CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 16, 1999

Mario Andretti

MARIO ANDRETTI: Good morning, Mike. Thank you for having me. Obviously, when CART came to me with this idea of naming of a trophy after me, you know, I was taken aback, and there's no question that I feel very honored to have been considered. You know, you have to take into consideration most of these trophies like the Huysman and so on and so forth usually, they are named after someone that has long passed away; so, I'm still alive and I'm really going to enjoy this. Basically what I said in my release is, you know, I can't really say anything more than that or improve on that, to be honest with you, but I think it's something that is very meaningful, that CART is doing. I think it's great for the drivers. Great incentives here. And I think it will be interesting how it shakes out.

MARIO ANDRETTI: You mean like a seniors tour?

MARIO ANDRETTI: That's something -- that's another subject. We're not getting any younger so somebody better start organizing something like that. I think that's -- there is some movements in that respect, but again, that's probably going to happen maybe down the road IN the season. That's what I heard. Again, it's been somewhat not clear as to the direction that this new organization might be taking. But I expressed long ago, I said, "If we're going to be driving, you guys better hurry."

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, I think the legacy of the sport is very important. This is a sport that has strong history. And I remember when I was coming through the ranks even back in the 60s, you know, where was I getting my inspiration? From the idols that preceded us, that preceded me; so I think -- I assume that a lot of these youngsters derive a lot of that inspiration from guys like you know the Unsers and Floyd myself that have been there for so many years. And I think we obviously should be part of the system, part of racing. I am very much present at all the events, because I spend my life and I'm still as interested as ever, even though I wear a different hat. And of course, you know, I have another specific reason to follow it, because of Michael being involved, being active. But again, I like to -- it's good to be appreciated and be recognized for the work that you've done. I don't think there's a greater compliment than that that you receive when people just express something to you along the way, fans or media, and they remember; they name specific events or whatever. You know, let's face it, a lot of hard work has gone into a career, and to know the people still remember it and appreciate it is wonderful.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, I think the CART series, the FedEx series, as you said is very strong. I mean, it's -- the fact that you look at the attendance records that were established last year along long the fact that you have venues just drooling to get more dates is testimony that the series is certainly growing, still growing and going forward in a very strong fashion. You have great -- I think you have very good strong sponsor support base. All you have to do is look at hospitality activity at all of the events; and then you look at the health of the teams; I mean, the depth in the field, which is phenomenal. Look at the manufacturers that are involved, like auto manufacturers. You've got the biggest manufacturers in the world: You've got Toyota. You have Ford. You have Mercedes. You have Honda. And I mean, they are officially involved, exposing themselves and wanting to be a part of this because of the worldwide coverage of this series. So, yeah, we go back and we can always be falling back to "Why aren't we at Indianapolis," and I wish we were there. I wish that -- you know, that CART would be better off being in Indianapolis and we all know that. And so would the Indianapolis be better off having CART because we know clearly that after the absence of what, three years now, Indianapolis has lost tremendously. It's lost its mystique. It's lost coverage and lost fans and lost everything. You know, I think we could reinstate that if CART, you know, if we could come to some common ground where it would become part of the series again. And I don't think we should have stop working toward achieving that goal again for everybody -- for the benefit of everyone. But again, the series as you can see stands on its own very solidly. You don't need Indianapolis even for the series to survive. No other series will survive without Indianapolis. And you know which one I mean.

MARIO ANDRETTI: That's not even surviving.

MARIO ANDRETTI: No. Absolutely not. Even you could go back, even the last five years or so, you could always make the comment, the unpredictability. I keep using the word electrifying. You know, being on the sidelines, I never thought I would get too excited about really watching practice start, qualifying start or the races, but there's so much electricity. So much good, solid excitement in the air, and every CART series whenever they start would turn the engines on because there's so much activity. You watch practice -- I watch the monitor and I see being Michael is coming in after a practice run and he's up say first second or third, and I say oh, good. And about two minutes later he's 17th, and it's unbelievable. It was never close to that. In fact, I used to set quick time and then I'd go for a sandwich and then I'd still have a quick time. I'd say, Why do I want to go out; wait. Today, it's right down to the last minute. It could be quick time at the end of a practice period with one minute to go, and if you get out of the car you'll probably be 12th; so that's excitement. You could not have any better than that, and you could see it was strong last year. It's going to be stronger this year. Wherever this is -- look at the activities going on. Next week here in Nazareth, you're going to have 11 teams practicing. Laguna Seca, they had like ten teams or so. Everybody is out there And I tell you right down to the end of the field, everybody feels they have a shot at the championship. How good is that?

MARIO ANDRETTI: Team ownership, well, I will always have that as an option. I would -- I don't think I'm old enough to own a team yet; so, again, it would have to be the proper opportunities to come my way. But it could be very much certainly in the play in the future. I don't know how immediate future. But again, I'll just keep that open probably as long as I still have this bug that I could still run like Le Mans or Daytona 24 hours. As long as I have that in my head, I'll probably not become an owner. But as soon as all of that is out of my system, I might consider it stronger.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, there are a lot of factors here. A lot of the -- I would suspect that -- let's say this: Times have changed dramatically. But the probably the underlying factor for keeping drivers in one particular discipline once they reach that stage, a lot of it is the money, I mean economical, the economic side of it. Because when I was racing, I mean, I was earning well but I could always feel that I could pick it here, pick it there. I say, okay, you race for the money; that's part of it, too, of course. But is that the only motivating factor? No. That would be the strongest motivating factor? No. But you always use that as an excuse or the reason for the risk that you take. Now, having said that, today a driver is committed to a series, like say the FedEx, the CART FedEx Series. His time is pretty much taken up. You know, would I think that Michael would have time to race somewhere else or do something else? No. Because, you know, a lot of people in the off-season, we all know he's testing. I mean, flat out, he's just testing every week. So you can see there's much more intensity today in -- you have much more responsibility to your team than ever before. In my days, I used to look at my calendar and say, Gee, I've got an open weekend, and I'm going to throw something in there a midget, a spring car, a sports car, something. I always had people that, you know, would take me in with open arms, and I was taken in on those opportunities. But I think those days are long gone, only because as I say, because of the commitments that you have. The other way to put, my contract was like three pages in those days like back when I was doing a lot of the different driving. Today it's like 170 pages. But at the same time, the team usually as far as what you're costing the team, they have much more rights to you than ever before, only because of that.

MARIO ANDRETTI: I don't know. A lot of it has to do with longevity, too. In that sense was I ever fortunate that I was able to have a career as long as I have? You're darned right. Do I know it? Yes. Many potential champions in those days were never able to mature or able to accomplish what they should have or could have because you know where were a lot of fatalities; so again, it takes a long, long time to establish any kind of -- any knowledge on a particular name, if you will, to follow you. If you're a flash in the pan, that's it. But you've got to be able to grind and grind and grind, and people all of the sudden get used to you and they say oh, gee you know, we expect this and that from you; and then they start following you. And then it's thrills and disappointments and all those emotions that the fans experience along with you; so it's a long-term deal. It's a long-term situation. You don't make stars overnight, really. It's very seldom that you do, and sometimes when undue publicity comes onto a certain individual, it really makes it tough because so much is expected of them and then they don't have the experience to really support what is expected or be able to obviously back up what -- what people think they should be able to accomplish; so a lot of these factors. But believe me, today these guys don't go unnoticed. And I mean here is a perfect example of instituting this particular -- this trophy and this All-Star team where here it would be very good reason for the press during the season to start taking notice of who is really up there, who is really performing in the eyes of the various judges that we have that we'll have in place. I think it's going to up a whole new awareness factor, which I think is good. It's going to be great for these guys, great carrot for them to go because they will see that they will be rewarded purely on their performance; whereby, yes, the champion, the points champion, ultimately could very well be the one to be rewarded anyway. Most of the times you will, because you have to be formidable to be a champion. No question. But then there are times where a guy that probably finished 2nd probably had more victories, led more laps, but had more spectacular driving but was not as lucky or consistent; so this guy ultimately may be the guy to be awarded with this -- with this new trophy. So just exactly what CART is doing now is probably going to enhance the awareness of the drivers I think in the future and from here on.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, you've got to look -- first and foremost, the driver is behind the wheel. And you watch -- it's easier to be able to assess the ability of a driver, his skills, by just watching how he just -- how he makes his moves. There are drivers that make some moves at the expense of others and bully their way around in a very unreasonable way, and I don't think that takes a lot of finesse. And there are others that accomplish the very same thing and have the respect of their competitor, and I think it's going to bring some sportsmanship on board because they know they will be so closely scrutinized. So you're going to watch for all of these things. As the season goes on, you will see that there may be guys driving something that doesn't have as much power but somehow he's in there, on and on. The criteria is -- how does the guy -- you're going to judge some of his personality well, how he's dealing with fans. I think the fans will probably start expressing themselves, too. So I think all these guys will want to be part of the team and they will all be on their best behavior, I guarantee you.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Thank you.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Thank you, Walter. Thanks for saying that.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, I think a lot of it is in the marketing of the series. I think everybody is trying to step that up to create awareness. That's what NASCAR has done and they have done a great job in marketing. And of course, in the United States here we are not obviously going to race as many times as NASCAR; so we have to probably again be a little more aggressive in the marketing. But something we should also remember that when you compare on the big picture CART and NASCAR on the world picture, you know, CART is so much bigger because of the TV exposure that it receives and the appreciation that there is around the world for this type of racing rather than stock cars. You know, stock cars are phenomenal, but outside of these shores, there isn't very much interest. There's not enough technology there to interest a lot of the sophistication of the fans abroad or the press. They look for that a little more, the purest sense of motor racing. And so I feel that not everybody can have everything, but CART can be very proud of the worldwide awareness of its series; and again, it should never stop. You should never stop cultivating the very ingredient that you have working for you, the drivers, to strengthen the teams, the technology, and on and on.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Well, in life just cultivating a lot of my business interests that I have in place now, and there's a goal every day to go after. It's just you want to be successful and everything that you do nothing I think totally specific. You just want to continue to be successful and what I'm trying to do is be involved in the type of business that I can really feel that I have a passion for that I look forward to going to work or doing work for. And that's not easy now but we're accomplishing that and that's important for me.

MARIO ANDRETTI: Thank you.