CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

June 29, 1999

Roberto Moreno

T.E. McHALE: Good afternoon to everybody. Welcome to the CART Media Teleconference. We'd like to take this time to thank you all for being with us this afternoon. Our guest today is driver Roberto Moreno of the PacWest Racing Group who has turned in an outstanding performance while filling in for the injured Mark Blundell in the Motorola PacWest Mercedes. Good afternoon, Roberto, thanks for joining us today.

ROBERTO MORENO: Good afternoon.

ROBERTO MORENO: How are you? (laughs).

ROBERTO MORENO: Well, the way I would put it is I always chasing the right opportunity and not very often I got them. I have done anything that took to keep racing and that is why you see me with some bad equipment, and not performing so well in many cases. But I always push hard and always wanted to be involved and, if anything, I have taken some of the smaller teams in the past up in performance level. I have done that in Formula 1 a couple of times; in 3000, and I had to do that because I always have somehow missed the best packages at the beginning of the year. So I had to go into situations that were not very well funded and make the most of it. If you look back at my career I always been doing that.

ROBERTO MORENO: No, we haven't talked about that at all. Bruce is a great guy. He is an honorable man. He couldn't just in the middle of the season justify, in my opinion, suddenly just putting a third car in. You need to hire people. You need to do all sort of things. You couldn't just test team to become a race team suddenly because the test team needs to continue as a test team. I don't know. As much as I wish that would happen, I don't think it is real.

ROBERTO MORENO: They will have to continue with that two drivers testing really because all the new stuff that comes, they get, you know, to know first -- it is not right for me to come in -- if it was extra, let us say, if their two drivers are doing testing and they have a third car for extra testing, that is something. But like they testing today Mauricio is testing which is the right thing to do.

ROBERTO MORENO: I appreciate the way you looking and as much as I would like to continue racing, fighting for the Championship, I think I have to throw the towel on this one. (laughs).

ROBERTO MORENO: Thank you.

ROBERTO MORENO: Yeah, that is what -- you mean for this year?

ROBERTO MORENO: Well, no, it is just what I was saying, we have not talked about this and as much as I would love to be racing, I don't think that is a possibility at this point.

ROBERTO MORENO: No, I am based in the United States now. I am base based in Western Florida which used to be called Ft. Lauderdale; now it became its own city. I have asked for my green card. I have no intentions to go back to Europe anymore. If I do go, it would be to do a one-off or two races, sort of thing, because the main thing in my career is to continue driving in whatever situation that is available for me to do. Hopefully I can race a full-time ride for next year in CART which is my ultimate goal.

ROBERTO MORENO: Let me correct you on that as well. Although, in Italy, Pupo sounds like a small guy, it is my mother's family name. In Brazil a person is given the last name as father's family name which is Moreno. The middle name of the person becomes the mother family's name which is Pupo. They give you a name, which is Roberto. So my full-time is Roberto, Pupo Moreno. In Europe -- in Brazil, it was developed as Pupo Moreno. Like if I say to somebody in Brazil, I am Moreno, nobody knows, but if I say I am Pupo-Moreno everybody knows. So I started to use this name in Europe which got -- everybody got used to it very well. When I came to the United States I was a advised by the I first team I drove in 1996 that I shouldn't use Pupo because it sounds like a kid's pupo (phonetic). So we stopped using that here. But some people still carrying it on. Which I don't mind at all because it is my real name.

ROBERTO MORENO: Thank you.

ROBERTO MORENO: Now, you touch a good point. I think it is just because I have done this for so many years, I have been around for 20 years since my first race in England. I have worked with English engineers for maybe ten or twelve years of my life. I have worked with all kinds of engineers. In PacWest I got along very well with Allen McDonald and Matt who are my engineers. Allen knows me from Europe. He is from England. We just hit straight from the first day. We -- actually the first time we had a sort of a debate on things, I believe that should be done and he believed should be done and from there on we just sort of agreed to many things. It has just has been - how can I put this - it has been like a marriage sort of thing. We look to each other, we know -- he knows by my eyes's look if I like what he wants to do in the car or not. Then he will suggest the next thing or not. That relationship is the key factor for our performance. I think the things that we have learned together now on those five races and things we developed in the car, it is going to help the team throughout the season.

ROBERTO MORENO: Not really. The way I drive -- when I drive a race car I am very, very professional. Racing is the first thing in my life, if my family are fit and healthy, and they all know this at home and if you look careful, I haven't taken my family to the races. I dedicated myself a lot because I knew it was very -- it would be a lot of -- it would be necessary to focus a lot and do my best because performance would be a key factor for me to help my career on the future because I knew that this opportunity would help me to open doors for the future. I needed to make the most of this. So it has been a lot of pressure and -- but nothing different than, you know, I have been suffering for 20 years in racing. It is just normal for a race car driver -- if we can't take pressure, we are no good. But it has been extremely good for my career. I was talking to Bruce after the race and I was thanking him because the opportunity he gave me, he opened the doors again for me for the future.

ROBERTO MORENO: Well, I had many good rides and the way I did, I always made the most out of them and I was champion a few occasions and I always was in the Top 3 at the end of the season. It has been frustrating many times when -- you know, you can go and be with the best performance with the best not being able to, yes. But I have handled that in a positive way, as I always do, with things in my life. I just take the positive things out of each situation and go on for the next one. It is not that I always been a superstar like they are calling me now. But because the situation replacing Christian in 1997 and Newman Haas and now with Mark, I got that name. What I really been chasing since I moved to the United States in 1996 is a full-time ride on a competitive team.

ROBERTO MORENO: No. I am not going to be testing for PacWest. I am complete available at the moment. PacWest will continue testing with their two drivers, Mauricio and Mark. Only if Mark is doing an exam today and the result of that exam will allow him to race in Elkhart Lake and in the case that he cannot make, I will still be replacing him there. But I believe he is fully fit by what I have seen of him in the last race. I had a contact for one team, but they wanted to -- this to happen a couple of races ago and I told them as long as Mark was not back, I was going to be available for PacWest. So I missed that opportunity. I am still looking for something to do. If there is nothing in CART - which I don't think there is - I will do separate races in other categories and I will work on next year which is not yet clear what is going to be happening.

ROBERTO MORENO: Well, anything that I can drive, I will try to do because a driver, his place is behind a wheel and you need to be performing to be sharp. So IRL has helped me to develop a little bit more my techniques on the ovals, which helped my performance at CART as well in St. Louis and Milwaukee. So racing is necessary for a driver to keep sharp. I will try to do -- I don't have anything lined up yet. I just came home after a long time and I am going to be working on that very soon.

ROBERTO MORENO: And I hope you see a lot of me yet. Thank you.

ROBERTO MORENO: I am quite comfortable with that because we actually have been testing there last Tuesday, I spent a day at Elkhart Lake testing. Mark was supposed to go. He wasn't fit yet, so did a day and Mauricio did a day. We went quite well there. I don't know if -- you know -- but Elkhart Lake has been my -- I raced in Elkhart Lake in 1985, when I came to do five races for Gallus Racing. And it was my second race here in the United States in CART. I started third, led the race by a long -- for a long time until I had some mechanical problems on the pit stops. So it is a racetrack that I love. What I would add to what the other drivers would say, you have different kind of corners in one circuit. It is a mixture of slow, medium and fast corners, and in a permanent circuit which reminds me of a racetrack that I love in Belgium which is a very, very challenging circuit. I am well prepared for this race to answer your question. If Mark still needs to be another race out, I will be there. But he looked fit to me. So I think he will pass this exam today and he will be racing.

ROBERTO MORENO: I appreciate it. By the way, if I am not racing on the CART race, I will be racing on Friday night in a go-cart race with the Pace Car Girls.

ROBERTO MORENO: Well, it doesn't work that way. When I came here in 1996 I had a sponsorship from Brazil, raced for the year. Then things didn't go very well for the following year; we tried to do the season but after the first race the relationship was broken. I was out of a ride. That was already too late to do a deal with any other team. As it happened, it worked for my benefit because Christian got hurt the next race and people realized I wasn't there, so I was the first name to come into the picture. That allowed me to drive with one of the top teams at the time and to show some performance for, I believe, it was six races. Christian came back and halfway in the season you can't get a ride, so towards the end of the year, so I continue chasing always and in 1998 I missed the boat unfortunately, the availabilities that were out there for me, I would have to bring a sponsorship and I didn't have any to do for 1998. So I did a couple of races with a small team that stopped racing after three races. I happen to come to Milwaukee to watch the Milwaukee race and Christian Fittipaldi crashed and wasn't going to race that weekends so Carl has put me in the car the last minute and since then I have been testing for Penske after that. So I always kept myself busy and yes, I did miss the opportunity this year again in the top team or in a full-time ride; I can't answer the question why, but I always kept my positive attitude and I always made sure I was available and people knew that if they ever need me, I would be ready for them and things happen again.

ROBERTO MORENO: Oh, well, it has been an experience, I must say, because I got to taste a low budget team; a team with all the budget; a team that had some difficult in other areas, so I tested different cars as well, which is -- puts me in a unique situation because I have tested the Lola, the Penske, the Reynard, and the Swift. So I got to taste all of them and I know the advantage and their weakness. I have been able to put all this into my benefit on this break on the past five races. So it has only been good for me really because what has opened some peoples' eyes the fact that I came in as very short time perform and make points in every race. I can only say I made most of that use, although it is always difficult to come, you know, from one team to another team, and different cars and takes different setups. So I have been able to learn a bit of everything and apply to it in the past five races.

ROBERTO MORENO: Me too.

ROBERTO MORENO: Me too. It hasn't come to me yet. I guess when I go and watch the next race I will get my feelings out, but at the moment, I am still very, very pleased that I have been the one choosing for the situation, if somebody had to replace a driver, you know. So I was very, very fortunate that Bruce McCauley thought about me and I tell you, I am very, very glad and I told Bruce any time, anything I can do for him in the future, I will be there for him.

ROBERTO MORENO: No, unfortunately can't happen, and I am sure he is going to take full use of the setups and things that we have developed together and I am sure Mark will bring -- will follow-up what the Motorola PacWest Team has been done for making points and I am sure is he going to bring the car up front very, very soon.

ROBERTO MORENO: Dedication; focus in anything in life is very important. I think that is the key thing to me. If I do something, I do it fully and I dedicate it fully. If you do that, anything that you do in life, you will be successful no matter what kind of business you are. I think that is the only thing I could probably pass along really.

ROBERTO MORENO: You like to talk about the two, don't you? I need to be neutral on it, I am just a race car driver.

ROBERTO MORENO: I tell you they are both great series. I have enjoyed both of them. I wish -- now what I see, there is more opportunities for more drivers. I would love to see everybody, though, racing at the Indy 500 together. But what this has created, in my opinion, is more opportunities. At the beginning of the year, when I didn't have anything, I was able to put together a deal and I raced the IndyCar 500 and I had a shot of winning at that. I just wish everybody could have the opportunity -- I mean, the rules could meet together for the Indy 500 so everybody can have a shot at it. But I love both categories. I think they both are great. If I have an opportunity I will be racing again in either one.

ROBERTO MORENO: I think the feeling of the turbo charge and the non-turbo charge. The IRL has no turbo and therefore it is about momentum, keeping the momentum up, meaning just try not to let the rest of -- come down. And CART is about how you put the power that you have on the ground really. So it is about making the most of the setups that you can use the power downforce relationship which is you got less downforce for more power in some cases in the ovals because the winning setups that they use in CART. And the winning setups that you are obliged to use in IRL gives the driver a lot of confidence in driving. I went to Atlanta, for example - I have never been there before - and I tested the IRL car and in eight laps I was going flat all the way because we use a lot of downforce and the engine doesn't have that suddenly power curve so it was -- the circuit is so fast, so it was quite easy to go around flat. Again, I think they both have its benefits.

ROBERTO MORENO: Thank you very much. And me too, and I wish I could be there the next race. But whatever happens I had a good time and I am sure I am going to be back at some stage.

ROBERTO MORENO: Thank you, take care.