Race No. 5

Rio 200
Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway
at Nelson Piquet International Raceway Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
May 13-15, 1999

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
GREG MOORE
I started seventh on the grid last year and won the race. So, even though I'm in thefifth row, I like my chances. It's a long race and this is a track whereyou have quite a few opportunities for passing. I like this track and thefact I've had success on it in the past is a good boost heading into therace.

	MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
CHRISTIANO DA MATTA
The car felt different from this morning. The balance wasn't as good, butit was better under braking. I had a lot of understeer going into theturns, and a lot of oversteer going out. Overall, I'm happy. I wish wewere in a better starting position, but the car is a good car. We had avery good session this morning, and I'm looking forward to getting the carready for the race tomorrow. I don't feel any extra pressure racing in my home country, because I trynot to play those kinds of mind games when I'm driving. I just get in thecar and focus on that moment and nothing else. I'm really happy to be herein Brazil, though, because I feel so much support from my family andfriends. They are all here to cheer me on, and that means a lot to me.

	Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
SCOTT PRUETT
I was using up every bit of track I could find, but it just wasn’t therefor me today. We got everything out of the car we could, but we just didn’thave the set-up we wanted. We'll be working hard to be ready for the racetomorrow. The waiting game (waiting for the rain to clear up) didn't putany more pressure on us, because everyone was in the same boat. It onlyhurt us because everyone could have used more on-track time, especiallysince we don't test here. Qualifying toward the front is always important. It's not as much of anissue here, because just about everywhere is a passing zone. You brakegoing into turns one and four from the fastest parts of the track, and youcan gain advantage through drafting down both straights. We'll be seeing alot of passing during the race tomorrow.

	PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes
ROBERTO MORENO
We dropped over half a second from this morning and we've made a lot of progress in a very, very short time.It will be a challenging race, but you never know what can happen.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
DARIO FRANCHITTI
Emerson Fittipaldi (the track promoter) should thank Team KOOLGreen for allowing Christian (Fittipaldi) to get the pole by 1000th of asecond. That certainly should help ticket sales. Oh well, I guess it wasn'ta bad lap for me. The car was just about perfect, other than too muchpush in Turn 4. I think I might have locked a wheel going into Turn 1, aswell. But that actually gained me time, as opposed to losing any. I feelgood for the race, though. The car was fast all day. I think we have abetter balance for the race than for qualifying. With everything we do,we're working towards the race. The Firestone tires are looking goodand we were getting excellent power and fuel mileage from the Honda allday.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
PAUL TRACY
Team KOOL Green did a great job to get the spare car ready forqualifying in the short amount of time we had following the accident withthe primary car in this morning's practice. I think we did the best wecould, considering we never ran the car and never ran the motor. I justjumped in and went. The balance of the car was pretty good, but it wasbouncing up and down all the way down the straightaway. We've got alittle work to do on the car and we'll try some things in tomorrowmorning's warm-up. Hopefully, we'll have a good car for the distance ofthe race.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
PATRICK CARPENTIER
It means I won't get caught up in the mid-lap formation on the grid, andthat's good. The car had quite a bit of oversteerthis morning, but the Player's crew did a superb job making improvements tothe car between the two sessions. We'll try to take advantage of thepassing zones, which are quite plentiful on this track. I'm going to giveit all I have to get a spot on the podium.

	Hollywood Reynard Mercedes
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
The Hollywood car was working very well in the morning.I knew we'd be right up there inqualifying, but unfortunately we suffered a boost problem and had to abort the attempt. It's a real shamebecause I think we had a good chance to be at the front of the grid.

	Team Gordon Reynard Toyota
ROBBY GORDON
I went into four and tappedthe brakes like a normal lap. The back of the car stepped out alittle, forcing me to lock the rear brakes for an instant. All ofsudden Tracy had me. I don't know if he didn't see me, but I suredidn't see him. He hit me right in the kisser. It's a tough break forus, we were starting to gain on the car and I was feeling goodabout our progress. The option to fix the rear end and skipqualifying is the right thing to do. I feel good about it. Runningthe Reynard cold-turkey in a two-lap qualifying run, and thenbeing committed to racing it, just didn't seem the way to go." Onthe race - "It's no fun having to start in the back of the field, butwhat really makes me upset is the reason why - being unable toqualify. For the race, we want to stay out of any trouble earlyand just try to move forward. Morning practice will be crucial tous. We need to pack two days' worth of track time into 30minutes and hopefully find a good setup for the race.