CART FedEx Championship Series: Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland

Topics:  Marconi Grand Prix of Cleveland

Cristiano da Matta
Scott Dixon
Tony Kanaan
July 12, 2002

CLEVELAND, OHIO

MERRILL CAIN: -- If he holds it tomorrow, it will give him his best starting spot of the 2002 season. Scott qualified 18th in his only previous start here in Cleveland. He'll be looking to extend a six-race streak of Top 10 finishes on Sunday. Scott, tell us a little bit about your afternoon. Obviously the Target Team was working on its qualify setup during most of the day, and you came up with a great lap there.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah. Team Target worked very hard. The car was pretty good this morning. We stayed on one set I think through the whole session, and basically just worked a little on race stuff. You know, we tried to get a little more front grip for qualifying. It generally wasn't too bad. We were a little loose for the first set, and then later on in the second run, towards the end of it, we started to pick up some oversteer, as well. The car was good. I think probably, as many others, we were up, you know, a few 10ths on our last lap and ended up fighting traffic. We're very happy. You know, it's just different this time. We waited, you know, till the end to go out with everyone else. I think it definitely helps.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I've been struggling after we switch chassis. I think even before that was a matter of people would call bad luck. I would say so. But lately I don't think it's the (inaudible). It's been us not doing the proper job. And I think we got it together today. I still not very happy with my car, but obviously not being happy and sitting second, it feels pretty good. But I pull out one lap. I got a lot of traffic and I was really mad disqualify because I don't think it's the way to do it. People, if you can do the lap, why you going to block somebody? And I got blocked twice from the same guy. But, hey, it's always tomorrow. So one day he's going to come behind me and my mirror's going to be broken. You know, fortunately I could do the job, and I'm happy. You know, it's not -- I'm not happy only because I'm second, because we still have tomorrow, but that's good for my team. We really need that, to pump the guys up. We been having such a hard time lately that this result could mean a lot more than it looks like. That's all I need. And I'm going to keep supporting them and working together with them to make the car better. Whatever it's going to be, we're going to get through. The secret here is just to keep fighting, and that's what I'm going to do.

TONY KANAAN: You use this microphone today. Tomorrow I be sitting there, you be sitting here.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: After you spend a whole week in my house, probably I'm going to be charging you for more. The guy went to my house Sunday night and only left Thursday morning.

TONY KANAAN: Hold on. I said everything's working so fine for him, from Toronto on I said I'm going to eat whatever you eat, wake up whatever time you wake up. I'm going to follow him for a week. It didn't work, so I'm putting my house for sale, I'm moving in.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: I had some traffic in my first run, and I made a mistake in a lap that I was coming pretty good, too. But I still was able to put a decent lap together. On my second set, I had a pretty good run, clear laps and everything. That's when I was able to improve my time. First run also I think I hit the tires a little too late, so I had a little bit too much understeer by the time I put my lap together. On the second set, I was able to do it earlier, so the car was a little bit better balanced. Still fighting a little bit of understeer. But I'm pretty happy of course the way my car is going right now. Traction is a lot here from one day to the other because, of course, the airport. So there's a lot of rubber being laid down right now. I think tomorrow it's almost a different racetrack - I mean not completely different, but it can change a lot. So we just have to keep on the case, you know, keep improving the car according to the racetrack, and hopefully tomorrow have another good run.

TONY KANAAN: Well, I would say it did really hurt us, making the switch, because we did all winter testing with the Reynard. All of a sudden in the month of May, while we're doing Indy, we got this new thing coming along, which I personally didn't agree. But obviously it was the right decision to make at the time. So we start all over again. I mean, I saw people having a lot of problems during the winter to dial the car. I wouldn't say it's a Lola problem, it's just a new car thing. And for us we start all over again, but with the downside that we're not testing. So we can't test. So every race weekend was a test weekend for us. Obviously, we got going pretty well in Milwaukee and we ended up having a mechanical problem because it was a new car. The guys are not used to working the car, and they worked flat out the whole month doing my both programs. Obviously, we did pretty well. I mean, look at the run in Indy and the run in Milwaukee. But then all of a sudden we go to a road course and a street course we never been to, and a lot of things change. And this car is completely different car than the Reynard. To me, it's been pretty hard to adapt myself. It's been pretty hard to understand what the car needs. Right now, I'm not being able to drive my car; my car is driving me - and I don't feel comfortable. So it's -- you know, we using the test sessions. Today, for example, I switch cars four times, back and forth backup car to the primary car, because we had big changes and we make -- not having a teammate, I'm my own teammate. So it's hard. But, like I said, Morris tells me that's why I get the big bucks. I guess that's what I'm going to have to work on. But definitely we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it goes up and down. I don't feel it's very consistent right now. Today we're here, tomorrow I don't know. So we just need to try to keep the same pace and to don't get lost.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: He learned a lot of computer games because that's all he did.

TONY KANAAN: I was the only one?

TONY KANAAN: No. I lived at his place before for two weeks and he lived in my place for nine months. A bit of balance. It paid off. I went back to his place. Well, after Toronto, I said, "Man, come on, four in a row. Must be something. I need to check it out. I can't check what's going on in your team, so I'm going to check what's going on in your house." Obviously the atmosphere in his house, pretty good, you can barely walk because all the trophies he has hanging around. I said I think the energy over there is a lot better. I only have three trophies in my house. So I went to his house.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: This guy cries a lot, huh?

TONY KANAAN: Ate his food, drink his milk, play his video game, slept in his -- not in his bed, please (laughter). No, we just had fun. I mean, we're pretty close friends. That's just as a joke. Obviously, you know, I want to spend some of his money. He's earning a lot right now. By the way, actually, I went to the groceries for you last time I left.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: I don't remember that.

TONY KANAAN: Yeah, right.

CRISTIANO DA MATTA: Well, for me there's two sides. I'm sure the fans don't like it a lot because there's no car -- there are not cars running at the full hour the session lasts. But the other side, it's very fair for the drivers. Last year here, for example, I had a pretty good car, and I qualify 17th because it rained in my group, and in the other group was dry. So it's not fair then for the drivers. So I think what we can do is maybe adjust how much the session is going to last or something like that. Like just say instead of saying we're going to have a one-hour session, maybe a 45-minutes session or something, then nobody would expect us to run. You know, the first 15 minutes almost never there's somebody on the track anyway. I think for sure CART did the right change to put one group of qualifying because I think before the show, the most important thing is the sport. CART, real racing, real sport. That says everything. That's the sport. It's good when it's the same conditions for everybody as far as motorsports goes. So I think it's a good change. Maybe we need to adjust it a little bit more, but we're going the right way.

TONY KANAAN: Well, I would say if you divide the sessions, I mean, like if you look at this point, in the first 20 minutes, everybody's bored, but what about the last 35? It's so exciting. So it's a paid off. Yeah, they gave us an hour which is open for everybody. People get -- the fans obviously get frustrated because nobody's running the first 25 minutes. But once we get on the track, it's really excited because we only have that window that's really small. I would say I like the way it is. I think it's fair for everybody. Maybe we can make an adjustments, but I would say it's working fine for all of us - not just looking at the drivers' side, but looking at the fans' side. I would say the last 20 minutes of this session, I bet the fans were pretty excited seeing everybody going off and trying to put a lap together.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I'm the same way. You know, I don't think you'll ever be able to please both sides, of course. You know, there's one thing with the variables with, say, the 50 minutes of nothing sitting there with a red flag and stuff like that. They should definitely take that out and make it 30 minutes time certain or something like that instead of having 45 minutes of green or whatever it is. You know, I think it's definitely better than what it was last year. We were the same. We got caught out in the rain. It's definitely better for the teams and drivers. As Tony said, I think does it put on a good show at the end. It's just there's such a big window there.

MERRILL CAIN: Congratulations on a good qualifying session. Best of luck in the second round of qualifying tomorrow.