TEAM RAHAL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 10, 1999

Kenny Brack

Bobby Rahal

BOBBY RAHAL: I'd just like to welcome everybody. As Tom, says it's probably been the worst-kept secret going. But nevertheless, it's now official. Rumors are no more than unsubstantiated facts; now it's all substantiated. But in any event, we're very pleased to have Kenny on board with us. I've been very impressed with his -- the way he's addressed everything and his attitude, and just certainly talks the talk. And as we discovered not too long ago down in Homestead, where we did a fairly quiet, private test for Kenny on the road circuit, things went very well there. We were very pleased with what we saw. I think Kenny was pleased as well. We just look forward to a great year in 2000 with Kenny aboard.

KENNY BRACK: Good afternoon, everyone. I still want to say I'm very pleased to be able to join a race-winning team and one of the best teams in the CART series. When I make this move, I'm looking forward to a great season next year and having the honor to meet some of the team members and Bobby and all of the people. I think it will be a very good home for me, and I think we're going to achieve big results together.

BOBBY RAHAL: Our view is -- and thanks for your wishes. Our view is that we certainly are going through the process of our due diligence, I guess, towards participating in the month of May at Indianapolis. It's not -- I wish actually doing it was as simple as that, saying that. There's a lot of factors at hand. Our partners, you know, their consideration, obviously, is key. And it's not as though it's an inexpensive proposition for us in CART to participate; it's cars, engines, everything else. Having said that, I think that open-wheel racing and the fans deserve -- deserve our doing everything we can to get back. So over the next the next several months, I suppose, we'll be -- I'll be talking with our partners and what have you to determine if we can go forward. It would certainly be my hope we could. Not only would I love to manage Kenny there, but I would love to see Max there. I think Max would light the place up. Having Kenny and Max on my team at Indianapolis, I think having won the race as a driver, I think it might be equally as thrilling to win it as an owner. So, as I say, while we're going through the due diligence, and that's all we're going through at this stage, it would be nice. It will not come at the expense of any aspect of our CART program. That's our primary goal right now, is to win the CART Championship next year. And so we just have to sort of approach it from that point at this stage. As I say, if I had my druthers, and everything was worked out correctly, we'd be there.

KENNY BRACK: First of all, I want to tell that you after my racing here, I will become a politician. (Laughs). Actually, what made me switch is I fulfilled most of my goals in the IRL, winning the series, the championship in '98 and finishing runner-up in '99, the Indianapolis 500 win in 1999, too. So I learned a lot from A.J., who is a master on ovals, how to drive on ovals, and I just felt I'm ready for a new challenge. And therefore, I looked -- I looked to start looking at things and when this opportunity with Bobby came up and became reality, you know it was -- I really didn't have to think twice about it because going from one race-winning outfit in the IRL to a race-winning outfit in CART, it couldn't be better. It's a great team that Bobby has. And I will get back into road racing, which is my background since I spent 16 years racing on road races, road tracks. That's also a factor that's influenced the decision. But I was looking for a new challenge.

KENNY BRACK: I think the tests went very well. Obviously, it was three years since I was on a road course before, but we got down to pretty respectable times, but obviously there are some time things that I need to hone, fine-tune and stuff like that. But that's normal. I was very happy with the test. The car was very good to drive, too, and the team gave me fantastic support during the test, too that's very important for the driver to feel that the team is behind you, and I really must say this is -- it is a first-class team and a first-class effort.

BOBBY RAHAL: I would -- at this stage, it would take all of our effort just to find the things we need to find to enter Indy, let alone forgetting anything else. So, you know, frankly, my hope is that one day we can go back to Phoenix with a champ car in CART. So at this stage of the game, my primary goal is to win the CART Championship for our team, and to do what we can to participate in the Indy 500.

BOBBY RAHAL: I think there's a lot of misinformation out there, Charlie. I was told by a leading IRL team what they spend, and if you divided our series by half, because we have twice as many races, in some respects, you're spending more. So I think there's a lot of misrepresentation of the facts. Certainly, some people can do it very inexpensively, but you know, much of that is, as we've tried to convey to people, is all based on competition. The more competition, the more money -- it just raises the stakes of the game and the more money that's needed and everything else. Really the economics of it -- to win I guess is probably the best way to qualify that, the economics to win are really the same, or maybe even a little bit less in CART, I think. No, our desire to go to Indianapolis is several fold. One, because I think the fans deserve it; I think open-wheel racing needs it; and I think that -- what I mean by open-wheel racing both the IRL and CART need to do what they can to raise open-wheel racing back to its rightful place in American motor sports, and the only way that's going to happen is for everybody to be together at Indianapolis, irrespective of what happens afterwards. I don't want to speak for Tony, but I believe many people at Indianapolis feel the same. I guess my whole point of this is that our desire is -- our desire is always to try to find less expensive racing, to be sure. But the main goal is for the fans and for elevating open-wheel racing back to its rightful place.

BOBBY RAHAL: I think you're comparing an apple and an orange. That's difficult. Have you been around Phoenix?

BOBBY RAHAL: 18% is a hell of a lot. My point is I think you're talking two very different formulas. You're talking two very different -- well, I have nothing bad to say about modifies. I've seen them run once or twice. I think there might, but it's just a different animal. And I'm not sure that, you know, if that were the case, then if cost was the only -- if cost and performance were the two issues, then it's probably even cheaper formula to run, but that isn't necessarily what brings people to the track. What brings people to the track is good competition, excitement, technology, all kinds of things. There's all kinds of attributes to it. So I'm not sure that the -- I'm not sure that the formula you're using to create value or what have you is really relevant.

BOBBY RAHAL: Hard to say. We don't just run in Phoenix.

KENNY BRACK: Well, first of all when you go into a new series, there's a whole lot of stuff you have to learn and the learning curve is going to be steep to start with. There is a new car. There is some new technology. There is a whole lot of new people that I need to get to know. And I need to get to know how they work. I need to get back on road racing again, which is my background, but I haven't been on a road racing -- or a road racing track driving, road racing cars, for about three years; so there's a whole lot of stuff there that I need to learn. However, I have set myself high goals, and I want to win races next year. I'm racing to win, and I think I can do that.

BOBBY RAHAL: I'm not sure how it would affect open-wheel racing, other than I think that for us to go back to Indy -- and CART would be to elevate -- with all due respect, it would be to elevate the event back to a level that it once was. As much as the great drivers made Indianapolis, it was also a case of great teams. If you look historically we talk about leader CART, you talk about Penske, Team McLaren, Team Lotus, the list goes on and on. It's important to -- I think the inclusion of the CART teams into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway again would just raise the level of the entire event. The sponsors would spend the kind of money that they once spent there. Hotel rooms wouldn't be cheap anymore. There would be bad things to happen along with it, I guess. But I do believe that it would -- it would bring back the stature of Indianapolis -- and as a result of that, that would -- there would be kind of a halo-effect over open-wheel racing as a whole, no matter where it was. I don't think anybody is looking at this as an anti-IRL move or anything. I think the IRL will probably continue to exist. But if we can, you know, compete at Indianapolis, you know, then the other two -- the two separate series can go their separate ways afterwards.

BOBBY RAHAL: I think it makes tremendous -- you're very right. Number one, it's not -- I don't think anybody would feel that all you had to do was show up and that's all you have to do. There will be a need to test -- it will have to be in effect, parallel -- for us, it would have to be a parallel project because we cannot let this have a negative impact on our performance in CART. That is our major reason for being our goal and what have you is to win CART races and the CART Championship. So anything we do, or our ability to go, will be predicated on its lack of negative impact on our current effort. Having said that, there are good people out there that can, you know, shortcut a lot of the learning curve, so to speak, with those cars. And so, in terms of populating a new team or sort of a sub-team to be able to do this, there is expertise that is available. Having said that, it is a big demand on the CART teams to go forward with this, both financially and with people.

BOBBY RAHAL: That track is about as far away was you can get from Indianapolis; so, I don't see that that would create any value whatsoever.

KENNY BRACK: First of all, I told you I would be in Cleveland when I was out there this summer. Well, I've heard of Bobby. Obviously, he's a famous driver. He's won a lot of races and championships and whatever he's done, he's been in Europe driving, Formula 2 and stuff like that. When I drove Formula 3000 a few years back, I had a friend helping me out (inaudible), and he knows Bobby very well and he was telling me stories about Bobby's excursions in Europe. So I've known of him for quite some while. We got to speak probably late summer this year. When he called and asked first was interested in driving for him, it fit very well into my plans because obviously I've had a lot of success in IRL and fulfilled my goals there and was looking to see if there would be another challenge out there. To go from a race-winning team in IRL to a race-winning team in CART, that's a fantastic opportunity for any driver; so, there really wasn't a lot to -- I didn't have to think of it that long. He gave me a very specific offer, very straightforward. I really enjoyed working with him and his team.

KENNY BRACK: Indianapolis is the world's biggest race. If you look at the people attendance and everything, and obviously, I'm aware of that, from a driver standpoint. I will never win a bigger race in my career simply because that's the biggest race there is. But now, my goal for next year is to win in the CART series and win with Team Rahal there. Obviously, I would like to go back to Indy and defend the championship and whatever you call it. But I also do understand that if there's things that cannot make that happen -- my primary goal for next year is to win racing in the CART series, but I would like to go back if there is a chance.

BOBBY RAHAL: You know, I don't know. There was certainly never any -- the reason I asked Kenny to join this team is because I respected Kenny for his successes in Europe, in particular, and Formula 3000, which has proven to be kind of the place to come from. If you can compete there, you can do it anywhere, I suppose. I mean, it's great saying you've got an Indy 500 champion in your team; that makes two of us now. But I don't know what the statement would be, and I'm really not sure there should be a statement, other than Kenny is here because of his talent.

BOBBY RAHAL: You can add Max to that role call of Formula 3000 graduates. I think what it is saying, and I've always felt this, 20 years ago I went to Europe as an American when it wasn't very popular to do so because I felt that for me to improve my craft and for me to have any kind of credibility, I had to prove that I could compete with the best, guys that were out there, my contemporaries. I think we did that fairly well over there. So when I came back, I think people looked at me, you know, that I had ventured forth in a very difficult situation and competed. Formula 3000 is no different now than the way Formula 2 was in my day. They don't have Formula 2 anymore, but it was the equivalent of Formula 3000. You look back, in those days just about anybody that was there was either very successful in Formula 1 or in Indy car racing or in world sports car racing or things of that nature. I think that we look at Formula 3000 as a place, or certainly, you know, where there's a tremendous international population or varied international population. We look at those series as being true gauges of a driver's talent, which is my way of telling everybody in young America to get over there and prove it over there if they really want to get to the top. But certainly, if you look at the graduates from Formula 3000 and to (inaudible) they have been extremely successful in Indy car racing. So therefore, you begin to put some comfort and some security in the knowledge that somebody who can do it there will be able to do it here as well. I think that's why Formula 3000 is almost starting to look like the place to come from. Having said that, there's some very good guys in Formula 3. And I think there's a guy this year that did a fairly reasonable job in CART, an American kid, Gidley. He did not a bad job. When he was with Walker, he certainly didn't embarrass himself. It's not like there's not opportunities out there. But if you can do it in Formula 3000, in my mind, then you're capable of winning anywhere and anything.

BOBBY RAHAL: Well, the costs are tremendously different. You go to Indy -- first off, if you're going to go to Indy, you've got to go to win, which means multiple cars, multiple engines, crew. You can't do it on the cheap. There are some very good teams in the IRL, and to think that you're just going to stroll in and blow everybody off would be, you know, that wouldn't be too smart; let's put it that way. So therefore, just the capitalization and equipment, is well over $1 million forgetting operating expenses. It's not like it's a cheap or an easy deal to do. And as I said earlier, it can't come at the expense of your existing program. In some respects, it's a real hardship to gear up for it, but at the same token, if the long-term benefit is that open-wheel racing regains its positiveness and what-have-you, then you do everything you can to try to figure out a way to do it.

BOBBY RAHAL: As I said earlier, we have very strong relationships. And my relationship with Ford is absolutely paramount to me. Ford Motor Company has been very good to Team Rahal and to Bobby Rahal, and we've developed a very good relationship over the last several years. So I will do nothing that compromises that relationship, first and foremost, and the same holds true with Miller and with Shell and with everybody else on our team. And that's why I say there's a lot of work to be done, and it pretty much has to be done within the next 60 days, I would say, in order to go forward. But make no mistakes, my loyalty to Ford is 100%, and we're not going to do anything that comprises that relationship.

BOBBY RAHAL: To be honest with you, I don't even know. I haven't even broached the subject with Ford yet. They know there's some discussion or some consideration, but we haven't gotten into any discussion of any note.

BOBBY RAHAL: As happy as I am that Kenny has joined our team, I'm equally so that Don has returned to our team. Don, we've known each other for quite a while, and the respect I have for him is just complete. So I think Don -- although, I want to make something clear: I'm not dissatisfied with our engineering group whatsoever. I thought they did a hell of a job, particularly the second half of the year. But I think Don brings something that we don't have much of in our engineering department, and that's gray hair. They are all young guys, and I think having the wisdom and the guidance and the perspective that Don can bring to us is really all we're going to need to go forward and be truly a championship team. With Don, I think there's no question that we give Kenny and Max the best efforts on the racetrack. And knowing their abilities, I think you put that all together; we look very positively on the 2000 season.

BOBBY RAHAL: Don will be a race engineer, as well as kind of in charge of the race setups and things of that nature.

BOBBY RAHAL: Since Tim's departure, we're doing a number of changes within the team. And while nothing is 100% defined, I certainly think that Tim Rider and Max developed a very good relationship as the year went on. I don't see much point in upsetting that cart, so to speak. And so therefore, I think it only makes sense that Kenny and Don work together. But having said that, just as I expect Kenny and Max to work together, I expect that Don will shed a lot of his expertise with Tim and assist in the development of that program as well. There's not going to be very many -- the lines will become, I think, a little blurred over time. But certainly, I believe probably at this stage that it will be Don't head listening to Kenny on the phones.

KENNY BRACK: I think changing series is a big challenge itself. There's a lot of different areas that I need to get familiarized with. I want to say this, though, that I'm very grateful for Bobby that he put faith in me and signed me. For a driver, it's a fantastic opportunity to go from a winning team in IRL to one of the best teams in CART, a winning team in CART. And I think that it's -- a lot of areas that's a challenge. But the biggest challenge for me will be to get going on the road course and get familiarized on that type of track first. And I don't think -- but I could be wrong -- but I do think that the oval stuff is -- I don't expect the CART car to be that much different from an IRL car, to be honest with you, on the ovals.

BOBBY RAHAL: You know, I'm not sure even Kenny remembers it. But I think it was at the end of 1996 or early 1997, Kenny called me up. He was coming over from Europe and he wanted to get a ride in CART then. Of course, we already were pretty well set on drivers at the time. But I've always -- I think the thing I've always respected Kenny for is that he's a hard worker; he's got a great work ethic. I spoke to a number of people that have worked with him in Europe and everybody, they always mention the same things: He was fast. A lot of guys are fast, but Kenny had the dedication and the ethic, I guess, that it takes to become a -- not only to win races but to become a champion. There's a big difference between winning a race every now and then and being a champion. But I think he proved to me in his Formula 3000 exploits that he was capable of driving quickly, and, of course, in the IRL, he seemed to have tempered his -- I think in 1997 when he was with Rick, he had a tendency to stick it in the fence, which comes with inexperience more than anything else. I would rather have somebody with a little enthusiasm, and you kind of soften it a little bit, than to try and get somebody with no enthusiasm and push him upwards. I think A.J. has done a great job in sort of maturing Kenny for the ovals. So my sense is that he just seemed to be a complete picture for me.

BOBBY RAHAL: I don't know exactly when Steve went. But I felt Don was -- Don lives in Columbus, and I think that Don felt that being at home was -- just as Steve turned down offers to move out of Indianapolis to work because of his family, I think Don wanted to find a professional home to go with his personal home. And I'm just thrilled to have Don. I think he's truly a great engineer, and I really look forward to working with him.

BOBBY RAHAL: Part of the problem is that IRL is taking guys who should be in Indy Lights. But you say you're going to go to Indianapolis; it's pretty easy to find sponsorship for that. So the IRL has had an effect on Indy Lights in terms of the number of cars. Not necessarily the quality of them, but the number of them. With Indy Lights, probably at CART, we need to do more to promote it, to market it, merchandise it as a clear -- when you look at how many guys have graduated from Indy Lights and gone directly to CART, how many champions, the numbers are pretty impressive. You could probably make a case that more guys have gone from Indy Lights to CART than, say, Formula 3000 to Formula 1. We need to do a little better job merchandising it and marketing it. But on the same token, it is a very good training ground. Guys like Casey Mears (ph) have stepped their game up, I think, and the Boss brothers. There's a lot of very good young European drivers in it. If we can get Indy Lights to be a little more popular on a worldwide basis, but particularly within the United States, then I don't think you'll have to go to Formula 3000, you know. I think Indy Lights will take its place as the proper training ground for CART.

BOBBY RAHAL: We'll start in mid-December. There's been some pretty severe testing restrictions put in place for next year; so we have to be somewhat judicious with what days we use and when. But I think we'll probably be -- like the second week of December we'll begin our test program.

(Swedish Question and Answer).

KENNY BRACK: I'm not sure I can answer all those questions at the same time. We'll start with the first one. I have a very good rapport with A.J. He's been very good to me over the years that I've raced with him. He's a legend, obviously, in his own person, but he's also -- I feel, a life long friend to me. And he took it very cool. I explained -- I sat down and discussed with him and explained what I felt; that we had a very good relation, and we had achieved so much. I wanted to, you know, to go on and do other goals for next year. And he -- having been a driver himself, he understands where I'm coming from, and he had no problems with it. We're the best of friends.

KENNY BRACK: I don't think any driver knows the complete picture of the setup of the car. What you do need, the knowledge that you need as a driver is how the car needs to be fast at different tracks, and maybe on idea, if it's not feeling right, maybe an idea how to start to make it better. And I think I do have a decent feel for Indianapolis because I've been there three times and been successful there. It's a fantastic place. And I think that I have developed some sort of feel that I know how a car should feel like. But no, I don't have the setups.

KENNY BRACK: That's only three questions. The first question is that I have a good following in Sweden, probably as good as any other top Swedish sportsman that competes in whatever sport. I'd say there's maybe 10, 20 different sports personalities, and I'm one of them. I wouldn't say that I have more following than anyone else, but I don't have less, either. Secondly, I have developed pretty good following in the United States, too. But it's a little bigger country than Sweden you have to consider there's only eight and a half million Swedes, total Swedes. That's smaller than New York, for example, but a lot bigger area. It's easier to get a good following in Sweden than the United States, overall.

KENNY BRACK: I think so. Formula 1 has quite a strong hold on Europe, and I think maybe that's one of the reasons that no other major oval series have been able to establish themselves in Europe because of the politics going on between track owners and Formula 1 and what you have. But I think that CART would make a very good show in Europe, too, as it does in the United States. So I'm looking forward to a deal like that if it's happening in the future.

BOBBY RAHAL: I'm very happy in my role as strictly the co-owner of Team Rahal. I can honestly tell you that I did not -- at no point in the year when I saw in the year when I saw the cars roll out for practice or qualifying or racing did I get itchy and think I wanted to be in it. I guess I made the right decision at the right time. Having said that, I have just returned from my first vintage weekend with my own car, I guess, and I just had a blast. I had the good fortune to race some other neat cars. What I loved about it was there was absolutely no pressure and there were great parties at night, and lots of fun people.