CHAMP CAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 21, 2005

Katherine Legge

Bob Singlenton

Paul Tracy

BOB SINGLETON: Thank you for having me, Eric.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Thank you

KATHERINE LEGGE: Yeah, I really haven't had too much time to think about it because I'm actually here in Infineon. I'm doing some work for Yokohama. I wish I was testing, but I'm actually working, earning some money so I can continue to live over here. Basically it was a fantastic weekend. You know, we had a really good car from the start, so it was just a matter of tweaking little bits here and there. You know, I really like the track. It's been a change of attitude for me, for sure, because after Long Beach and especially after Monterrey, Mexico, I kind of just got a bit down and a bit frustrated and didn't realize, you know, why I wasn't at the top of every time sheet. I know that sounds arrogant or it might sound arrogant, but it's really not. It's just my lack of experience. I just didn't know what I was doing wrong. And it really is just all in my head. I know I have the talent. It's just trying to find strategies, you know, to get everything going in the right direction again. And it really started in Toronto. We were doing really well in Toronto until I got black-flagged for blocking. So hopefully, fingers crossed, I'm touching wood here as I speak, we've got it sorted and we should have a good finish to the season.

KATHERINE LEGGE: I mean really, I'm not looking at the championship any more because we've had a couple of DNFs, unfortunately. Really it's been kind an up-and-down season for me. I'm just trying to gain experience. All I'm trying to do is take each race as it comes, learn the circuits because I'm going to be racing on them next year, and just really try and focus on consistency rather than outright wins or anything like that. I mean, obviously that's the goal. But really I just have to become more consistent. You know, work on the setup of the car, work on gaining the experience that I need to become a better driver, because at the moment it's just really up and down.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Thank you.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I'm looking forward to the second half of the season. Obviously, you know, we get back to some traditional street tracks. Montreal is another track that is a permanent facility that isn't used. So it's more like a road course. You know, the season's gone well. My qualifying average I think is the best in my career. I've only started one race in fifth, and the rest have been in the top three. So that's been exciting. And the team is doing a good job. We just had a couple of bad luck breaks come our way, and that's really hurt us in the points. We're sitting second now, I think 20 or 21 out. We've just got to continue to keep trying to finish on the podium.

PAUL TRACY: Well, obviously the series is building momentum. They've taken on new venues. With the Edmonton course, I mean, it took the guy a couple years to convince Champ Car to give him a shot. I mean, obviously they've done a great job there, a perfect job. It was just an incredible event for me because the amount of fan support that I had and the crowds around my truck and my pit, you know, looking through the grandstand, you could see there was a sea of blue shirts, Indeck, Forsythe shirts and hats. That was pretty cool. I'm excited about San Jose. Obviously I've worked very closely with Bob over the years in Toronto. He's made that a marquee event in Toronto. I have some friends who live in the Bay Area, and they said the promotion is all over the place, they're hearing it on the news, hearing about it on the radio. Looks like it's going to be a big success for San Jose.

BOB SINGLETON: Well, you know, Eric, you'd always like to have 12 months to build a race, and we've had nine here, which is fine. I mean, you make that happen. We've had fun doing it. We're coming down the homestretch. Quite frankly, the staff's been great. We're excited. The city's been great. We're looking forward to welcoming you guys to this city.

BOB SINGLETON: Sure. I mean, it's going along swimmingly now. Our grandstands are over 50% up. The guys are working ready. The suites are going up. We have about 50% to 60% of the track block down, the fence coming in behind it tomorrow. So everything is on track to be finished middle of next week so we can dot the I's and cross the T's and go racing.

BOB SINGLETON: No, I'm not surprised. I mean, Canada certainly gets and likes Champ Car, has been exposed to Champ Car for 20 years with Toronto. Edmonton is a debt-free province so obviously there are a lot of people out there that follow their events. Look at the Calgary Stampede. They support it. So I wasn't surprised at all. You bring Champ Car to town, and the Edmonton people support it. I think it's fantastic. It's good for Champ Car. Congratulations to the guys in Edmonton.

PAUL TRACY: Well, obviously first would be better. You know, we've just got to work towards that and have some good luck. But, I mean, you know, we're at the halfway point. So much has happened in the first half that it should be an exciting second half.

PAUL TRACY: I guess really the same kind of challenges leading into Edmonton. Obviously, you have a new venue that nobody's seen. You don't know what the surface is. You don't know what the texture of the surface is. You look at it on a map and it's really hard to get a read of what it actually is. I think a lot of people came to Edmonton and were a little bit caught off guard. We expected the track to be fast and challenging, but it was ultrafast and challenging. Just got to expect -- you know, you never know what to expect. With the limited practice time that we have, hopefully we make the right decisions on setup and come off the truck with a good car.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I mean, I don't really know what -- how you mean it was a NASCAR crowd. I mean, looking at the crowd, it was definitely a blue-collar crowd. I mean, the guys were rugged guys, oil-field guys, you know, hard-working people. You could see that in the people there. Obviously, the weather is terrible there during the winter. So it's a little bit of a rough life there compared to living in the south, in the States, where you have nice weather. When they have the opportunity to come out to see a Champ Car event, I mean, they're going to fully support it because there's just really not that much there to do. They don't have a lot of sports there. They have the hockey, with the Oilers, and the CFL team with the Eskimos. Really hockey hasn't been playing. We had tremendous fan support, which was great.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I think they are going to stick around. Obviously, the people in that area have never been exposed to Champ Cars. I would probably say a large majority of the people, it was their first event. I think once you've come and seen one of our events, it was a great race, no doubt about it. It was a great race, a fast track, you could see the whole track. Once you've been once, you're a fan. I don't think anybody left there saying, "I'll never come back again."

KATHERINE LEGGE: Well, I mean, my short-term goals for the rest of the season are, like I said before, just to be consistent and to get a few more wins and just to learn as much as I can. Everybody seems to be under the impression that I'm going to Champ Car next year, and it's really not the case. I'm not going to get there just because I'm a girl. I have to get there because I'm a really good driver. At the moment, I don't have the experience and the talent to get me there. When I get there, I don't want to be driving around at the back learning for another year. I'd rather do another year in Atlantics, really win a championship before going into that, if I do, indeed, get the opportunity. It's not written down that I definitely will. I mean, hopefully I will because I honestly believe that it's the best form of open-wheel racing in the United States for sure, and one of the best in the world. But I really feel like I'm learning a lot right now in Atlantics. I don't want to run before I can walk.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I mean, it really comes down to how her team feels. Obviously, Katherine's doing a good job this year. She won her first race. I watched the race that she had on Sunday. It was a very exciting race. She was trying and trying, being very aggressive. But it's really the team's decision, whether they feel she's ready. Obviously, she's saying she doesn't feel she's ready yet, so I guess to stay another year and learn all the tracks really well and understand the system and be winning consistently week in, week out, that will probably help.

KATHERINE LEGGE: No, absolutely not. I mean, everything's still really up in the air. If I won every race from now till the end of the year, who knows what would happen. I really can't say right now. I need to find some sponsors, which I'm not having much luck at at the moment. I really don't know. I really can't answer what I'm going to be doing yet because at the moment we're so focused on getting this year out of the way, that until we get to Montreal at the end of the year and we think about what we're going to do next year. I mean, I'm hoping if I do Atlantics again next year, I can do a lot of pre-season testing because we're not sure what's happening with the cars and different engines and things. We're not sure whether they're going to bring it in with the Champ Car changes, which are due in 2007. It seems to be an awkward time to be moving around right now.

KATHERINE LEGGE: It's really not affecting me at all, you know, apart from the press trying to make it into something that it's really not, it's having no effect. You know, Danica is just going down a completely different route to the route I'm going down. I think she's a really good driver and I really genuinely wish her well. If we were in the same series, I could understand the deal that's being made out of it, but we're really not. I think the most important thing is we want to be seen as drivers. We're not terribly keen on being seen as female drivers. Obviously, we wouldn't change the fact that we're female, but I think the most important thing to us is that we're seen as competitive.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I think it really just comes down to just beating him. I mean, you know, in just about every race this year we've been ahead of him at some point of the race. With two races that we didn't finish in Mexico and Toronto, I mean, in both instances when we had our problems, we were leading the race. If we had capitalized on that day, whether it would be in Toronto or Mexico, you're looking at 50 to 60 points right there that we lost, compared to he's finished every race in the top five, and I finished every race on the podium but two. We've been in a winning situation at every race, so I guess we've just got to have some good luck and continue to run ahead of him and not have any problems.

KATHERINE LEGGE: My life at the moment, I pinch myself every day because I've just been given this fantastic opportunity and it's just really good to be here. Millions of people would kill to be in the position I'm in right now. I am just having fun with it. You know, I think I got a bit serious a while back and was probably too self-critical in a way. I've pulled myself out of that with a lot of help from the people who are surrounding me, who are really fantastic people. I mean, without them, I wouldn't be where I am right now. The team have just been phenomenal, they really have. You know, I'm getting to see America. I've never been to the States before. Coming over here, learning the accent so people actually understand what I'm saying (laughter). I'm just getting to travel around and race a car which is, you know, my ultimate dream and goal. It's just great for me.

KATHERINE LEGGE: No. The thing is when you say things in English like "water," they say, "I'm sorry, ma'am, we don't sell that here."

PAUL TRACY: Lino has been in America for 20 years and nobody can understand him (laughter).

BOB SINGLETON: No, the press room is on the inside of the racetrack, right in the convention center, not unlike it was in Vancouver. And quite frankly like it is with Toronto with the automotive building. No, you won't have a long way to go at all.

BOB SINGLETON: I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, so I moved it closer.

BOB SINGLETON: You're very welcome.

PAUL TRACY: Well, I am pretty happy at Forsythe. I haven't made any decisions on what I'm going to be doing in the future. My focus right now is obviously to win the championship. From there I'll just see in the next little while here, Gerry and I will sit down and talk about what our future is together, kind of go from there. I haven't really made any decisions on what I want to do yet.

PAUL TRACY: You know, I'm just concentrating right now on this. Obviously, I would like to race another season. I want to race whatever I can. If that's Champ Car, anything else, then that's what I want to do, is continue to keep racing.

BOB SINGLETON: Our sales are really starting to peak. We've got about five of our silver grandstands, although some are big, some are small, sold out. We still have some silver grandstands, not some gold. It's my guess being around here for 10, 12 years in the business we'll sell out all of the grandstands here in San Jose and have a huge general admission crowd. So we're excited and looking forward to a great weekend.

KATHERINE LEGGE: I think it's probably more competitive than I expected it to be in a way. Even though the strength and depth isn't there, there's probably six or seven really good drivers who would win or be up front in think championship they chose to do. We have Charles Zwolsman, who was on the podium a few times in European F-3. That's probably the strongest series in Europe. I don't think you can say anything about the standard of driving over here is any worse than anywhere else. I mean, I think it's really good. Obviously, we haven't got grids of 25, 30 excellent drivers, but we're working on it, and I really expect there will be. But we have six or seven really, really talented guys out there. It's just as tough to win over here as it is back home.

KATHERINE LEGGE: Yeah, you're right.

KATHERINE LEGGE: I mean, to be honest, I wasn't personally coping too well. It was really hard because I never have done a full season in anything before. I'm on about my 23rd car race, I think. I've never had the mentality of doing a season. I've always had one-off races here and there, bits and pieces. To be able to think in the long-term was a real struggle for me. But I think I was thinking about it wrong. Really, if you take care of each race at a time, then the championship takes care of itself. But I wasn't really -- I just didn't know which direction to think in, if you like. It was hard. I got some really good advice. I seem to be back on track. I was driving too consciously, like I was consciously trying to drive as fast as I could and it didn't work for me. You have to chill out, realize you haven't forgotten how to drive. For a minute back there, I was like, "Wow, have I forgotten how to drive? Am I really not very good?" You just have to have self-belief to go, "I'm going to go out there and drive like I've always driven." It kind of works for me that way.