CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 1, 2000

Gil de Ferran

GIL de FERRAN: Good afternoon, T.E. Thank you. It is really a pleasure to be talking to you from this position on the corner of 45 and Broadway.

GIL de FERRAN: Well, it's funny you say that. When I went to the airport in L.A. yesterday morning, I was just kind of looking and staring out at the window, I guess and, you know I was talking to my wife, Angela, and, you know, we were driving through a neighborhood and it looked like where we used to live in the U.K., and I guess my mind had started to travel a little bit, and I was like, you know, this has been an amazing journey, really. And it has really been unbelievable for me to go through all this and be here where I am now. I guess when I first came over, I had no intention of going anywhere else. I mean, I came over here with the intent -- inaudible to be very honest with you, I came two years after Mauricio came, and to me, he was the World Champion and so if the series was worthwhile enough for him to come here to try to win it, it was actually worthwhile for me. So, you know, in my mind, all I wanted to do was to try to put one of those championships to bed. And having achieved that, it's been an unbelievable journey.

GIL de FERRAN: Jackie was actually -- I know he placed a phone call to Jim to make a recommendation back then, and, you know, I think that obviously helps Jim make up his mind to put an offer, I guess, on the table. And over the years that I've been here, I had, you know, a few approaches and opportunities to do other things in Europe, especially Formula 1, but in a way, I always ended up choosing the opportunities I had over here, and I think it has worked out fantastically well for me.

GIL de FERRAN: Well, it has been a great reaction from what I understand. I really didn't know what to expect, but apparently we were on like the front cover of every major newspaper in the country, and the TV ratings for the race has been unbelievable. And we've been on the news all the time and all that, and the phone has been ringing nonstop and it has really been unbelievable, much more than I could have ever foreseen or expected. To give you an idea, a friend of mine that runs a private Web site, he's a journalist that does the commentary for Brazilian TV, he said only in his column on Monday there was over a million people reading that thing. So that's been unbelievable.

GIL de FERRAN: I think the reaction has been so overwhelming, I decided to at least go there and talk to the guys over there, the media and the friends, and so I'm going to go there Thursday night. I'm going to leave to go there and just be there on the Friday.

GIL de FERRAN: Yeah, I guess, you know, at the time when I started, the big guy was Nelson Pica (ph). Obviously, I watched a lot of racing and he was so involved in the mid-70s, but I was very, very young then, and as I became more involved in racing, Nelson was really the number one Brazilian driver in international racing. And I was just sort of slowly coming into the scene (inaudible) -- and those are the two guys that I eventually follow, but if you remember, Nelson won the championship in '81, and I started the year after, so it was a hot time for Brazilian auto racing.

GIL de FERRAN: Oh, yeah, I guess we do get a lot of calls. We've got a site where a lot of young guys also write me, asking for advice and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, it's funny to be in that position, actually, because I remember very, very well years ago talking to Emerson about it.

GIL de FERRAN: Well, the plans as we speak is another day in New York, down to Brazil, back to Florida; then my yearly holiday in November, I will spend about ten days in the Caribbean, which will be very nice. And hopefully up until that I won't be thinking about anything but the Caribbean itself, and then -- but late November, we already start working on next season. I should be testing early, early December. I can't quite recall exactly where we're going to be, but I should be testing early December, and, you know, full blast to try to repeat again next season.

GIL de FERRAN: I think it is late November, early December.

GIL de FERRAN: To be quite honest with you, I shut myself off completely from that sort of discussion. I know there's some concern there about the speeds and the feasibility of our cars running there, but I have not really involved myself at all in that discussion. Obviously, I have more important things to do.

GIL de FERRAN: Yeah, I think it is amazing, especially since we are from such different back grounds. I mean, obviously he's Scottish, from way up north and I'm from way down south. So it's really funny, but I tell you, we got along really well back when I met him first time in 1990, and we became very, very good friends. And for me, it was a very neat and extremely nice that he turned up. He kind of surprised me. Called me the week before the race and said, look, I'm going down there, just to make sure you do all right. And it was great to have him there and, you know, I also -- you know a lot of the people that I felt was very important in my career were there, too, friends and family. So it was a nice touch and an emotional touch for me with these people who I -- you know, are very important to me over there on probably the most important day of my life.

GIL de FERRAN: Well, thank you very much. I'm sorry we were a little late going into the call, and I apologize for the rush in which we had to tackle this. But I really appreciate what all you guys did for me this year, and hopefully have a lot of fun next year. Thank you.