CART: Arciero-Wells / CART Spring Training Notes

8 February 1999

Final Report Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex / Homestead, Florida

Cristiano da Matta #25 MCI WorldCom Champ Car Powered by Toyota Overall Standing: 16 Best Lap Time: 25.741 seconds Best Lap Speed: 210.062 mph

"I really like this track. It is special to me because it was my debut in Indy Lights and in American racing. I finished second here last year, so of course I like it here. This track has been very good to me so far.

"I am becoming more familiar with the car each session, and overall it's feeling good. Today the track got away from us more than we wanted. There was more rubber, more heat and it was hard to get the car just right. We are going to look at that and be ready to get it down at the next test, before we come back to race."

Scott Pruett
#24 Pioneer Electronics/MCI WorldCom Champ Car Powered by Toyota
Overall Standing:	15
Best Lap Time:		25.667 seconds		
Best Lap Speed:	210.667 mph

"I'm real pleased with the test overall. I think this test really shows off the hard work that Toyota's put in during the off-season, and I'm excited to be a part of that. We will be contenders this year.

"We really approached this as a test and tried to make the best use of our time here. We experimented with different directions for the set-up both yesterday and today, some that worked and some that didn't. Of course we wanted to be faster, but in general we're pleased with where we are."

Richard Buck, Director of Champ Car Operations, on Spring Training:
"This pre-season exhibition was a success for Arciero-Wells. Being here has helped us learn more about what to expect from the competition and from ourselves, and it puts us ready for battle at the real thing here in March.

"Since this is Cristiano's first CART season, we focused on making him comfortable in the car and in simulated race conditions. This was Cristiano's first opportunity to run with all the champ cars on the track, so we practiced things like passing, running different loads of fuel and pit-ins. Cristiano put in close to 500 miles of race-condition testing here, so we know we're very prepared to handle the demands of the race itself. "With Scott, we put his seasoned development experience to work on the technical side this week. For him, this test was all about speed. The development engine Scott had in his car performed beyond our expectations. It ran a greater distance than race distances with much improved performance overall."