Kanaan/Mears Australia Friday Practice Notes/Quotes

Mo Nunn Racing
Honda Indy 300 - Practice Notes/Quotes - Friday, Oct. 26, 2001
Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia - 2.795-Mile Temporary Street Course
Round 20 of 21 on the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series

Wet conditions prevailed throughout today's two scheduled practice sessions
for Sunday's Honda Indy 300 on the beachside streets of Surfers Paradise.
Mo Nunn Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Casey Mears turned in only a
minimal number of laps, as did the remainder of the CART FedEx Championship
Series field, with weather conditions to be partly cloudy but dry for
qualifying Saturday and race day Sunday.

Kanaan and his #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard did not turn a hot
lap in the morning session while the team was hampered by a gearbox problem
on his primary car and it did not elect to run the back-up in the light
rain.  Mears and the #66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda Reynard
turned in the 17th-fastest lap of the morning session among 23 cars that
recorded times.  Mears toured the 2.795-mile temporary street track in 1
minute, 47.017 seconds (an average of 93.847 mph).  Mears completed 17 laps
during the 1-hour, 45-minute morning session.  Jimmy Vasser was fastest in
the morning at 1:36.911 (103.827 mph), followed by Helio Castroneves at
1:36.997 (103.735 mph) and defending race-winner Adrian Fernandez at
1:37.442 (103.261 mph).

Heavier rains doused the course by this afternoon's 90-minute session and
only three cars, including Mears and Kanaan, recorded lap times.  Mears was
the fastest of the three this afternoon at 1:57.751 (85.452 mph) during his
six-lap run.  Kanaan turned just one hot lap, simply to test his gearbox.
It was a 1:59.888 (83.928-mph) effort.  Christian Fittipaldi was the only
other car to record a time this afternoon at 2:02.002 (82.474 mph).

Practice resumes at 10 a.m. local time Saturday (8 p.m. EDT Friday) with
qualifying set for 1:45 p.m. local time Saturday (11:45 p.m. EDT Friday).
Race time Sunday is 2 p.m. local time (midnight EDT Saturday night/Sunday
morning) with a tape-delayed broadcast set for ESPN at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.

TONY KANAAN

"I'll stop short of saying what a wasted day it's been, because any track
time you get is important.  But since it's supposed to be nice weather from
here on in, there was nothing, really, to gain by spending a lot of time on
the track today.  Except for Casey, who's never raced on this track before.
We had a gearbox problem in the morning and probably wouldn't have run many
laps even if we didn't.  We went out for just one hot lap this afternoon
just to make sure everything was working.  We'll come back tomorrow and hope
the weather guys around here are right."

CASEY MEARS

"My job was to learn the course today, whether or not it was going to be
dry.  I turned as many laps as I could and really had a blast out there.
It's so fun driving these cars in the rain, I wanted to keep on going, and
going, and going.  We didn't want to push our luck, though, and they called
me in after less than 20 laps this morning.  I love this track.  It's
nothing like any other street track I've ever driven.  It's not just
90-degree rights and lefts.  There are chicanes and straights that bend left
and right.  I can't wait to see what we can do in the dry."