Laguna Seca Sunday Race Notes/Quotes

#66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard
Honda Grand Prix of Monterey - Race Notes/Quotes - Sunday, Oct. 14, 2001
Laguna Seca Raceway - Monterey, Calif. - 2.238-Mile Road Course
Round 19 of 21 on the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series

Casey Mears and the #66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard
finished 11th in today's Honda Grand Prix of Monterey, scoring two
championship points for Mo Nunn Racing in only his second race since coming
on board to replace the injured Alex Zanardi.  Mears started 18th and held
that position for the early stages of the race.  He was tagged from behind
by Bryan Herta on Lap 10, spun into the Turn 11 runoff, and had to make an
unscheduled pit stop for a new set of tires.  Mears moved up to 13th when
several cars ahead of him pitted out of sequence on Lap 33.  He dropped just
one position when he pitted for the second time under yellow on Lap 49, and
held that position despite coming in on Lap 51 for enough fuel to go the
distance.  Mears moved up two more positions, to 11th, when Oriol Servia and
Mauricio Gugelmin, who were running just ahead of him, were involved in a
two-car accident.  Servia, whose car cartwheeled high in the air and into
the Turn 3 runoff, was not seriously injured.

Mo Nunn Racing teammate Tony Kanaan and the #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing
Honda-Reynard finished eighth today after starting sixth.  Max Papis and
Memo Gidley, who ran an alternative fuel strategy, finished 1-2 and beat
polesitter and current series points leader Gil de Ferran across the finish
line.  De Ferran's finish clinched the CART manufacturers championship for
Honda today with two races remaining.

The next stop on the tour is in two weeks for the Honda Indy 300 at Surfers
Paradise, Australia, round 20 of 21 on the 2001 CART FedEx Championship
Series.

CASEY MEARS

"I guess that was another huge learning experience.  I had problems with my
first two sets of tires.  I was caught by surprise by the amount of
understeer I had, as well as exit oversteer, so I made some mistakes early
on that cost me some positions.  Nonetheless, I brought the car home and got
us a couple of points.  We keep chipping away at it.  We qualified a lot
better than we did last weekend (at Houston, where Mears started 25th).  I
didn't have the kind of race I wanted. But I guess it's a good sign that we
leave here feeling hungry.  We're moving up little by little, but we know we
still have a lot to learn."