CHAMP CAR DRIVER QUALIFYING ROUND ONE QUOTES
TECATE GRAND PRIX OF MONTERREY PRESENTED BY ROSHFRANS

Justin Wilson #9 CDW Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone – “I owe a lot of it to the Bridgestone tires. The option story was working really well. It served us well today. It was a gamble we went for. We knew we were very close. There was still time left in the car and myself. Like Sebastien, I never really got a good run. So we decided to gamble and go with the reds. You know, even on my first lap, I wasn't pushing hard. I was up a 10th. Then the red flag came out. At that point we thought we'd lost it. We thought we lost the pole and our one set of red tires for qualifying tomorrow. You know, like I said, got one more lap. The CDW car has been working great all weekend. Managed to get one lap in and make it count.”

Sebastien Bourdais #1 McDonald’s Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “If not for the result, I'd call it a miserable session. It was really bad. The first run we went out, I was just about ready to stop and go fast. I caught Mario. He was definitely not willing to let me by. It seems to be the story of the season so far. Then I got pissed, made mistakes, one small, couldn't clean the tire, got into somebody else, backed off, made another mistake. I just couldn't seem to put it together. Like the last two laps were going to be good. I did one good and made again another mistake. It was like, it's going to be really difficult. Came in the pits, was a little surprised. We had pole. I knew it was going to be a tough fight. I was pretty confident the car was good. Went back out, did one lap. The McDonald's car felt really good. The red flag came out. You know, from there on, it was kind of the end anyways because Justin was on option tires, and seemed to be a big (indiscernible) this weekend. Went back up to speed extremely quickly. I kind of did the sweeper for him in turn 10 and 11. I just couldn't do it on the last lap. Congratulations to him.”

A.J. Allmendinger #10 RuSPORT Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone – “So far it's been a good weekend. We were quickest this morning in practice. You know, RuSPORT has just prepared me a great car. I think this track is so slippery, so hard to get a hold of, it's a fine line between being a great car and a good car and a really bad car. In qualifying, we were just a bit off. I think that's what hurt us. I was fairly pleased with the day. We at least have some notes to work off of tomorrow.”

Paul Tracy #7 INDECK Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “I’m very disappointed because I know we could’ve had a much better qualifying position today. I was held up during qualifying for almost a complete lap by a slower car. Then we had that Red Flag at the end that made it pretty difficult to get out, find space and throw down a lap before the end of the session. But this track is always very slow on the first day so I’m sure the grid will be set tomorrow. We’ll work on the 3 car tonight and see if we can’t put it up front tomorrow.”

Bruno Junqueira #2 Newman/Haas Racing Ford-Cosworth/Bridgestone/Lola – “Qualifying was just okay. We had some problems this morning and were a little behind where we wanted to be. I made a small mistake on my best lap on the first set of tires in qualifying so I knew there was more in the car. Then on my second set I couldn’t’ get a good lap time in because of the red flags. We’re going to work hard to get a better starting position in final qualifying. Overall it’s close we just need to work a little to improve the car.”

Andrew Ranger #27 Tide/Mi-Jack Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone – “This morning in practice I knew the car was very good, I just could not put in a quick time because of the traffic, I was unable to get a clean lap. Heading into qualifying I was confident. I am very, very happy with the result, unfortunately I was blocked a few times and the red flag didn’t come out at the right time. I was lucky to be able to get pass the timing line and put in my quickest time on my last lap. Today’s result is very encouraging for us and it gives us momentum for tomorrow.”

Alex Tagliani #5 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “We improved greatly from this morning in practice. I think we are still fighting in general the same characteristics of the car, but we were faster, and are headed in a good direction, we just need to keep working. I think we know approximately what the issue is, we just have to try to find what we can do to fix it, and by tomorrow morning we will be in good shape. In general we are in good we just need to find a little more speed.”

Oriol Servia #6 Gulfstream - PKV Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “I am not very happy with the Gulfstream – PKV Racing team qualifying session today. Things were looking a lot better after this morning’s practice session. It just seemed like the afternoon heat really affected the performance of the car negatively. There really isn’t much else to say. We just couldn’t get any grip with the new tire. I just never felt the new tire come in. The PKV Racing team just has to go back to the transporter and look at the data and see what we can come up with.”

Charles Zwolsman #34 Mi-Jack Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone –“I am a little disappointed because I got blocked a few times trying to put in a quick lap, it was very difficult to get one clean lap in, then the red flag came out near the end and that didn’t help either. Overall, the car was good and I am pleased with my position but there is still work to do on the car to make it even better. Tomorrow is another day and I am convinced that we can improve our position.”

Mario Dominguez #7 Pride of Mexico INDECK Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “It wasn’t a good day for us. We’ve been struggling with the balance of the car and have not been able to find a good setup for this track. We are going to have to make some drastic changes tomorrow. The track is really green as it always is here. It’s slowly getting better and tomorrow it should be much faster. Even though the day didn’t go as we hoped I’m very happy to be racing in my country and in front of all these Mexican fans, I’m sure that tomorrow we’ll give them a great qualifying result like we did last weekend in Houston.”

Nelson Philippe #4 CTE Racing-HVM Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone – “It’s a bit disappointing as we thought we had a good car but with the heat and the slippery track, we weren’t able to use our Bridgestone tires to their best potential. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us this evening but we are going to be in good shape for a higher position tomorrow. ”

Nicky Pastorelli #8 Bavaria City Racing/Rocketsports Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “We are not doing too bad. We improved again a bit this afternoon during provisional qualifying, so we are definitely moving in the right direction. We spared some tires because we think that the track is going to be faster tomorrow. So to ensure a good run tomorrow, we have three sets of tires including the Potenza Reds to use in final qualifying. I am enjoying the track, this morning’s practice we ran a lot of laps, which was good because I was able to get familiar and comfortable with its layout. This afternoon we were working hard on getting the car quicker. I have confidence in the Rocketsports team for tomorrow and think we should be able to qualify in the top ten for Sunday’s race.”

Will Power #5 Aussie Vineyards Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone –”Qualifying was frustrating because I didn’t get a real clear lap in. The handling was alright, we need to work on a couple of things to make it better. The track is different, there aren’t any bumps, it’s very smooth so there isn’t any grip and if your car isn’t right you’ll really struggle. Tomorrow the track will be quicker and I think my car as well as myself will be quicker too.”

Katherine Legge #20 Bell Micro - PKV Racing Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone - “It was an interesting first qualifying session for the Bell Micro – PKV Racing team. We had some issues, some issues with the engine, so we will change it overnight, come back tomorrow and move up the grid, I hope.”

Dan Clarke #14 CTE Racing-HVM Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone -“We are taking our time for our first day at Monterrey. It’s a new track for me. The track is very slippery so I am trying not to rush things. We would be happier to have qualified higher up, but the track will improve a lot as the weekend goes on. We are still learning and hopefully tomorrow we can have a clearer run and post a quicker time.”