CART MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 10, 2000

Townsend Bell

Casey Mears

TOWNSEND BELL: Thanks for having me.

CASEY MEARS: Thank you.

TOWNSEND BELL: I knew that we were aiming for the overall championship, maybe if we fell short, we could still win the rookie. So now we're in a situation where, you know, with only four points out of the lead going into the final race, we have already locked up the rookie deal, which is great. But there is certainly no reason why we can't be at the very top at the end of the season the way things stand right now.

TOWNSEND BELL: It has made all of the difference. I don't have a whole lot of worries, other than what I'm doing in the car. That's what I have to focus on. And having a team with so much experience provides just an excellent foundation for me to come in and just focus on driving. And having two experienced teammates also makes a difference. Jason obviously is a rookie in the series this year, but has got more experience than I do coming into this year. And Casey has obviously been in the series for a while and was a huge help in sort of explaining the car and what it likes and just helping me with a lot of the little things that you typically have to learn your first time in a series and that has helped me get up to speed.

TOWNSEND BELL: I leave I guess tomorrow night for Australia. I get there Friday, I think at about noon to surfers and I leave Monday at 6:00 AM. Just a quick visit. And make sure I'm still circulating around and in front of all of the CART owners and also, to support Jason and maybe have a little bit of vacation at the same time. Although two days isn't much of a break.

TOWNSEND BELL: Really, I know several drivers that have had good sponsors that wanted to drive for Dorricott and really the most important thing is that Bob Dorricott, Sr., The team owner, was just looking for guys that were capable of going out and winning races and contending for the championship, and I think I was able to demonstrate that I had -- while I didn't have as much experience as some of the other guys I was competing with for the seed, I was able to show that I was pretty quick in the car the first time out. And also, I'm really hungry to win races and win championships, and I think I was able to convince him of that when we tried out for the ride. There was, I don't know, probably eight or ten guys that were all competing with me for that opportunity, and so I think the most important thing is demonstrating in Barber Dodge that I was quick and capable, and then when I got the opportunity to test with the team, doing the same sort of thing.

CASEY MEARS: Well, to be honest, the end of the season hasn't really come to my mind until the last couple races now. I think going into the season, I expected to have a couple better races than I did. But all in all, it has been a great season. Obviously we are at the top of the championship again and to be here is a big deal. I'm glad to see that Townsend the first year out has gotten up to speed so quickly, and, you know, it has just been a good year so far. Trying to predict what we were going to do a couple races ago or how Dixon was going to finish was not really in my mindset as much as putting the race together myself. It's finally good to get that win, which is going to be a huge help on my end as far as moving up, and, you know, I'm just happy to be where I am right now. And obviously like Townsend feel like we have a good shot at winning that championship and that's what we're going to go do.

CASEY MEARS: It's been huge. It's made all the difference in the world. Obviously, Bob Dorricott, runs a first-class operation, and gives us all the right stuff to go fast. And the first couple years, struggling with Team Mears, that's exactly what it was; it was a struggle. We didn't have the engineers, we didn't test, and it showed on the track. We ran toward the back. And you know, stepping in last year and getting on Dorricott Racing was a really big deal, and right away, I started doing really well on races and did very well in the championship.

CASEY MEARS: It's kind of funny. We did well on the ovals, but it's funny because my background is mostly road racing, and as far as asphalt curves go, I spent a lot of time at Laguna Seca. And it has been fun this year because this year and last year, I've had cars that have worked well enough that -- on the road courses that it has allowed me to perform like I knew I always could and the results are starting to come in now.

CASEY MEARS: The cars, a lot of what you do is in the cars -- there's a lot that's really similar, but I think the biggest advantage, if any, was just the fact that I was in a car that was going faster. So everything slowed down a bit when you get back in the Lights car, and, you know, you feel like you're on top of your game a little bit more. But it is a car that you have to drive a little bit differently when -- once you get in the Lights car, you realize you're in the Lights car and you have to start applying the techniques you have learned towards that car. But, if anything, yeah, definitely it is obviously good to get seat time in something that is a little bit faster. And you know, things worked really well. Thanks a lot to Jason Bright, actually, and Gerald, for testing the week before the race. And actually we found a lot of gains. We used their setup and Townsend and I ran up front and Jason just ran into bad luck.

CASEY MEARS: Well, obviously, I'd like to be in the chap car. I'm not thinking about -- too much where Jason is at this time. But I've got to tell you that, you know, he -- as far as Townsend and I being up in the championship, Jason would be there as well he just ran into a string of bad luck. He is extremely talented and obviously deserves a shot to be in a champ car, and I'm glad to see him get that opportunity.

TOWNSEND BELL: I don't know, he didn't offer me a room to stay.

TOWNSEND BELL: I'll be at the Versace Hotel, I guess, the promoters down there hooked me up. Supposed to be a pretty nice place. I can't say that I wear his clothes, but I can wear the sheets for a night.

CASEY MEARS: Yes.

CASEY MEARS: It was different than anything I've been involved in before. One of those deals where you're in the pits and all of the drivers are there standing in front of the car and when you leave the pits, they all go out to the corners. When I came into the pits, you know, it bothered me a little bit because I wanted a little one-on-one time with the engineers and all that, but once you get out on the track, you just do your thing and it didn't really bother me that much.

CASEY MEARS: A bit. It was really competitive deal. Everybody was very friendly, but there wasn't a whole lot of talking and things going on between the drivers.

CASEY MEARS: After we did the test, he said it would be a couple weeks after. So I'm sure that some time after -- sometime after Surfer's, they will give us the final answer. From what I hear, everybody was very close. They are happy with everybody. It is hard to say, you know, how the cards are going to fall.

CASEY MEARS: There's some talk at the moment. It's getting very last-minute. It's hard to say exactly what is going to happen. As of right now, it's just great to get the opportunity to test with Bobby. And he lived up to his word; told me that he would put me in the seat some time about mid-season, and he did, and I got some very valuable experience. If something could come together, that would be great, but right now, it's just great to get that opportunity to test.

CASEY MEARS: It's okay where it is right now. It would be nicer if it had more. You know, you've got to consider, not only the step from Indy Lights to champ car, but you've got to consider the steps from, you know, Dodge or Atlantic to Lights. There's quite a horsepower difference there, too, and if you start making too big, then it is going to be a really big step for those guys as well. I definitely think that they could handle more horsepower. It's all a matter of adapting and getting used to what you're driving. Jumping from the Lights car to the champ car, obviously, a lot of horsepower, and in a way it is just better. And once you get accustomed to the speed, accustomed to the power, it's just a better car to drive.

TOWNSEND BELL: I think horsepower is just one of the issues. I think there's a whole other host of technical upgrades that could be made to make the cars a little bit more similar to a champ car. And yeah, it would be nice to have more power, but there's other things like the gear box. It's still a conventional H-banner gear box and it could be sequential, no cockpit, adjustable bars right now. There's things like third spring and some other more sophisticated parts to the suspension that could be brought more into the -- sort of the current element. So I think there's sort of a wish list or an informal sort of survey of a lot of the engineers and people in the series to try to get everybody's input to see what everybody thinks might be the way to go, and more power would be nice, but like I said there's other parts of the car that I think need to be considered, as well.

MODERATOR: Just to give a little bit of background on Mark's question, we will end the current package that includes (inaudible) as well as our third generation Lola chassis. That will come to an end at end of the 2001 season, and presently, job one for Roger Bailey, our president is working on the package that will debut 2002. Let's shift gears.

CASEY MEARS: Well, obviously it is a big honor to be put in the same category as a guy like Greg Moore. He was a great person. Obviously an accomplished driver. You know, it feels good to be put in that same category and I hope that -- I hope that all of us that were nominated can take something from what Greg Moore has done with his short champ car career and learn from it and try to carry some of what Greg has brought into champ cars and carry it on.

TOWNSEND BELL: As far as it goes for me, I never met Greg and didn't know a whole lot about him other than what I saw at the track, which I thought was pretty impressive. I certainly remember 1998 at Homestead in qualifying, I think he was last to go. He was probably quickest in practice or something. There was three or four cars before him that were all on like (inaudible) Greg went out at three or three and a half miles an hour faster on his qualifying lap right up to the wall and just really, really special. For me, that's a big honor, just based on my -- witnessing his driving ability on the track, and just to be mentioned with his name in the same sentence is quite an honor. So I'm looking forward to being there for celebrating that.

CASEY MEARS: For me personally, I really enjoy them. It puts us in a tight bunch, which can get a little chaotic sometimes, but at the same time being forced to be around a bunch like that, it forces you to learn about the draft. And I have learned so much over the past couple years now getting an opportunity to run in some of these big races. And although you won't be able to run in the draft in a champ car like you do in the Lights car, it gives you a lot of firsthand experience on what to expect, you know, and I really enjoy them. It is kind of a crapshoot at the end of race, but it is really a mental game, to get up to the front and stay up front.

TOWNSEND BELL: For me, it was the first time on a Super Speedway in Michigan, and you can talk to a lot of people, and I sure did, trying to get advice and input on how the race might play out. I talked to Casey a lot about that, but it didn't -- it didn't quite prepare me for the experience of running around with 18 cars, all that close together. And in the end we ended up finishing fourth. I had contact, I think three or four times with other cars during the race, which is pretty interesting. But now it's nice having that experience under my belt going into the last race, especially, with a chance to win the championship. It certainly is enjoyable. It is I guess a little frustrating for me in the sense that -- and for a lot of the other drivers, that you don't really feel like you have the ability to pull away from the pack. In fact, you just can't. So it is a lot more about tactic and strategy than it is about just car control and driving talent, per se. So there's a lot more tactic and strategy involved, which still makes it very challenging, and you really have to focus, especially running that close together. But it is a totally different type of challenge from, say, a short oval or a road or street surface.

TOWNSEND BELL: Actually, I signed a three-year contract yesterday to drive the Gravedigger -- no. I'm just kidding. No, I'm certainly very anxious to get to CART as soon as possible. You know, there's so much movement right now that -- with the way things are going for me this year, I've put myself in the hopper, if you will, for all of the drivers competing for a ride and an opportunity, and we'll just have to see what shakes out. I've certainly been talking to everybody, and I'd like to get a test here shortly and we'll see if that happens. But more importantly, I'd like to be running 22 races next year in CART and winning the championship would certainly help that. However, I think Casey would agree that through the first 11 races of the season and Indy Lights, that is sort of what the CART owners have to judge us by, because Fontana, anything can happen. And it is more of a crapshoot or lottery, if you will. So I think if we win the championship, great, we're certainly planning on giving it our best. But right now, they have got these first 11 races to judge us on, and we'll see what happens.

CASEY MEARS: I don't think it will affect it that much at all. Really, like we were talking about earlier, Fontana is a pretty easy flat. You are wide open, like the second lap out of the box. We have a setup that we have not changed much there over the last couple of years. I think I'm going to be able to suffer a little bit of the Lights practice time so that I can focus more on the champ car. I'm obviously going to need more seat time in the champ car, or as most as possible. As far as the race goes, I don't think it is going to be just like any other race that I've ever had on a Super Speedway. I'm just going to focus on getting to the front, and I don't think it will have too much bearing on how the result turns out in the Lights race.

TOWNSEND BELL: If you end up running; right?

CASEY MEARS: Yeah, that's if I end up running.

TOWNSEND BELL: Frankly, it is just not -- there's not a whole lot that you can plan to do. Like I said there's so many things that are out of your control, and really, I feel like there's the least amount of pressure on me of the three of us going into that race. Obviously, Scott and his team have done such a great job. And like Adam had said at the beginning, a lot of people just assumed that he was going to score a few more points and just automatically lock up the championship. And I think me and my guys and Casey and his guys just had a sort of never-say-die attitude. And here we are now where anybody can win and the three of us going into the last race. So I think there is a lot of pressure on Scott to finish, and get points and win because he was certainly the clear-cut favorite a few races ago. And Casey has been in the series for a few years now, and I don't think he's planning on coming back to Indy Lights next year, and I know he'd like to leave on top. For me, it is my first year, and I'm just out there trying to get to the front like everybody else, but it is your first year, so there is less expectations there. And that certainly doesn't mean I'm going to be trying any less, but I just don't feel a lot of pressure. Everybody, my sponsors, friends, family, fans have been really supportive, and I don't think that changes at all going into Fontana. I'm just looking to have a good time and be there at the end.

TOWNSEND BELL: We have been sharing information all year long, and I actually haven't seen the setups just yet that my engineer -- that we're going to start with and what Casey is going to start with. I think they will probably be pretty close but I don't know yet. But, if -- if at some point during the weekend if we want to start opening up somebody else's notebook, Casey's or Jason's and look at what they are doing, that's sort of been the policy all year long, and we have certainly done plenty of that. I don't expect that to change.

CASEY MEARS: Not really. Because for us it's a race weekend just like any other weekend. We are not watching it on TV. It's just a race weekend. Obviously being on the pole, I was very excited, and I was wanting to win my first race. So I was trying very hard. It was unfortunate there that we miscalculated on the fuel load and the car was bottoming out a little too much early on and I couldn't get in underbraking going into 2; that's where Scott ended up getting by me. All in all it was a good weekend. Obviously, awesome that it was our first live televised event. And if Indy Lights and CART keep putting together those packages for Lights, it will start getting the exposure that it deserves.

CASEY MEARS: No. I really didn't have to. I heard from a lot of the guys and obviously some of the accomplished 3000 guys -- I knew Buddy, I know him really well. So I didn't have to do any investigating on how they were. And to be honest, that doesn't on enter my mind about who they are or where they come from. I just go there and try to do the best that I can and try to put the numbers on the board and get some results and make you guys happy and that's what I did.

CASEY MEARS: No, there isn't.

TOWNSEND BELL: You'll have to ask Casey.

CASEY MEARS: There's no hidden secrets under that comment, unfortunately. Right now at the moment, you know, I've been in Lights a few years now and I've had my few good opportunities, as far as seasons go and I'm looking to move on. And I'm talking to all of the CART guys, talking to NASCAR guys, IRL guys, I just want to do move on and do something different. Obviously, Indy Lights has been great to me, and I've had a lot of fun here and learned a lot and I think I've accomplished quite a bit, and I'm just looking to move on. And getting these CART tests and opportunity are great. Hopefully that keeps coming long and you'll see me in CART next year.

CASEY MEARS: It is hard to say. My confidence level is up there because obviously I feel like I can move up and move on. There's a lot of things that are going to have to fall in place to make anything happen whether its IRL NASCAR, CART. There's a lot of work involved. You can never say for sure what's going to happen. But things have gone well. I've got to get -- I've got a good record behind me now and I'm going to take what I've got and try to move on.

CASEY MEARS: I believe so. To be honest, I haven't really thought too much into that. Obviously, Indy Lights has some good reasons behind it. Maybe it is one step closer to getting CART and IRL together. If they blend the two, maybe something good can come out of it. There's a lot of confusion right now in the general public's eye between CART and IRL. CART is starting to get very established in its own right. And CART is already established -- it is hard to say. Obviously, going to some different venues will be nice for Indy Lights. It will be fun, I'm sure. I'm not sure of all of the reasons behind it, but I'm sure there will be good races.

TOWNSEND BELL: I've been trying to come up with an answer while Casey was talking. I still didn't have one. I was a little surprised when they announced that, but -- I don't know if they have announced that. I don't know where that stands. Did they announce that?

TOWNSEND BELL: I was a little surprised when I heard about that, but, you know, these are race cars and those are racetracks; so we go where they tell us. I certainly -- my goal is to get into CART, and I like the fact that this year, all 12 of my races have been in front of the champ car community, as that is where my primary focus is. I don't know that I was thrilled about that, but it is just one of those things, and if I need to go and win a race in front of the IRL crowd to win an Indy Lights championship, that's what you've got to do.

CASEY MEARS: Shortly after Australia. Once they get through Australia and see how things work out, then we'll know what's going to happen for sure.

CASEY MEARS: Exactly.

CASEY MEARS: Yeah. You're getting ready to run in a champ car events, you need to know exactly what's going to happen and what times and when. You know, obviously, waiting until after Australia, it is already three months late, for me. You know, to get an opportunity like that, you have to take it while you can and that's going to be the deadline.

CASEY MEARS: Right now, things are so vague on exactly what's going to happen that I'd actually rather not comment on it right now. We'll know more after Australia. Everything will be out then.

CASEY MEARS: That's kind of a tough question. Obviously Indy Lights is Indy Lights. It's been Indy Lights for quite a few years now. It has got a name actually established in its own right that it is producing, you know, great champ car racers. And if you look at half of the field right now, most of the guys that are in champ cars have come out of Indy Lights and done very well. You know, I know what you're saying; that people do know 3000. It's a little bit different because Formula 1 guys don't consider Lights like we consider 3000, where champ car drivers will look at a 3000 guy or a Lights guy and they both come over and have done equally as good. You know, I think it's more of a reputation. It's more overrated in Europe; that the Lights doesn't carry much weight, but I think here in the States, it carries quite a bit.

TOWNSEND BELL: I don't think changing the name of the series makes the drivers any better or worse, but I recognize that that's an issue. It certainly bothers me at times when you read stuff about how F3000 or British F3 is sort of the end all, be all of driver development, when that is just absolutely not the case. And there's a rather long list of guys that have come out of some of those European championships as champions or as front-runners that have gone on to do poorly in CART. And so, you know, Juan Montoya has certainly upped the status of F3000, I think, a lot. Kenny Breck came from there. Like I said, people tend to want to forget a lot of the guys that have not done well that did excel in those series. And I think as far as Indy Lights goes, if you look at some of the guys in CART right now that came up through our series, it speaks pretty well for the level of competition that Lights produces. Tracy, Herta, Hernandez, all of these guys are front-running champ car drivers, and they are sought after. Somehow, that seems to get lost in the mix every now and then. But I think that everybody should really survey all of the results and statistics before you can pass such a quick judgment.