CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 30, 2002

Mario Dominguez

Adrian Fernandez

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Thanks for having me.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It was a very, very good win for the team. The reality hasn't really sunk in. It was a very well-deserved win by the team because not only did they fix that car after the big crash at the beginning, but they had a wonderful strategy in the pits. Just very excited, very happy for the whole team. I think this is what we needed to cheer us up. We've had all the bad breaks this year. Finally a very good one came back. We got paid back. Somebody up there was looking over us. I'm just happy about that. It's just something that we needed, that the sponsors needed. Herdez has been working for many years to get a result like this. I'm happy that I gave it to them. Del Via has been a supportive company, Corona and Tele Visa. They're very happy about it. Now we have to keep on working hard and focus on getting good results.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, first of all, after that crash, I was very worried about all the drivers. I was hoping that everyone was going to be okay. Once I found out that, yes, the injuries were not severe, everyone was going to be already, I felt relieved. I think all the spectators, all the teams, all the drivers were relieved that nothing bad had happened. Then I was just worried. I never thought my team was going to be able to get the car ready for the race. I was just very frustrated at that moment, that I was not going to be able to race. You work so hard all year. You go all the way to Australia, and not even be able to race. I could not describe to you how bad I was feeling. My team put it together. They fixed the car. They fixed it perfectly. I was so happy when I knew I was going to be able to race again, you wouldn't believe it. Then to win it, I mean, that's just unbelievable. The whole strategy was fantastic. It was a very good gamble by Joe, the team strategist, but it paid off. We just stretched and stretched our pit window at the beginning. It was just a wonderful thing to come in first. It was obviously a tough race. In the end, somebody had to be there. Who better than us?

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, of course, no question, this win was - I've always said it - more a team win than me. My driving didn't play a huge part in it. It was just team strategy. It was a wonderful team for us. But there's always been pressure for me to perform and to win races. Yeah, sure, I want to get out there and prove myself. I want to get out there in Fontana and have another win, have a very good result. I'm looking forward to this race, for the next challenge. But obviously and definitely, this is the kind of result that will cheer us up and totally lift our spirits.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: The reason they did it is because before people were winning races by saving fuel, by running really slow throughout the whole race. It would be a similar circumstance to the way I won this race in Australia, being very lucky. So what CART wants is for the drivers to go out there and drive 100% every single lap of the race. They shortened the pit windows, that way nobody will be saving fuel. You drive as hard as you can all the time. This going slow, saving fuel strategies, those kind of things, don't play such a big part. In the end, nobody is ever happy with everything. You can't have everybody happy. I think this has been better for the show, no question about it. The CART races this year have been better. All the drivers think it's better. It's completely different to be driving 100% than driving not 100%, saving fuel, shortshifting, doing things like that in order to win by another strategy. It's much better when you win by driving 100%.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Finishing the season in Mexico City is the best thing that could ever happen to us. Looking forward to that race. It's going to be fantastic. I think that track is the best in the CART series. The facilities are state-of-the-art. The track is just beautiful. It's perfect. One of the most beautiful racetracks in the world. We're expecting 400,000 people for the weekend. It's going to be a wonderful event to finish the season.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: To every race we get to, we always walk with the hopes and ideas of trying to win it. But to tell you the truth, I've been so unlucky this year, I've had so many bad breaks, and Friday didn't begin too well. I had a crash, sure enough I hit exactly the wrong spot on the track where the car was badly damaged, so I had to go to the spare car. During the race, I never, never expected that I was going to be able to win it because of all the bad luck I had this year. I thought, if somebody is going to get the lucky break, it's not going to be me. What goes around comes around. Like I said, I think somebody up there was looking over us. All the effort, all the hard work that's been put into this by the sponsors, by the team, by the guys, the engineers, myself, finally paid off. It was a good break, a lucky break. But we made our luck in this race, so it was good.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Of course, the team won. Even in other races, the team is a big part of it. I would be like a quarterback in a football team. I cannot do it by myself. I need everybody around me working and helping me out. Unfortunately, motorsports sometimes is a bit unfair because people only get to see the driver in the race on the TV, but they don't see the days, hours, weeks and months of hard work that the mechanics, the engineers, designers, everybody puts into a race weekend. It's just unbelievable. Like I said, this team was very motivated. We needed a result like this to cheer us up and to lift us because there had been a lot of hard work and no payback. Like I said, we have had all the bad luck breaks. Finally we have a good one.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: You won't believe it. I've been doing interview after interview, even from Australia. People call me at 4 in the morning for interviews here and there. Right now as I've been talking on the phone for this little time, I've probably gotten five calls on my phone for interviews in Mexico.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It's good. Everybody in Mexico is happy. It's definitely a win for Mexico. Luck was on our side this time.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It was great. As you say, it was character building. We had a hard crash on Friday. We just had a tough weekend, then the crash at the beginning of the race. I just felt so bad. All of a sudden we come away with a win. It's just an unbelievable turn of emotions. I'm just so happy for the team and for myself and for the sponsors. Really, there was a lot of need for a result like this.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: It was unbelievable. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to drive under those yellow flag conditions. It was hard. First of all, you couldn't see anything. It was raining so hard, the car was floating around, it was slippery. Cristiano da Matta spun under yellow flag conditions. That shows you how hard it was out there. He's the best driver, and he spun.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Looking forward to it. It's a Superspeedway. The team has a very good oval setup. Tom Brown is a very good engineer on ovals. We've been fast on ovals. One of our best results were in Japan, that very fast oval there. We were fourth place with 10 laps to go. Unfortunately, got taken away. This race in Fontana is something we've been looking forward to. It's just nice to know when I'm going to get to that track, my car is going to be fast. We've been looking forward for months.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, I tell you, my way to CART has not been easy. I started racing 16 years ago when I was 10 years old. I started racing go-karts. I was three times national champion there. Then I won a scholarship to go run the Formula Russell Mazda in California. I won the championship there back in '92. I got a chance to drive one Indy Lights race back then. From then on, it's just been a struggle. I've been driving for different various teams in Mexico, very low-budget teams, Formula 3, Formula 2, all kinds of racing in Mexico. I was able to get wins here and there, but obviously not all the time. The teams were under-budgeted. Finally in '96, Herdez Competition, which was really the best racing team in Mexico, it would be like racing for Team Newman/Haas in CART this year, that's the way Herdez Competition was in Mexico then. They hired me to race Formula 3000. Right away I started winning with them. We won the Formula 3 championship in '98. They took me to Indy Lights. We won our first race there, then ran two years for a Mexican team. Then ran for PacWest last year in Indy Lights. Had a few podiums, a couple pole positions, decent season overall. I did a test two years ago with team Herdez Competition in Sebring in the Champ cars. The test went very well. I was very fast. Team was very happy with me. Last year I got the best call of my life where they said they were thinking of putting me in the car this year. It's been a struggle, to say the least. I could definitely write a book about it.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, not really. Actually we get about half an hour of practice in the morning on Friday. That's the only way you get prepared for it. Believe me, Japan was very high-speed oval, and so was England. It would be something similar to it. It won't be that different.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I think in Japan we were having a top speed of 218, if memory serves me right. I think it will be like 230. It will be quicker. At that speed, 10, 20 miles an hour is a lot.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Well, the team is now Herdez Competition. I had the opportunity to meet Tony Bettenhausen a few years back when they were negotiating for having Herdez come on board as a sponsor. Michel Jourdain was the driver. I tell you, it's one of the nicest persons, human beings, I've ever met. Himself, his family, Larry his friend that unfortunately passed away on the plane. They were all unbelievable, so nice, such big hearts. I was definitely thinking of him that night after that win. It was something that I knew he'd be happy about because he started this team many years ago. It's his legacy. It's something that Tom Brown and I were talking about yesterday about him. I think Tony Bettenhausen will definitely be happy to know that the team that he started won a race. I'm happy to be the driver of that one for this team, their first race, and also the sponsors in Mexico. Team Herdez has been sponsoring this effort for many years, I think since 1994, Champ cars, they started out with Carlos. I'm just so happy I was the one that gave them their first win.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I enjoyed working with Ford very much this year. Not only with the engine, they're just a wonderful company. They've been very supportive of me. Not to mention that I got a Ford Expedition from them. I love that car. I drive it in Indianapolis. Next year I think it will be great that all the cars will be running Ford-Cosworth. It's just going to be more and more competitive, a much more reliable series. It will be very good. It's a quality engine that you need for a series such as CART.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: I think they're the best fans I've seen really. It's unbelievable. That race is so huge in Australia, you won't believe it. It's just like a huge festival. The whole week, ever since I got there on Sunday, it was like a party. The fans stuck through the rain. They stayed there. They're just excited about it. They love the racing. They love their motorsports. They love the whole Champ car weekend there. It's a wonderful event in Australia. I was told it was huge, but I never expected anything like it. The enthusiasm they have is just amazing. You should see, in between the practice of the cars, they have like shows on the tracks, motorcycles, planes flying over doing air shows, fighter planes. They really know how to put on a show down there. They have bars inside the racetrack. People are partying, dancing. It's just like a huge festival. It's like a big party. I'd like to go and watch the race one of these days and just have fun.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Not next year. In a few years when I retire, I'll definitely go watch Australia and enjoy it.

MARIO DOMINGUEZ: Thank you very much. See you this weekend.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: I don't feel good. I feel pretty stiff. I have a broken neck. The chances of racing in Mexico right now we don't know. It's just a matter of waiting for Terry, for the doctors to see what's going to happen.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: It was pretty bad. It was unfortunate because it was something that could have been avoided. We never should have started this race, that's for one. Basically when Mario hit Takagi, he launched him into the air, and basically Takagi landed on top of my head. That's basically when he fractured my two vertebras, T2 and T3. That was one of the most serious accidents. Vancouver was also very serious. It was just unfortunate. Like I say, when we start the race, I could not see absolutely nothing. I couldn't see the racetrack. I could not see the grandstands, the walls, anything. It was absolutely stupid to start this race, to be honest.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: No.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Max has been with us in Mid-Ohio. He's a good driver. He has a lot of experience. It was the logical choice for us to get him back into the car, which he's going to be working again with his engineers like he was working at the beginning of the year, which is Dave Watson. He will feel like at home. He's very experienced in this type of track. I feel pretty confident he will do a very good job for us.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: No, not really, not really. It's unfortunate because these accidents, I've been a victim of bad situations. Things happen sometimes in life like that. There's nothing you can do. I mean, I just could not believe, there's so many cars out on the track, the only one that this car is flying on top of is mine. Just one of those things. Really destroyed my steering wheel. Very close to having my head taken off my body, it was so close. I've never been so unlucky in this type of event. It's just how it goes sometimes. We just have to keep doing our best. Hopefully next year will be a little bit cleaner.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Absolutely. That really helps lot. That helped me in all my injuries, when I broke my wrist, when I broke my hip. It's something that definitely helps. I hope that type of thing will help me so I can race in Mexico.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Well, as soon as we started the race, I said we're in trouble, because we could not see anything. Visibility was absolutely zero. I was pretty afraid that I was going to hit somebody or somebody was going to hit me. Eventually that's what happened, somebody hit me. Jimmy hit me. Not his fault, it's just he couldn't see also. After that, it was just a matter of waiting. You just close your eyes and waiting. People hitting you, hitting you, hitting you. Suddenly, everything stopped on the track. For a while, nothing happened. Then I heard that apparently Mario was like two, three seconds behind, suddenly he was the last guy to hit. When he hit, apparently he hit pretty hard. He was coming a pretty good speed. He hit pretty hard Tora. As soon as he hit him, he broke his hip. Tora went and landed on top of my head. That moment, to see him, when he was in the air, landing on my head, it was a very scary moment because I could see that it was at a bad angle. His roll bar was really hitting my face. For a moment, I thought I was not going to be able to survive this one.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Right now we're working on several things. Max is obviously one of our top priorities. If there is something we can do, definitely we will put Max in the series. Max I think is somebody we need in the series. That's why we considered him to replace us again this weekend. He's a guy that has a lot of experience, has a good name. It would be a good asset to keep him in CART definitely.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: I'll be there all weekend.

ADRIAN FERNANDEZ: Thank you.