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HOMESTEAD, Fla. (March 27, 2002) --- Havoline driver Cristiano
da Matta got back behind the wheel of his
Toyota-Lola-Bridgestone for the first time since winning his
third consecutive CART FedEx Championship Series race at the
2002 season-opener in Monterrey, Mexico for his first test on
an oval track. Fresh from a week of relaxation and physical
training at his home in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, da Matta
completed a two-day test today at the 1.5-mile Miami-Homestead
oval track, located a mere 45 minutes from his U.S. base of
Miami.
"I haven't been on an oval since winning the Marlboro 500 in
Fontana," said da Matta, who immediately hopped on an airplane
at the conclusion of the test to travel to Los Angeles for the
annual Toyota Motorsports Day tomorrow. "We ran a lot of miles
and learned about the areas we need to work on. It was the
first time to work with "Rocky" (Guillaume Rocquelin, his race
engineer) on an oval so naturally it was a learning process in
terms of getting to know how I like the car on ovals. Since it
was our first test on an oval we were trying a bunch of
different things and trying not to put too much emphasis on a
fast lap time but instead making the car feel good. The test
ended on a positive note but it would have been nice to run
one more day. Unfortunately we are limited on test days but it
is the same for everyone."
"The car was not as good as we had hoped at the beginning of
the test but by the end of today we feel like we will be in
good shape for the first oval race in Motegi, Japan," added
Brian Lisles, General Manager of Newman/Haas Racing. "Da Matta
ran 260 trouble-free miles on Tuesday and 240 today. In
addition to the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach being
important for our engine partner Toyota, the race in Japan is
as well for obvious reasons. Cristiano had a good car last
year but he was taken out of the race on the first lap. We are
hoping to bring Toyota a victory in both of those events with
either da Matta or Fittipaldi this year as well as collect as
many points as possible early in the season for a run at the
championship."
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Ricardo
González
News and Commentary
