Race No. 3
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
Long Beach — Long Beach, California
April 16-18, 1999
Friday Quotes from Long Beach: | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified (Provisional): 12th |
| GREG MOORE | |
| Some parts of the track -- it's almost like driving on snow at 185 mph with concrete walls on either side. Obviously, we still have work to do, but we're used to putting our noses to the grindstone and coming up with solutions - it's part of the tradition on the Player's team. We made a lot of changes to the set-up between the morning and afternoon sessions - and for tomorrow, we're going to be working on adjusting this base. At times today, we were lacking power on the acceleration coming out of the corners, but I think we've got that problem solved. We're making pretty good progress. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford Qualified (Provisional): 9th |
| MICHAEL ANDRETTI | |
| I like the changes to the track. We struggled a bit in qualifying because we went the wrong way with the setup. We have our work cut out for us during the final qualifying session tomorrow. | |
 | MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified (Provisional): 18th |
| CHRISTIANO DA MATTA | |
| We made a couple of improvements to the car. We're looking for rear grip here, that's the biggest thing. The track was much better this afternoon, but I had trouble finding a clean lap. There's nothing wrong with the car or tires or engine or anything, I just found a lot of traffic during the key moments for my tires. It's a problem for everyone during qualifying like this, so you have to just hope that you can find a better lap tomorrow. I am really enjoying competing here in the Champ Cars after winning here in Indy Lights last year. The car is incredibly fun to drive. I like the changes in the track, because they make the track a little bit more technical. Last year it felt too easy. | |
 | Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota Qualified (Provisional): 17th |
| SCOTT PRUETT | |
| I was going through the series of turns around the fountain, and the transition there isn't too good. I was trying to get every last bit of track out there, and unfortunately I clipped the wall with the right front tire. On the day overall, we made some improvements from this morning to this afternoon, but I wasn't able to get a good lap in on our second set of tires. Toyota is making great gains here. We need to hit on the proper set-up. We'll keep working toward a better run tomorrow. | |
 | Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford Qualified (Provisional): 8th |
| CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI | |
| We have not been able to get the car working with the tires. It's just an issue of getting the car setup better. Some part of the equation is not working. The power is there and if we can get the car figured out we will be in very good shape. | |
 | Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified (Provisional): 5th |
| MAX PAPIS | |
| It feels fantastic to drive here again in Long Beach. I love this place, and to drive the Miller Lite Ford on a street course is very special. I think we are going to have a very good car on Saturday and Sunday. I tried very hard today and made some mistakes. If I correct those mistakes, we will have a car up towards the front of the field. I am very excited with this car. I was hoping to be up near the front of the field in qualifying and we have accomplished that feat here today. Now, we can work to improve the car even more, that's a great feeling. | |
 | Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford Qualified (Provisional): 3rd |
| BRYAN HERTA | |
| We were close on our setup, but not exactly where we wanted to be. I know we can improve the car for Saturday. The track has a much different feel going into Turn 1 as you set up for the left hand turn rather than a right corner. It's like driving into a tight tunnel at the Aquarium. There is only room for one car through that area. It will be very interesting in the race. There's certainly more in the car for tomorrow if we can make the right changes. I think there's definitely more speed in it. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified (Provisional): 1st |
| DARIO FRANCHITTI | |
| Teamwork. Team KOOL Green is responsible for the fast lap. We worked hard and improved the car the whole way through the session. The entire package was good - the Honda engine, the Firestone tires and Reynard chassis. I made a slight mistake on my fast lap, locking up the fronts and flat-spotting the tires. Other than that, it wasn't a bad lap. But the track is getting faster with every mile that we put on it. So I know we'll have to make the car better and be faster tomorrow. Obviously, it's a new track. There's parts of it that are the old track, but it took a bit of getting used to. We were trying to get the car to work over the bumps and there's a few interesting corners out there, so we're just working on the setup, just trying to get it all together. Through qualifying we were working with the car, little bits here and little bits there and it seemed to work. [On street circuits] You make your own in Scotland. When I drove around it, it looked fine, but that was before they put the barriers up. When I saw that, I was horrified. | |
 | Team Kool Green Reynard Honda Qualified (Provisional): 10th |
| PAUL TRACY | |
| Traffic is always a problem here and I just couldn't get a clear lap. But the car is good. My fastest time was on my fourth lap (of eight laps), so we know that if we'd gotten a clear lap later in the session we'd have been further up the grid. But it's the same for everyone. I'll regroup with the Team KOOL Green engineers overnight, make some improvements to the car and make a strong run in tomorrow's final qualifying session. [On the new section of the track]: The new part of the track is really tight, just as you'd expect on a street course. But it's also very slippery. Everybody's going to have to be careful through there because if a car gets sideways in there, you're looking at a red flag. | |
 | Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda Qualified (Provisional): 2nd |
| JUAN MONTOYA | |
| The car was working pretty well this morning. We struggled because on our fastest two laps, we had red flags, so I lost a couple of laps there. Then, I went out and started pushing, I was going really quick and then I got traffic, so I had to back off again. I think we had enough to as quick as Dario if not quicker. I think we've got a good shot tomorrow. You cannot have everything. All the team is going to work quite hard tonight and everyone is going to have to work really hard, because Dario is very quick, and everyone will have to catch up. I thought we'd have a good shot at it. On the first set of tires, we were definitely the quickest out there. | |
 | McDonald'sForsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda Qualified (Provisional): 4th |
| TONY KANAAN | |
| The car was pretty good. I think we have one more step to go in the setup, so I think we are in the zone. Hopefully, tomorrow we can improve even more. I haven't qualified this well on a street course before, so I am happy. And, I won two more watches for my collection. I bet my engineers that I could do better than a 62.5 (second lap) and I did. They lost their wristwatches. | |
 | Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Swift Ford Qualified (Provisional): 6th |
| ADRIAN FERNANDEZ | |
| We are still catching up with the car. We haven't tested the Swift for about a month and a half so we are trying lots of things. We still have a lot of things to learn and a lot of things to try. I am confident that we can pull it together and move up on the grid tomorrow. | |
 | Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes Qualified (Provisional): 11th |
| PATRICK CARPENTIER | |
| Our car is a lot better than the position on the board indicates. We worked a lot on the engine and came up with the right solution in that regard, because we're already a lot faster coming out of the hairpin. | |