#10 Kanaan CART Road America Friday Provisional Qualifying

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Friday, Aug. 16, 2002) -- Tony Kanaan and the #10
Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Lola endured a rather frustrating
opening day of practice and qualifying today for Sunday's Grand Prix of Road
America.  Kanaan started the day on the right foot, moving straight to the
top of the speed charts in the 90-minute morning practice session and
running a full second ahead of the rest of the field with some 30 minutes to
go.  But then he lost his rear wing at the end of the long front
straightaway and went spinning into the gravel trap outside Turn 1 at 192
mph.  Kanaan was unhurt and the car suffered minimal damage, but just enough
to force Kanaan to run his back-up car in this afternoon's provisional
qualifying session.  That car turned out to have major turbo boost problems
and Kanaan was never able to post a hot lap.  His time of 1 minute, 44.516
seconds (139.431 mph) this morning over the 4-mile Road America permanent
road course layout ended up seventh fastest for the practice session.

Cristiano da Matta sits on the provisional pole for Sunday after a fast
qualifying lap this afternoon of 1:42.640 (141.980 mph).  Bruno Junqueira
was second at 1:42.744 (141.836 mph), followed by Dario Franchitti at
1:42.990 (141.497 mph).

Practice resumes Saturday morning with final qualifying set for 1:45 p.m.
local time (2:45 p.m. EDT).  Speed Channel will air a live, 90-minute
qualifying show beginning at 2:30 p.m. EDT.  Race time Sunday is 2:00 p.m.
local time (3:00 p.m. EDT) with a live broadcast provided by Speed Channel.


TONY KANAAN QUOTES

"It's hard to keep your head up after a day like this, but we're not going
to give up, by any means.  It's only Friday, thank goodness.  I show up
every week with a good attitude, trying to pump the guys up and pull us out
of this rash of problems that we've been having this year.  But something
always seems to go wrong.  This morning, a part failed that holds the rear
wing in place.  That was a wild ride.  I had no idea what happened.  My team
manager (Brad Filbey) came on the radio as I was coming down the front
straight yelling something that I can't repeat here, but it was too late.  I
had already started spinning at 192 mph.  All I was concerned about as I was
heading toward the gravel trap was keeping the car straight.  I was afraid
of getting something caught in the gravel and flipping the car.
Fortunately, the car just skimmed over the top of the gravel and I came to a
stop ... eventually.  When I got out of the car, I saw my wing sitting back
there on the track and I knew right away what happened.  I think we should
just forget that today ever happened.  We'll have our primary car up and
running in time for morning practice, and we know it's a fast car.  We just
have to check a few things in the morning practice, and then hope for the
best in qualifying.  I hope the weather cooperates tomorrow.  Today, the
conditions were perfect.  You hate to see a day like today go to waste."

# # #

#10 Pioneer-WorldCom/Mo Nunn Racing Honda-Lola
The Grand Prix of Road America - Friday, Aug. 16, 2002 - Provisional
Qualifying Notes/Quotes
Road America - Elkhart Lake, Wis. - 4-Mile Road Course
Round 12 of 19 on the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series

Contact:  Laz Denes, 256-657-6190
ldenes@monunnracing.com
www.monunnracing.com