CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 15, 2002

Scott Dixon

SCOTT DIXON: All right, thank you.

SCOTT DIXON: Basically the contract has been taken up for next year, so we're contracted to Ganassi. He's still yet to release basically what he's doing next year. We'd obviously like to stay in CART but it is, I think, in Chip's best option -- obviously to keep his sponsors and it's what they choose to do, so as of yet I am sure probably in a couple of weeks there will be a release of what is going on.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, for sure. The guys were great and it was good to have people from PacWest sort of join me over there as well to sort of help get to know everybody. It has been very hard. It's not something you'd like to do every year is swap teams sort of after three races and this year, especially, being with all -- with no in -season testing which is very hard and that's what we felt the hardest to start with; obviously everything is different in the way they like to set up cars. That's where we struggled. We did a lot of testing at race weekends and it is just not the way to do it. That's why we were sort of fast one day and then the next day we totally missed the boat. It has been very hard and pretty challenging, but it seems the last few races; especially our street course setup, we have pretty much defined and it's just going -- I am looking forward to starting a new year and playing with the team.

SCOTT DIXON: It's differs, as I said, from team to team. TWR, I think, was very good in attention to detail. The cars were very well prepared. I think what helps while at Target there's a lot of information, a lot of resources that you can get to from past years and things like that. But the problem nowadays is things have changed so much with the tires. I think Chip has always been very good on picking the right package and earlier years I think that was a big help and as far as testing, things like that. That's where they have got a huge jump. Now it is so close you could still have a good car but be 8th in the field; it could be the driver messing up by a couple of tenths and things like that. It's just the competition is so tight now. There's nothing ever that stands out drastically. You know, it's nice to have a team that's well-funded; whatever you need, you get, that kind of thing. And it's good to have that for a change. So nothing typically stands out; just a lot of good people, a lot of race horses and a well formed team.

SCOTT DIXON: Obviously it is always a fun race to go to. Australia is known for that. The weather is always good and things like that. The circuit, I don't know, it's kinds of strange, people like it or dislike it. I think it depends on how you do there. We did pretty well last year and I think we could have ended up with a podium just with how the race went; where we got sort of stuck out and close touch and things like that and then we end up blowing the give-ups. I think we were running 4th. But it's nice for myself to get back home. A lot of family comes to the race and it's just very enjoyable.

SCOTT DIXON: The biggest thing in Australia, is obviously I think the braking in Turn 1 there is a lot of times made. Obviously you have got set up the car, but the corners wide there where you've got a lot of curving, you've got to jump, two or three and you've got a lot of 90 degrees, so you have got to have good change direction. And obviously it's hard to compromise that with a good platform for something that rides the coats pretty well. The circuit, going down towards, I think it's the south end where you have two lefts, they are pretty straightforward. And coming on the backstraight down into that left right, that's always pretty easy corner to sort of cut straight basically because it's hidden. You can't really see it. It's a lot harder than you think. Then you have got the faster Chicanes further on down the backstraight which there I think is probably where most of the time is made. Obviously then you have just got a series of 90s and left left and then a right, all those are pretty straightforward street course stuff. So it's more of a Chicanes. (Inaudible).

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, for sure. I think that, as I said earlier, that we have really defined our street course setup. I think Australia is probably a little different because it's smooth. We have got a good balance now. It's something that we have known and we have got to probably keep for races like this and we have been to Miami and Denver and never really changed anything. We sort of just rolled off the track.

SCOTT DIXON: Yeah, I am sure. With Denver and Miami, it was really only the black surface parts of the circuit where it was really bad. Miami was probably worse by a long way, it's that sealer they use. At least here it's the normal tar fill roads that they drive on and they have haven't change in any way so it will be a lot quicker.

SCOTT DIXON: Obviously it depends on what we're going to be doing next year. I think the street courses, you know, it's a good fan base and it's easy to get people interested because they see the action going on even before the race with in setting up the circuit and it gets a lot of interest. I think for CART that's basically what they need to do. It definitely helps, but then you have got the road courses like Elkart Lake and Mid-Ohio who have their own fan base, you know, for enthusiasts for road courses. I think the ovals probably don't play a big part in CART's future. They need to take the more downturn cities and overseas, I think -- like you go to Australia or even in the other overseas, the Canadian ones, are just huge. They make it more of a carnival; the atmosphere is a lot nicer. And, you know, you go to some circuits, some of the ovals, like Milwaukee, nobody really turns out. They don't really know what is going on.

SCOTT DIXON: I think Toronto, Vancouver and Australia are pretty similar. They make a big party of it, a lot of action going on. I am not sure, you know, they generally know a lot, the Australians, of what is going on. It's good for us because they follow -- I think we have definitely helped a lot of it down there, there's a lot more people that watch and things like that. But maybe just, I don't know, the enthusiasm could be coming because they probably drink a lot, (LAUGHTER) they just have a good time. Long Beach also has a good following, it is a very famous race, things like that, but just the atmosphere I guess you could say Australia is probably a little bit more crazier, similar to Vancouver and Toronto.

SCOTT DIXON: Obviously, it's pretty good. I think it was a lot of fun. And generally it's nice to prove that you can actually do it. With places like New Zealand and Australia you get a lot of the small poppy syndrome where people try to, in some ways, put you down because they are not going to the same lengths or improving in levels of racing like you have. So the attitude changes a lot once you get there. You find out you automatically have a lot more friends than what you thought you did have and maybe they are only there because they want something. But I think the attitude changed a lot and it's good -- it helped the country, I think there's a lot of talented drivers down there and just hope that people can sort of help them out the same way I got help.

SCOTT DIXON: Obviously, I think Toyota will be supplying hopefully us a good engine. All their engines are kept very similar so you know they are pretty much on the top of their game on the motor side of the things at the moment so I think we're going to be pretty happy with that. In general, I think the setup will stay fairly similar, maybe slightly stiffer springs or something because you are going at higher speed. It is generally the same sort of lines, you know, things like that, and corners, because you have got very slow 90s and a lot of big breaking things where most street courses do. As you said, it is a little faster, but you know, I think you have got to compromise some things. I think the setup will work very well.

SCOTT DIXON: Thank you very much.