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Moore and Mercedes Use Power and Fuel Mileage To Win Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami

22 March 1999

Moore and Mercedes Use Power and Fuel Mileage To Win Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami

           Mercedes-Benz Leads 126 of 150 Laps en Route to Victory
                            In CART Season Opener

    HOMESTEAD, Fla., March 21 -- Greg Moore used the power and
fuel efficiency of his Mercedes-Benz IC108E V8 engine to win the Marlboro
Grand Prix of Miami today, the season-opening race of the CART FedEx
Championship Series at the Homestead Motorsports Complex.
    Canadian Moore took the win from his second-consecutive Miami Grand Prix
pole position in impressive fashion, holding off two-time Homestead winner
Michael Andretti to win by 1.11 seconds and avenging his narrow loss to
Andretti in last year's contest.  Moore led 96 of the 150 laps on the
1.502-mile Homestead speedway oval, with an average speed of 136.671 mph.  The
Player's/Forsythe driver now leads the Series PPG Cup race with 22 points.
    "We gambled on fuel mileage and it payed off for us today.  I thought I
would have to pit close to the end for fuel, but they (his team) told me I
could go the distance," said Moore, who had two wins last season.  "I was real
skeptical if we could make it, but that shows just how good the Mercedes
engine is on fuel.  The car didn't handle well at all in the beginning, but
the team kept working on it and with every pit stop it got better, and it was
the best it was all day at the end.  We had some lucky breaks today and were
where we needed to be at the end."
    The Mercedes-Benz IC108E V8 demonstrated both the power to win pole and
the fuel efficiency to allow Moore's team to apply a two-pit strategy while
other teams stopped three times.  The small, lightweight engine is designed
for a lean mixture to maximize power while conserving fuel.  Mercedes now
leads the Manufacturer's Championship race with 22 points.
    Two other Mercedes-powered teams finished in the top 10 today:  Moore's
teammate, Patrick Carpentier, finished seventh, while PacWest Racing's Mark
Blundell finished eighth.
    "A perfect start to the season," said Norbert Haug, head of motorsports
for Mercedes-Benz.  "Greg and the Forsythe team did a great job, won the pole,
choose the right strategy and did a very calculated race.  The fact that
two chassis builders and three engine manufacturers shared the winner's circle
just shows how competitive Champ Car racing is these days.  A big thank you
goes to everybody involved in that great season kick-off."
    Mercedes engines proved the overall competitiveness of the IC108E V8
powerplant by qualifying three cars in the first two rows and leading for
126 of the 150 laps.
    Carpentier, fastest at CART Spring Training over the Homestead oval in
February, started third and aggressively challenged the leader early on, but
had a drive-through penalty on lap 90 and finished seventh.  Hogan Racing's
Helio Castro-Neves, started from the second row and led for 29 laps before
dropping out on lap 138 with an engine problem.
    PacWest Motorola Mercedes driver Mark Blundell started 13th and moved up
to finish eighth, while teammate Mauricio Gugelmin had a rough pit stop with
his Hollywood Mercedes in lap 62 and dropped back to finish 11th.
    Marlboro Team Penske Mercedes driver Al Unser Jr., was knocked out of the
race in lap one, when he was involved in a multi-car accident with Naoki
Hattori.  Both drivers suffered a fractured right ankle and were taken to
Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for treatment.