#66 Mears Australia Saturday Qualifying Notes/Quotes

#66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard
Honda Indy 300 - Qualifying Notes/Quotes - Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001
Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia - 2.795-Mile Temporary Street Course
Round 20 of 21 on the 2001 CART FedEx Championship Series

Casey Mears and the #66 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard will
start Sunday's Honda Indy 300 on the outside of the 12th row.  Mears lapped
the 2.795-mile Surfers Paradise temporary street course in 1 minute, 35.401
seconds (an average of 105.471 mph), good for 11th in today's first of two
30-minute group qualifying sessions and 24th overall.  Conditions today were
clear, sunny and dry - in stark contrast to Friday's wet and rainy
conditions that hampered the entire first day of practice.  This morning's
75-minute practice was the only dry session teams had to prepare for this
afternoon's qualifying rounds.  Sunny and dry weather is expected once again
for Sunday.

Tony Kanaan and the #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Reynard will start
from the inside of the 10th row.  Kanaan turned in a fast lap of 1:34.319
(106.681 mph) during today's second group qualifying session, good for 19th
overall.  Roberto Moreno won the pole today in 1:32.095 (109.257 mph),
followed by Gil de Ferran at 1:32.406 (108.889 mph) and Cristiano da Matta
at 1:32.552 (108.717 mph).

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.

CASEY MEARS

"I've been behind all weekend because this is my first time racing on this
track.  It didn't help that we got rained on all day Friday, but I still got
a good number of laps in to learn the course.  We had a bit of a problem in
practice this morning, but we made some improvements and picked up some
time.  Unfortunately, my hot lap in the qualifying session was the only one
I got.  I had two others going exactly when the red flag came out (due to
on-course incidents involving other cars), so that was disappointing.  I
feel good that we're progressing quickly.  My best lap came on my very last
qualifying lap.  I feel like we could've run harder, but, first and
foremost, I wanted to bring the car back in one piece.  If it would've been
under different circumstances, like if we had a shot at a top-five starting
position or something, I might have taken a few more chances.  But I'm happy
to be headed in the right direction.  We'll get some more laps in during
morning warm-up, and hopefully we'll settle into a strategy that'll put us
up front by the end of the race.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I love
this place!"