TG:
I tested the first time at the end of 2003 with Walker, so I had a couple of impressions about Champ Car. It is a little bit difficult to compare because the two cars are completely different, a different style of racing. It starts with the tyres, here with the slick tyres and the grooves over there - nothing compares as it is a completely different setting. The whole electronic stuff, traction control and all that stuff, aerodynamics, which are pretty aggressive in F1 and a huge difference to Champ Car.
Champ Car's more about the driver, more about how you set up the cars. When you have a good weekend with one of the front-running teams, they never change the set-up all weekend, maybe the front wing and that's it. Here in Champ Car, you have to work with the engineer to get the car right. The race tracks are completely different to
F1. F1 is definitely quicker - I had the best comparison in Montreal, and lap times were five, six seconds quicker in an F1 car. It's a different style of racing, so it is difficult to compare.
MC:
Michael McDowell, you are going to be a very busy young man in Mexico City. You are making your second career Champ Car start, but you are also going to run the Grand American Rolex Series race there as well. Tell us about how that all came about and how you are going to handle this weekend.
MM:
Well, I am in the championship in the Rolex Series, driving the #19 Finlay Motorsports Air Force Reserve car. My commitment is to the Grand-Am team and to finish out the season and do a good job. We have had some really good results where we finished in the top five five or six times, and finished second once, so I think we have the package to do really well in Mexico City and try to get our first win for the team.
MC:
You had your Champ Car debut at Surfers Paradise as we mentioned before, qualifying 16th and finishing a very strong twelfth, running at the finish, and just one lap down on your debut. Tell us about how you felt about your maiden voyage there.
MM:
I definitely had higher expectations than we showed. The car was great, Rocketsports did a really good job. Unfortunately, the first day, it rained the whole day, so I didn't get much track time in the dry. That kind of limiting kind of what I could do to prepare in the race. In the race, we lost the front wing when I was running behind [Ronnie] Bremer - he popped up the tyres and lost the wing and that's what cost us. We definitely had more speed than the twelfth place car and I think, in Mexico City, we can be in the top five.
MC:
Charles Zwolsman, our 2005 Toyota Atlantic champion, gets to make his Champ Car debut and actually gets set to set foot in the Champ Cars for the first time. You will have a test session on Thursday, and I understand you're down in Mexico City now. Tell us about what you are feeling as you head into your Champ Car debut weekend.
CZ:
Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Right now, I am in Mexico to get used to the thin air around here, and Thursday is going to be my first time in a car with so much horsepower, so I am pretty excited. I really don't know what to expect.
MC:
Tell us about your Atlantic season - three wins, five poles, eight podiums. To be perfectly honest, you came to the season opener at Long Beach not really sure how long you were going to be around.
CZ:
Actually, it was just for the first race we agreed, and I just came over one-and-a-half weeks before the race to make a seat, to do one test there just to see how the car was running. The team hadn't run for two years with the car, so there were all sorts of problems. And, after Long Beach, we just got things rolling and, every race, we got the money in time just to do the next race. And here I am, the champion.
MC:
Congratulations to all three of you guys. We look forward to a great weekend coming up in Mexico City. We'll turn the call over to the media now....
