I had a lot more time with that chassis and am still learning this car.

"This track doesn't give us breaks. It is so bumpy and complicated, plus, there are very few places to pass. During qualifying, I simply didn't get a clear lap and could not set a quick time. The track improved far more than I did. There is more speed in the car and more in me."


Andretti Pict #6 Kmart/Texaco/Havoline
Lola Ford Cosworth XD

MICHAEL ANDRETTI

[qualified second]: "I caught traffic on my quick one [lap]. The next lap was going to be my quick one but I had to back out of it. I didn't get the total optimum out of the tire. A little bit of luck comes into play when you get a clear lap. The point for the pole would have brought us one point closer to the Championship. We qualified fourth fastest in Mid-Ohio, third fastest in Road America and second here. I guess that means we'll be on pole at Laguna. [On Al qualifying seventh] Al's still way to close to the front. He'll be a contender. This is always a race of survival. There will be a lot of wheel and wing banging due to the close quarters. Track position means a lot here because it's tough to pass. While it would have been nice to score our first pole of the season, it's good to start on the front row."

Unser Pict #2 Marlboro
Penske Mercedes

AL UNSER, Jr.

[qualified seventh]: "The car isn't bad at all. We're struggling a little bit with rear grip right now, but I feel we have a really good race car overall. I have to be patient in the race tomorrow and concentrate on being consistent and keeping a level head. The track configuration makes it very tough to pass. If you force a pass, you can get yourself in trouble. We have our work cut out for us tomorrow and we'd love to end this weekend with a win."

C. Fittipaldi Pict #11 Kmart/Budweiser
Lola Ford
Newman/Haas Racing

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI

[qualified 14th]: [On drop from third fastest this morning to 14th in qualifying] "I think we had a mechanical problem. We went as fast on 25-lap-old-tires as we did on new ones. It was very frustrating! We still have a shot at the Championship if we have a maximum effort in both races and the leaders run into problems. We need to figure it out tonight. We were looking good in practice so I'm not sure what happened. We really didn't change anything major."

de Ferran Pict #8 Pennzoil Special
Reynard Honda
Hall Racing

GIL de FERRAN

[qualified 10th]: "We're still struggling to balance the car, we can't get the back end to work at all, and now, in this session, we picked up some understeer as well."

Herta Pict #28 Shell
Reynard Mercedes-Benz
Team Rahal

BRYAN HERTA

[qualified fourth]: "We didn't get the lap we really wanted. Traffic became a factor with my second set of tires. Plus, the car was spinning the rear tires quite a bit. But I think our team has put together a good race car for both Bobby and myself. I've raced here enough [both in IndyCars and Indy Lights] to know that it's tough to pass and starting up front is an advantage. We want to get a clean start and run until the end. Attrition always seems to be high here at Vancouver. So, making good pit stops and keeping the car together can get you in position to win. That's my goal on Sunday."

Johnstone Pict #49 Motorola
Reynard Honda
Brix Comptech Racing

PARKER JOHNSTONE

[qualified 18th]: "We're about where we should have been yesterday. The car is better, but there still is a long way to go. Still, 18th is better than 21st. Last night, I was having nightmares about being the first Honda driver out-qualified by a Toyota!"

Zanardi Pict #4 Target
Chip Ganassi Racing
Reynard Honda

ALEX ZANARDI

[qualified first]: "I'm obviously very satisfied. We made a lot of changes to the car this morning, and the car was even worse [than Friday]! So [team engineer] Morris Nunn had a long discussion in the trailer and put a completely different set-up on the car for qualifying. It was a shot in the dark, really, but we knew it was the right direction and we ended up with a very good car, really."

Ribeiro Pict #31 LCI International
Lola Honda
Tasman Motorsports Group

ANDRE RIBEIRO

[qualified eighth]: "We improved the car quite a lot from yesterday but unfortunately we could not improve our position on the grid. The main problem is the bumps. They upset the car quite a lot and it is very difficult to control the car on both fast parts because it gets very inconsistent. For tomorrow, in the morning session, I think we will concentrate on learning the car with full tanks over those bumps and try to make it as comfortable as possible."

Fernandez Pict #32 Tecate Beer/Quaker State
Lola Honda
Tasman Motorsports Group

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ

[qualified 11th]: "We improved the car a little bit but not enough. It is very unstable in the rear and that is really costing us a lot of time. We have been trying to change a lot of things but the rear is where we are lacking and this is hurting us right now. Hopefully we can manage to take care of that for tomorrow. It is very important because you need to conserve the tires."

Johansson Pict #16 Bettenhaused Racing
Alumax Aluminium
Reynard Mercedes-Benz

STEFAN JOHANSSON

[qualified 21st]: "Well, we started 17th here last year and finished fourth and we've had a lot of practice starting from where we're at this year so I'm not worried about our grid position. Today we had the same problem that has plagued us all season - handling. The car was very loose. However, I've generally been pleased with our race setups and I've always enjoyed this track so I think our race should obviously be better than practice and qualifying."

Rahal Pict #18 Miller Racing
Reynard Mercedes-Benz
Team Rahal

BOBBY RAHAL

[qualified third]: "The race track is very challenging. It has its nice parts and its not-so-nice parts, as does any street course. We feel somewhat spoiled coming from Elkhart Lake and Laguna [for testing]. The street courses are important to the success of our series. They're always building around here, so they'll probably do something, and if they do, they should make more opportunities to pass. They need to make changes that make the course more race-worthy. It would benefit everybody."

Hiro Pict #19 Panasonic/DUSKIN
Lola Ford Cosworth

HIRO MATSUSHITA

[qualified dead-last]: "We have been adjusting the left front wing flap to balance the downforce at the front end. The underbody is hitting on the front straight and going into the hairpin. We added several packers to the front suspension, but this did little to improve our situation. Also, we picked up speed when exiting corners as we now have considerably more traction."

"We've made progress every step of the way, cutting our time in every session. Again, the handling has improved enabling the rear traction to increase with every adjustment. This afternoon the car felt increasingly better through the slow corners, as I could get on the throttle much earlier. However, even with our improvements, we are having difficulty making the same giant strides everyone else is with their times."


PJ Pict #98 Eagle Mk-V Toyota
photo Mike Levitt

P.J. JONES

[qualified 25th]: "I'm glad I was able to improve the time a little from yesterday, but we can do so much better. We just seem to have too many things going on. We're just having a tough weekend. My brakes are probably my biggest challenge right now. We'll just keep working in tomorrow's warm-up session and try to get as prepared for the race as we can."

Fangio Pict #36 Eagle Mk-V Toyota

JUAN MANUEL FANGIO II

[qualified 20th for All American Racers best qualifying effort of the season]: "I think the Eagle Toyota was pretty good today. I didn't have the time yesterday to work on different parts of the track, trying to gain a little bit more time. Today, the car was closer and I was able to work a little bit more around the track to get the better lap times. I am really pleased that we went into the 55s [55.807 seconds]. We hope tomorrow that we have a car like we had today."

Boesel Pict #1 Brahma Sports Team
Reynard
Ford Cosworth

RAUL BOESEL

[qualified 16th]: "We did improve the car a lot from yesterday, and thank goodness we've not had any mechanical problems so far.

"On the second set of tires I really didn't have a good lap, I kept getting stuck in traffic. I was confident I could get down into the 54's but just couldn't get clear. Our biggest problem is we need to improve traction.""


AL SPEYER

Bridgestone/Firestone Motorsports Manager
""We are very excited with Alex Zanardi capturing another pole. Even though we're not top-heavy in the first 10 positions, we have our top guns situated and feel very good about our fortunes tomorrow. It gets more competitive every race and the qualifying and race results show it."