Race No. 16

Molson Indy Vancouver
Concord Pacific Place— Vancouver, Canada
September 3-5 1999

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
JUAN MONTOYA
We're getting better, but there still is room for improvement. And the track will be faster tomorrow as well, so we will be working hard tonight.

	Hollywood Reynard Mercedes
MAURICIO GUGELMIN
We had a pretty good day all around. We unloaded a car that was fast straight away, and we had no major dramas today. The car has a very good balance, and we're just working on gaining more speed as we improve the mechanical grip. The engineers are doing a great job. We've made consistent progress already. With more rubber on the track tomorrow, I'm sure that the times will improve.

	Target Chip Ganassi Racing Reynard Honda
JIMMY VASSER
The car actually is faster than the times show. I didn't get a real good run on my first set of tires, then on my best lap on the second set, I brushed the wall with the left front and bent a toe link."

	PacWest Motorola Reynard Mercedes
MARK BLUNDELL
We lost some time this morning with a few mechanical problems, but I'm quite happy with the car. The biggest issue we have right now is understeer, and we're working on improving the front-end grip to gain more stability. Unfortunately, we made some gear ratio changes before qualifying that had a bit of a detrimental effect. I had to alter my driving style to accommodate the adjustments. We'll work on that, but overall we have a good baseline for tomorrow.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
GREG MOORE
We're pretty happy being only fourth-tenths of a second off the pole. We know that tomorrow it should be even faster. I really want a win here for many reasons, and it's more personal than professional. With only five races left with the Player's team, I want one for the guys who have given blood, sweat and tears throughout the season.

	Kmart/Texaco/Havoline Swift Ford
MICHAEL ANDRETTI
We just can't get the car to go any faster. We have a lot of work to do on the setup in order to improve for tomorrow. It's nice to see Roberto up there so at least we know the car is capable. WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE TRACK? The layout is a lot better. Is it a 100-percent improvement? No, but is it better? Yes. The safety fences are much improved.

	MCI Worldcom Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
CRISTIANO DA MATTA
The MCI WorldCom car felt worse this afternoon than it did this morning. I had a lot of push and understeer going through the turns, and I had trouble with my entry into the turns. I felt like I was working really hard out there, and for not a whole lot of results. I had one good lap, but here I think you have to have a series of three, four, five good laps in order to get the tires where you want them and really feel the car out.

	Pioneer Arciero-Wells Reynard Toyota
SCOTT PRUETT
I'm not very happy with the car, and that's puzzling. We just conducted a great test in Sebring, and the Pioneer car's been really good on street circuits this season. I was hoping we'd be in the top ten right out of the box. I felt that good about it coming in. But it's just not handling right. I've got push going into the turns, and wheel spin when I power down out of the turns. I feel like I'm running really hard out there, but I'm not getting anywhere. We experimented with a few changes that didn't work to our advantage this afternoon, and we've been looking for grip all day. We'll have to take some big, concrete steps tonight to make improvements. I think we know exactly where our gains can come from, which is good.

	Kmart/Texaco Havoline Newman/Haas Racing Swift Ford
ROBERTO MORENO
It's really a matter of me getting used to the race track. I have never been to this new track. Our car was not fantastic this morning. We sat down and looked at a few things and also tried some things we recently found in testing and it seemed to pay off. I had a feeling that we could be better of we went to our old street course setup, and my engineer (Todd Bowland) agreed straight away and we just went to it. The car is not 100-percent yet but I think we can make some changes overnight and get the best out of the car at that point. KNOWING THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE A RIDE AGAIN VERY SOON, WHAT MOTIVATES YOU EVERY WEEKEND? You just go race by race and don't think that far down the road. The other guys are thinking about the Championship, I am just thinking about getting a job for next year. It's difficult but it is all part of my effort to make it in this game. I have been trying very hard since 1996 and I have had a couple of breaks and I am trying to make the most out of them. I hope to have a full time ride next year, which is coming closer and closer to happening. I am actually in negotiations right now. If you start to calculate too much you end up confusing yourself. You just need to take the best from each race. You really just have to think on a race to race basis. I wish all the best to Christian when he comes back and I hope that I was able to add something to the team while I was here.

	Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford
MEMO GIDLEY
In the morning a part of the electronics system gave us a hard time and I couldn't run too many laps. We thought we could fix the car, but it was not ready on time for qualifying. So, I had to use Michel's backup car for the timed session. Tomorrow, we will have to work really hard, not only on the settings, also in knowing the track, because last year I drove here in the Atlantic Series, but the track changed in four different spots and now it's like driving on a new track.

	Herdez Competition Payton/Coyne Lola Ford
MICHEL JOURDAIN
During the first practice I used my backup car, but it developed loose. So, we decided to use my primary car for the qualifying session. Unfortunately it had too a lot of loose, mainly in the fast corner. So, we have to work more on the balance and on the traction. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a better car.

	Miller Lite Team Rahal Reynard Ford
MAX PAPIS
We were a bit better this morning when the track was a bit more green. We thought we had the right car, but we ended up with a bit too much push. The car is a bit greasy - slippery all over. We need to find a bit more grip in the car. WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF THE VANCOUVER TRACK REDESIGN? It looks like it is very difficult to redesign a track in Vancouver. WITH RAIN IN THE FORECAST FOR SUNDAY, IF THAT WERE TO HAPPEN WHAT WOULD THE RACING BE LIKE? That could be a nightmare. The track has no grip over the striped curbs and the track has no grip there. I hope it doesn't rain.

	Shell Team Rahal Reynard Ford
BRYAN HERTA
Today's run was pretty good. I missed getting the best out of my second set of tires a bit today but we will save that for tomorrow. We made the right calls this morning in regards to changes but we still can improve it. We kind of went in a circle during qualifying with the changes we made to the car. You don't get much time to improve the car during the session so if it doesn't work you have to go and change it back which is what we did. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CHANGES TO THE TRACK? Well, they put a bunch of tires out on one of the chicanes. It's ridiculous, we have half-million dollar race cars and we are apexing off of dirty tires.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
DARIO FRANCHITTI
There's a lot of changes since last year. The changes to the track have us looking for a different set-up. We're not struggling with the set-up, but we're still certainly trying to improve it all the time. Paul would have been second, so obviously Team KOOL Green has both cars working really well. Now, it's up to us to get out there and drive them. I was pretty concerned about just running around because I think the track will be quicker tomorrow. I didn't want to use up my tires too much, so I could keep some in reserve for the race. I love racing in Canada. Toronto and Vancouver are such great cities and I usually do well here because I'm in happy surroundings.

	Team Kool Green Reynard Honda
PAUL TRACY
I don't know what to say, obviously I'm disappointed and my guys will be as well. I haven't had a chance to see them yet. As long as the weather is good tomorrow, I'm confident that everything will go well because we had a good car today. It's going to make our job pretty tough, though. It's a disadvantage to be in the first group because the track will be faster in the second group. We'll just have to see what we can do. We'll need to improve the grip level a little with the car. The track is pretty good and I like the changes from last year.

	McDonald's Forsythe Championship Racing Team Reynard Honda
TONY KANAAN
The car was okay this morning. We had some understeer, but this afternoon it was much worse. Qualifying at the front is definitely an advantage on this type of track. We have another session tomorrow, and hopefully we'll be able to improve our position. It's great to be back in Vancouver and back on a street circuit.

	Valvoline/Cummins/Craftsman Special Walker Racing Reynard Honda
GIL de FERRAN
We're quite happy with today's effort. We lacked a little traction this morning, but (engineer) Bill Pappis made a couple of good changes for qualifying, and I think the increased temp eratures helped us as well.

	Alpine Walker Racing Reynard Honda
NAOKI HATTORI
Every change we made to the car today improved it. The biggest thing I had to do was adjust to the increased grip when we put on fresh tires. Now we must go faster tomorrow.

	Tecate Beer/Quaker State Patrick Racing Reynard Ford
P.J. JONES
We had a very good run today. John (Ward) did a great job of engineering the car today. On my fast lap I tagged the wall with the left front wheel which cost me a few tenths. It's a lot better being in the Reynard. It is a more even situation for us in regards to the competition because no one has been able to test here, unlike, say Mid-Ohio. HOW ARE THE TRACK CONDITIONS? It is bumpy and hard to pass. It's a very challenging course when you are out there by yourself but, when you are out there with other cars there is just not much room to pass.

	Patrick Racing Visteon Reynard Ford
JAN MAGNUSSEN
We were nowhere with the car this afternoon during our qualifying session. This morning things were much better than they are now. We made a wrong turn somewhere.

	Forsythe Player's/Indeck Reynard Mercedes
PATRICK CARPENTIER
It's disappointing because we had a great car this morning. We know that our primary car is good and the Player's team has the right set-up for tomorrow. We'll check that out at practice in the morning.

	Team Kool Green Team manager
BARRY GREEN
Prior to qualifying, the car passed two technical inspections. So, we're certainly confused as to what has happened since then. In conjunction with CART, we have re-checked the measurement and it was certainly illegal. What we have to do now is focus on tomorrow. The track will be even faster tomorrow and we know Paul is happy with his setup. The other [spare] car will be just as fast. So, I think you'll see us right back in the thick of things tomorrow.