CART: Team Target seeking back to back wins at Michigan

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

July 18, 2001

Junqueira and Gidley primed to defend team's MIS title

Brooklyn, Mich. - Team Target returns to Michigan this weekend with aspirations of repeating last year's dazzling victory by former team driver Juan Montoya. Montoya staged an epic battle with Michael Andretti, as the two drivers dueled wheel-to-wheel over the last 20 laps. The duo exchanged the lead seven times, with Montoya eventually taking the win by just .040 seconds, marking the third closest finish in CART history. In the last seven races held at Michigan International Speedway, a Team Target driver has placed seventh or better. Drivers Memo Gidley and Bruno Junqueira are looking to continue that trend this weekend. Last year, while driving for DellaPenna Motorsports, Memo Gidley climbed from his 21st starting position to finish tenth in his only career start at Michigan International Speedway. Gidley is excited to return to the flat, two-mile super speedway.

"Michigan is a track I really enjoy running on," Gidley said. "If you're smart in how you utilize the draft, it's a place where you can slowly work your way to the front. It's such a long race you have to be both patient and aggressive. You also need to have a car that has the right setup on it to win here.

"The guys here at Team Target have proven they have what it takes to get to victory lane. My engineer, Bill Pappas won here last year with Juan (Montoya) so I'm very confident we can have a great race here this weekend." In his previous oval races, rookie Bruno Junqueira has quickly developed a knack for this new style of racing. He scored a pole in the first oval race of his career at Nazareth, qualified fifth at the tricky Motegi super speedway and recorded a career-best fourth place finish at Milwaukee. In addition, he placed fifth on the world's most famous oval -- Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Junqueira believes that trend will continue this weekend.

"I remember watching the race in Michigan last year and thinking, 'Wow, that is incredible!'" Junqueira said. "Seeing those guys running side by side at almost 240 mph was really amazing. Now I get a chance to be one of those guys. I'm really looking forward to the race. Team Target has an excellent car on the ovals and I think we have a great chance for our first win of the year. The No. 4 Target Toyota/Lola won here last year, and I'm hoping to make it two in a row."

2001 will mark the final year that the CART FedEx Championship Series will race in Michigan. Team Target Managing Director Mike Hull is confident his team can bring home a victory in the last race at the two-mile oval.

"Michigan has been a great track for us," Hull said. "We've had a lot of success there, including last year's victory by Juan (Montoya). This team has a very good setup for this track and we're confident we can bring home a second straight victory for Team Target here in Michigan. The team has been working very hard all season long and it would be great to reward those people with a win this weekend."

The Michigan 500 presented by Toyota airs live on ABC-TV Sunday, July 22 at 1:30 p.m. EST.

Text provided by Brian Zepp

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