[EMAIL] Surfers Paradise Pre-Race Notes/Quotes
12 October 2000
Contact: Laz Denes, 310-538-2599 ldenes@monunnracing.com www.monunnracing.com Indy 300 #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard Pre-Race Notes/Quotes – Oct. 13-15, 2000 Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia (2.795-mile temporary street course) Round 19 of 20 on the 2000 CART FedEx Championship Series TONY KANAAN “What can you say about racing at Surfers Paradise? The name of the place says it all. It’s the greatest. It always feels so right to be here. Great timing, too, schedule-wise, because we’ve all been through so much this year. I wouldn’t exactly call it a vacation because we’ll be hard at work trying to finish strong at the end of our first season. But it’s a very comfortable place to work. We are coming off of a fairly solid weekend at Houston. We started and finished in the top 10, which is where you want to be every race. This weekend, we’ll hope to turn it up a notch. It’s another street course, but it’s a lot faster than Houston. Hopefully, we can build on what we learned about our car and motor combination at Houston and finish in the top five. Hey, I was seventh here my rookie year, and sixth here last year, so that means we’re looking at fifth or better this weekend. Sounds good to me!” NOTES -- This is Kanaan’s third visit to Surfers Paradise in a Champ Car, his first with first-year Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing. He was seventh here during his Rookie of the Year season of 1998 with Tasman Motorsports (later Forsythe Championship Racing). He qualified eighth and finished sixth here last year with the Forsythe team. -- At Houston two weekends ago, Kanaan started and finished 10th, his fifth (and the team’s sixth) top-10 finish of the season and his 25th in 53 career Champ Car starts. -- In his 14 starts this season for Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing, Kanaan also has six top-10 qualifying efforts. His best finish was eighth, at both Nazareth and Road America. His top qualifying effort was third at Chicago. -- Kanaan was involved in a final qualifying accident at Detroit in June left him with a broken left forearm that required surgery and four broken ribs on his left side. He was back in the car 33 days later but missed four races, three of which (Portland, Cleveland and Toronto) he was replaced by Bryan Herta. -- Team owner Morris Nunn was technical director at Target/Chip Ganassi Racing during the last four CART championship runs by Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997-98) and Juan Montoya (1999). He won here from the pole with Vasser in 1996, and won from the No. 2 spot on the grid with Zanardi in 1998 after also winning the pole with Zanardi in 1997. # # #