INDY RACING LEAGUE MEDIA CONFERENCE

April 27, 2004

Leonardo Maia

Jasse Mason

Brian Stewart

BRIAN STEWART: Thanks a lot.

BRIAN STEWART: I was with Indy Lites for 15 years, and I had good success there, with winning and with young drivers along and moving them up the ladder. I thought, you know, when they stopped Indy Lites or when CART stopped Indy Lites, I could have gone to Atlantic, but I didn't want to go there because I thought it was a step down. And Roger Bailey was telling me that they were going to do a similar series to Lites in the IRL, and that he was going to be in charge of it. So, I dealt with him for, you know, 15 years, and felt comfortable going over there with him. You know, signed up right away.

BRIAN STEWART: You know, the next step is so huge, you could go bankrupt doing the next step. I feel comfortable with the money that's involved in doing this series same as I did in Indy Lites. And the next step is just so huge, it's not something I personally can do. So unless a really big sponsor came along or, let's say, a person with a lot of money who wanted to be involved in racing, I couldn't make this step on my own. I'd have to have help to do it.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, let's say, our team is slightly older. If you go around the paddock, you'll see that everybody is a bit older than the other teams. And I know that crashing is part of racing, and you know we never, ever get angry when a driver crashes or does anything like that. I think we are more tolerant; I don't know if that's the right word for it, but we just tend to make the driver feel more comfortable racing. I mean, the Toronto Star did a story on da Matta, and I remember the story because it was quite complimentary. He said that I showed him how easy racing was; you just surround yourself with the right people, drive the car and then you'll win. That's what we've tried to do all the time.

BRIAN STEWART: This is my 40th year racing cars. I was a driver myself and then I became a car owner in '73. And so, I've had a lot of fun just taking young guys and making them win. Sometimes they don't know they have it in them, and, you know, you just kind of put the heat on them to get them to do better than they think they can do.

BRIAN STEWART: It's real hard to say because a lot of times, you do the deals over the phone, and I look at where they are coming from. If a guy has raced in Formula Ford or Formula V, or let's say the Barber Dodge series, you know that there's a lot of competition there. And, you know, as soon as the league phoned me up about Leo Maia, and he won that championship by something like 80 points, so you know that he had to be a good driver. You know, I ran Bryan Herta on the same deal where the Barber Dodge, or the Skip Barber Racing School, gave him that driver enhancement award, so he got $100,000 towards his budget, and, you know, Herta turned out to be a winner. I know before that, Robbie Buhl was a champion, so I knew that some good drivers were the champions there and that Leonardo must be pretty good. And of course, Jesse Mason, he was Canadian Formula V Champion when he was 16; and he did Formula Ford and he won there; and now he's gone over to Britain to go to school and to race, and then also race back here.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, you know, I don't live very far from MA Sport (ph), and on the off-weekends, I'll go down there and hang out and just look at the Formula V guys and the Formula Ford guys and just hang out in general, and, you know, I've known that Jesse was there and that, you know, I just started talking to his father; and you know how it all works, he ends up, you know, coming and doing a test and racing.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, I think he could be a professional race car driver. He's going to be a mechanical engineer to enable himself to be a better race car driver. So he's making a big commitment that way. So, I think he can drive good enough, and, you know, he'll have the technical background to go on to the bigger cars. Nobody wants the guys with the big balls anymore. You used to hear that years ago. They still have to be there, but the guy has to be technically sound.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, for me, as a team owner, I think it's probably the pinnacle of all racing in the whole world. You know, although we are the next level, I still think it's really important to win there. I've got a speech all prepared. (Laughing). That's all I can say. It's just incredibly important to win there, and, you know, from a personal standpoint. When we were with CART, I had won on every racetrack that we ever ran on with the exception of Vancouver and Laguna Seca. And I goot da Matta, and I said, "You know, I don't want to put any heat on you, but I never won those two races." And so he won Nazareth, won Vancouver and he won Laguna Seca. I said, okay, good. So Indianapolis, I would say it would be a goal for me.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, it's incredibly important. I've had drivers over the years go: "How is the car?" "It's good." "Well, what's it doing?" "Well, it's pretty good." You feel like saying, well, how come you're not first? Because they can't tell you what's going on with the car. Over the years, I've had, not every driver, but Tracy stuck out in my mind; that he could tell us what was going on with the car. Of course, da Matta could, Walter Sallas (ph), there's a whole line of drivers that just technically were really, really good explaining what was going on with the car. And then the engineer can figure it out and make it better. So the driver really has to know what's going on.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, you know, it's like we were at Homestead there at the first test, and of course, Rick Mears is our driver/coach, and Jesse did pretty well. We went over to Phoenix and he was also doing well there. He was setting the pace for that day, and Rick was talking to me about him. I said, you know, Rick, this guy is going to be a graduate mechanical engineer before he's 20 years of age. He's doing that just to be a better race car driver. Rick was listening to the whole deal, and that's the very same thing that Ryan Newman did in NASCAR. You know, Penske hired him right out of school to be a race car driver, and he had that engineering background. Jesse has taken a similar path, and, you know, we were flying out of Phoenix the next day at four in the afternoon, so I grabbed Tom Wertz (ph) from Penske and I said, Tom, I have a kid you have to keep an eye on here. He said, "Listen, Brian, he was the subject of our dinner conversation last night with Rick and Roger and Tim and myself." So, you know, the big thing is, you have to get them looking at you, and then once they are looking, you have to get a few good results and, you know, we ran the race at. Phoenix just exactly the way we laid it out. And they called the race two laps early -- I'm sorry, at Homestead. We did the Homestead race just the way that we had kind of talked about it the night before, but then they called the race two laps early. So Jesse wasn't able to be first; he was third. But he was like, I forget what the exact time was, maybe a hundredth of a second and two seconds behind first. So we were on the move. One of the things was we decided to conserve our tires because the tires were, I don't want to say -- bad is the wrong word, but they were having tire problems Firestone-wise, and people were beating their tires up. We decided just to conserve our tires and be moderate and then at the end of the race, go for it, which we did. When they called it two laps early, it screwed us up.

BRIAN STEWART: Like a duck to water.

BRIAN STEWART: Well, you know, I don't know what to say. We went down to Nashville for a test and he did pretty well. We had pinned the car to the ground, and we gave it a lot of aerodynamic downforce. So it couldn't get away from him. He did really well at the test. Then we went to Homestead and we started to trim the car out and he was going good. And, you know, the same at Phoenix. Phoenix I considered to be a lot harder than Homestead, and, you know, he was the one setting the pace on test day. We ended up stepping over the line and he had a big crash, but it didn't seem to take the steam out of him because we went back to Homestead and finished third and then at Phoenix, for the first 97 laps, he was third and then he got passed by his teammates and ended up finishing fourth.

BRIAN STEWART: No. You know, the way you run the cars -- I'm the car owner but I try not to interfere with the engineers. The engineer I have, Doug Zister, I have him from Indy Lites and he's a graduate from Waterloo, and he and Jesse are both quiet guys, and they kind of talk in the same level, which is over my head.

BRIAN STEWART: I do. But I know for sure we're going to go back road racing. I've already got the word.

BRIAN STEWART: Yeah.

BRIAN STEWART: I don't think there will be any doubt about it, Rick.

BRIAN STEWART: I was. The deal came together so quickly on the third -- like I have a tractor trailer, and the two cars were -- we were loaded, ready to go to Phoenix, the league phoned me up and said, "Listen, we got this driver, Leonardo Maia, and if we can put the deal together, will you run him at Phoenix." And I said, well, you know, he has to do a rookie test, and so I phoned up, and of course on the way, you don't have that many racetracks. I'll phone Texas Speedway and see if they are available. Monday he showed up at Texas, did a rookie test, Johnny Rutherford was there, over saw the rookie test Leonardo. When you go to a rookie test with a brand new driver, what you do is you raise the wings up so that they are providing more downforce. Of course, they made the car a little bit slower, but what it is, is you want to keep the car safe so the guy doesn't put it in the wall. We went there and he was like 3/10ths off of the pole from the year before, which is really, really excellent. You know, he did the test and never got the car out of shape at all. We went to Phoenix, and when he qualified, I believe he qualified 7th, which he was really unhappy with, but he said he had screwed up in qualifying, and in the race, he would do better, which he did.

BRIAN STEWART: Same as Phoenix. Just give him a good car, and I think that we'll have a dogfight on our hands between the two of them.

BRIAN STEWART: I had never spoken to him or anything like that. I knew they had won the Barber Dodge Championship but I didn't really know anything else about him. I thought he was a Brazilian, but it turns out he was born in Brazil but he's lived in the U.S. for 19 years.

BRIAN STEWART: Thank you.

JESSE MASON: It was awesome because my dad always had a car in the garage and always watching him work on it and everything else. Gives you a real feeling that you're -- he's succeeding and that everything is going good. There was a lot of hockey influence up here, and we did that, as well, but racing was always where my heart was.

JESSE MASON: Definitely from the beginning I wanted to be a driver. There was no doubt about it. You know, watching the guys in the Indy 500 and Formula 1 and everything, it just -- you know, that's where you want to be, and that's where I wanted to be. So my dad and everybody here, I had great support, and we did everything we could to get there.

JESSE MASON: The first time I raced was in a go-cart at age 8. I was basically, it was the earliest you could start. You could do stuff in your backyard and that. We didn't do that. We started to take a more professional like approach, but a pre-manufactured car and raced down a club track in New York State. It was great. I learned a ton there, and we moved around the state doing the World Carting Association stuff, the Eastern states and it was just unbelievable. I moved into cars when I was 16 and was able to win the Formula V Championship up here in Canada, which was another big boost to my career. Since then, it's been a smooth progression forward.

JESSE MASON: Well, you know, being from up here in Canada, you know the teams that are from around here, and you have extreme respect for anybody who can get things done up here. I've always, since I can remember, known of -- known of Brian, known of him and known what he's done. Especially through the success of Tracy, in particular, he had a great respect for him. He's done a lot and he's made a lot of big names in the sport. So that's how I learned of him, and obviously, my dad knew him as well. Him and my dad were able to brew something up for this year, which is a lot better than what I thought it would be, to be honest. It's a dream come true right now.

JESSE MASON: Oh, by far, they are the most professional team I've worked with in racing. You know, they go about it very, very seriously, which is good. You know, they want to win. They are not the kind that's just in it for the business side of things. They are in it for the sport. They are in it for the right reasons. They want to win and I want to win. So we have common goals and we have to work together to do that, and it seems to be great. I'm happy with all of the guys that are there. I have probably the best mechanic on the grid in Mo Larson. I know the car is always going to be perfect when I'm out there. My engineer is another big plus, very, very talented guy. You know, like I said, it's a dream come true and I'm glad to be there, definitely.

JESSE MASON: You know, as I said, we always want to win and that's what we are going to push for all the time. I have no illusions about it, but I know it's going to be difficult. Looking at the team and what they have done, and how good that I feel that I work with them and how they work, that's a definite possibility. Even at Indy at the end of may here, I think we have's good shot at it.

JESSE MASON: Oh, definitely. I can't say I can remember the first time, but I definitely remember the high points, good years, just getting there at the end and Tracy getting nipped at the end a couple years ago and definitely Villeneuve winning. It's just all unbelievable. I'm just glad that I had a lot of pride that Canada can represent themselves there, and hopefully we can do the same this year, and as well maybe in the IRL in a couple of years.

JESSE MASON: We just finished the open test there on Friday. Unbelievable facility. It's a giant place. It's very, very large, and when you're out there, you're thinking, well, straightaways are huge, but, you know, you've got to take it seriously and you can't be too much awestruck about the facility and you've got to get down to work.

JESSE MASON: Well, it seemed to be all right. We went to Nashville. Nashville was my first experience in the car and the oval. At first I was a little timid because the car has quite a bit of power, tons of grip with the underbody and the wings, the car has a lot of grip. And the tires were good all day long at Nashville and I was able to do a nice, slow progression all day, just getting faster and faster as it went on and not take -- not take too many risks and get used to turning left. You know, the cars are set up so that it's pretty easy on the driver to complete a lap, and you've just got to -- you can't really think about the car so much. You have to think about your setup, because that's what the other guys are thinking about, and you don't want to give them any advantage. That's what I do. I think more about the car rather than the track.

JESSE MASON: I go to school in Swansea, Wales, Swansea institute of Higher Education, it's called. The degree is through the University of Wales in Swansea. It's a motor sport engineering degree, something that's not found so much over here in North America. Ryan Newman was able to get an automotive degree from Purdue, which was, you know, has obviously propelled him into where he is now, and I have extreme respect for him. I just feel that with the -- with a lot of race car drivers out there, there's something you need to do to set yourself apart, side from just the driving side. With greater knowledge, I feel I can be a better driver, and there's my plan.

JESSE MASON: Well, I don't know as much about it as he does now.

JESSE MASON: I understand what you're saying. I guess you can have two different opinions on it. I could see that maybe in the future happening, but as engineers we are going to have to work together. As I say, we have to get the common goal and go faster. We've got to do what makes us faster rather than try to battle each other.

JESSE MASON: I'm in my second year currently. We finish in June. It a three-year program which is good.

JESSE MASON: That's correct.

JESSE MASON: Yes, currently, that's what I've doing.

JESSE MASON: It has an effect on your life. I hope it doesn't have too much of an effect on my driving. I take my driving very seriously. I get there a couple of days in advance so that I'm acclimatized and everything. You know, obviously, being at the track is where I want to be, so that's where I'm happiest.

JESSE MASON: Leo is great. I have a lot of respect for him. He did a tremendous job last year, and definitely, he's a bonus to the team. Provides great input that we can apply to both cars. It's good to have another car out there that we can compare setups in a way and see what goes faster. It's good to know that he is a caliber of driver that respects what setups are going to do and has a knowledge of the cars already and can help us work together to help us improve the situation for everybody.

JESSE MASON: Yeah, definitely. The teams that seem to be successful in our series, well this year, anyway, the Sam Schmidt team is a two-car operation and they seem to work well together. Hopefully me and Leo, as the season progresses can do that, not only with set up, but on the track, as well with drafting and getting towards the front of the field by the end of the race.

JESSE MASON: No. It's just a situation, really, we've never raced against each other. I had not met him up until we met at Phoenix, but his reputation preceded him a little bit and everybody said what a great guy he was. It's the truth. He's really light-hearted and you can tell, he takes his racing seriously, as we all do, and it's a great thing.

LEONARDO MAIA: Good. How are you doing over there?

LEONARDO MAIA: I had been looking to do something in a race car since the Barber Dodge ended a year ago in August, so just the fact that I'm driving a car was a great thing. I knew I was going to drive a car and that was a great feeling. Came really last second, so, you know it's never good to do it that way because you need a proper amount of testing to really do well and get to know your team, but fortunately for me, Brian Stewart is just incredible. They always put a good car under me and the guys are really fun to work with, great to work with. Everyone there is really good at what they do and they have just made it easier for me. We don't have the 700 horsepower that the Indy cars have and we have a pretty good amount of downforce. The track was pretty easy for me. Got to Phoenix, pretty much the hardest track on the schedule, that was really tough, and it just was a matter of getting comfortable and trying to push the limits and just lucky to walk away on the podium.

LEONARDO MAIA: Every lap I do, I feel more comfortable. We just tested at Indy a few days ago, and I really felt comfortable, everything was -- really, it starts to click. So after a while, you sort of get used to all of the little things on the car. You get used to what it does and how I react to certain things and how the wind plays an effect. Oval racing is pretty new to me, so I have to get used to two things at once. I'm going to tracks that I've never been to, oval racing, a new car, new team and these gays have done such a great job they made my life a lot easier.

LEONARDO MAIA: Man, that was really incredible. It was the first time I've driven at the International, and as soon as I knew I was going to race in the Infiniti Pro Series, that's definitely been what I've been looking forward to the whole time. And it definitely didn't disappoint me, my first lap at Indy, going into turn one, and you've got these long straightaways there, you have a lot of time to think. So all the way down, I'm thinking, "I can't believe I'm driving at Indy, I can't believe I'm driving at Indy." We were going about 190 miles an hour into turn one, and for us, it was flat, so you go into turn one as 190 you've got to turn, all you see in front of you is a concrete wall. So, I mean, really intimidating track. It took me a little bit to get used to it. So once I did good it was great, I can really focus on getting the car faster and faster.

LEONARDO MAIA: Yeah.

LEONARDO MAIA: It's been incredible. Brian is a real great guy, a real character, anybody who knows him knows what I'm talking about. He's got a bunch of stories that he tells every night at dinner and just a great guy to work with. He hired the right people. He's got the right team behind him. Hopefully I'll be able to really shown and show with a all of these guys on the team are capable of. I think we are definitely capable of winning races right now. We are definitely capable of winning at indicate and I to win every race, really. The team is excellent and hopefully we can deliver the results.

LEONARDO MAIA: Just staying calm and relaxed. I mean, oval racing, it's a little by new to me and he's got a lot of experience with that when he ran Indy Lites, and now that he's doing the Infiniti Pro Series, he's got quite a bit of experience with that and I'm still new to it. He's just helping me to get used to it and it's a different type of racing that I'm used to, so he's been on both sides. He's done road races and oval racing. So that's been extremely helpful to have someone who has done both, who has made the transition, same transition that I'm making right now and that's been pretty invaluable to me. Hopefully we'll keep learning and keep teaching me and we'll do good.

LEONARDO MAIA: I just pretty much ask for the best. I just try to do the best that I can. If that puts me in third place, if that puts me in first, if that puts me in tenth, again, that's all you can ask of yourself. I ask that from myself and I ask that from the team. The team, actually, you don't have to ask that at all, just have to deliver. The team is incredible. Everybody just does their job, nobody complains, nobody slacks off and everything gets done. It's just a great atmosphere.