Panther Racing transcript from 2005 Indianapolis 500 Media Tour
Panther Racing: Tomas Scheckter, Tomas Enge, John Barnes, Mike Kitchel, Mike Griffin
MIKE GRIFFIN: I'm Mike Griffin, one of the partners of Panther, and we'll get a couple more of the people involved up here. We just wanted to say hello and welcome you to Panther. We're going to go ahead and get into our dinner hour and drinks and everything and relax for a few minutes here. A couple things I might point out along the way just as an introduction. We've been here for about three years now. We've got about 30,000 square feet. We've got another 10,000 next door in another building, we have a carbon fiber shop over there. Panther is the winningest team in IRL history. We have 14 wins – and I have to cheat because I keep hoping the numbers keep getting bigger, they haven't lately – but two championships, 13 IndyCar wins, seven poles, one Infiniti Pro Series championship, seven wins in the Infiniti Pro Series, and four poles in the Infiniti Pro Series. We put the banners up every time we score something, and that's kind of our decorating scheme around here. We're tr!ying to get some more banners and fill up the rest of these poles. So welcome to Panther. Make yourself at home. We have Jonathan Byrd providing us the food for us this evening, and we thank them. We thought we would take 15, 20 minutes, half an hour or so and grab a bite to eat and then get into our program. Thanks for joining us. Make yourself at home.
(Dinner recess)
I want to bring up one of our other people to kind of run down something. We came up with an idea called the Fan Tour. Mike Kitchel has been real instrumental in putting the thing together and making it happen and coordinating all the pieces of it. Mike does the public relations duties for the 2 car with Tomas Enge, and normally I take care of the 4 car with Tomas Scheckter. So the two of us are about 10 feet apart. We have another fellow here, Kaaveh Akbari someplace, and Kaaveh has been working with Downforce, the IRL's fan club and helping coordinate the whole thing at all the racetracks. Without further ado, Mike Kitchel.
MIKE KITCHEL: Thank you. I want to thank everybody else for coming out here today. There are tough acts to follow and then there's a tough voice to follow; and Griff is about the toughest voice to follow in the whole business. The Fan Tour came about last year during the offseason. Throughout the course of the season, we had different ideas of different promotions we wanted to do for the fans. At the same time, as we went to each racetrack or we talked about marketing strategies, we were saying, hey, wouldn't it be cool if the League did this, or wouldn't it be neat if a track did that? I think we kind of reached a point of saying, ‘Hey, what are we doing?’ And let's not suggest different things other people can do, why don't we do everything we can to help promote the IndyCar Series and help promote the fan base of the IndyCar Series. So we said let's come up with a fan tour, and we themed it after like a summer-long concert tour. We made T-shirts, we made backstage passes, w!hich are right over here and available for anybody who needs them. We've got all the information you need about the tour, and you can pick up some passes to take with you. What we're going to do is, throughout the course of the season we're having people register on the Web site, right now 1,500 folks have already registered. At the end of the year we're going to give away a Chevrolet Cobalt, give away a Panther edition Chevrolet Cobalt and a Panther edition Segway and also give away a wakeboard that's designed by pro wakeboarder Zane Schwenk. So that's going to be really exciting. At the end of the year at the California Speedway, we're going to give those away to all the fans that are registered. At the same time, before each race we're going to pick two fans, and they're going to be fans of the race. We're going to put a decal on the dashboard of each race car and in essence they'll be riding with Tomas Scheckter or riding with Tomas Enge. They can win prizes based on how t!hose guys finish. If Scheckter wins the race and you're Denise Farris, for example, and your name is on the race car, at the end of the year we'll fly you out to the last race of the year, give you hotel accommodations and pit passes. It should be fun. At the same time, we're going to do events throughout the year. A couple weeks ago we went out to Fast Times indoor karting and rented the facility out for the weekend, had all three of our drivers come out, race against the fans, did an autograph session and it was a really big success. That's the Fan Tour. Like I said, there are passes over here you guys can pick up, press releases out here you can grab and check out. It's going to be on the Web site all year. So come check it out and encourage people to sign up. It should be good. Right now I'm going to introduce Pat Sullivan, who's going to do Q and A with both of our drivers and team owner John Barnes. So thank you very much.
PAT SULLIVAN: We'll let the three principals share the big mike here on the chairs. We began the evening here at Panther Racing, what a great shop it is, talking about the great history of this team and number one in terms of victories, all-time Indy Racing League IndyCar Series, couple of championships, also in the Infiniti Pro Series. We have brought John Barnes up. And, John, as we approach the 89th running of the Indianapolis 500, you were a chief mechanic at the age of 22 with a driver for those of us who are kind of steeped in short-track racing is legendary and brave character in Jimmy Carruthers. Talk about the excitement that goes with heading towards the month of May and an opportunity to get a driver's image on the Borg-Warner Trophy.
JOHN BARNES: You look above over here and see the races we've won; we've won everything except Indianapolis. Indianapolis, I think, we've been a terrible failure. It's one of the things we're really pushing this year here. We had our meeting before the season started and talked about what was our goals and aspirations, and there's only one, that's win the 500. I think with these two guys here, we've got, I think that's achievable. Especially with Buddy as a third member of our team. Chevrolet has just done an incredible job this offseason and give us, I think, better power than the other two. Great reliability. Pennzoil has come up with some good products and stuff for us that's helped us, also, in internal engine drag. And if we all keep drinking in Rockstar, I don't think we're ever going to go to sleep.
SULLIVAN: Of course, you mentioned the third team, Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria coming on with '96 Indianapolis 500 winner, Buddy Lazier, former Indy Racing League Series champion. Another team that has great history, another sponsor that has great history with Rich Vogler, that's going to be exciting with Buddy. Let's talk about the Chevrolet team, you are the sole Chevrolet team, perhaps many thought that that was going to be the death knell for Panther Racing. But while the results may not have been what you have wanted thus far, there is clear indication that you have the speed to get to Victory Lanes and that's been in all the races so far.
BARNES: It's been kind of funny, all the racing experts in the world, the media, they've told us all through from about September how stupid we were for staying with Chevrolet. I can tell you there is no question in my mind, and I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but this I don't think was one of them. To be the only Chevy team and to have the ability to have that great company behind us and all their concentrated efforts on us, we were smiling all the way. These two guys have driven the cars with the engines we've had this year will totally agree with you they are superior. They are incredible. We haven't had one engine problem. The stuff that we were going to run today is actually better. Every day we get better engines from them. Right now we're probably 50, 60 horsepower up over what we were last year at the Speedway.
SULLIVAN: One of the things that has produced all these banners we see in your shop has been good pit work and good pit strategy. We'll turn now to Tomas Scheckter and a perfect example of the great work in the Panther team is my understanding is Tomas we had to go out and fetch you on the highway because you had a mechanical failure in your car?
TOMAS SCHECKTER: Yeah, I'm sorry I'm late. You don't always have the Panther crew on the side of the highway to change your wheels. They said half an hour, I'm used to eight seconds. (Laughter) But yeah, that's another great side of me. You saw at this race, we were unbelievable in the pits, we really were. We passed five cars, I think, my stop. It's a great feeling to do that, and the guys told me before we made a bit of a change in the pits and we've really got it together. You know, like John said, we've got a good combination, it's just getting some finishes under our belt, and I think the results will come.
SULLIVAN: I'll tell you, we thought that result was going to come obviously at St. Petersburg, and there's been a variety of things we've been trying to do, Tomas, to exorcise the bad luck that you have encountered but once again you've been in position, once again I suspect when I talk to the members of your team still very confident you're going to get back into Victory Lane like you did in Michigan a couple years ago.
SCHECKTER: Yeah, it's a rolling ball and getting frustrating for me and I'm sure for everybody on the team. But we've got to keep our heads up. In the beginning of the season we thought everything was great, we had a pole and we had an unfortunate incident. As a driver you feel like you have to make up twice as much as what you've lost and that's not the right direction to do it. You've got to take a step backward to take a step forward. Sometimes I think I need to do that with my driving. We've certainly got the equipment, I've got the team and it's a case of putting it together.
SULLIVAN: The gentleman to my right here, of course, is a man we've grown to respect who came to us with great credentials, Formula 3000, sports car credentials, he's run in Formula One, the Czech Republic, Tomas Enge. Tomas, you had a couple races last year with Patrick Racing and got exposed to American-style Indy Racing League action, and you've shown some speed. Tell us about your team and the good work with Rockstar Energy drink. I talked with Mike and they're very excited about having you on this team. What's it like racing in the Indy Racing League?
TOMAS ENGE: First of all, I have to say I'm happy I got the opportunity last year to run the two races with Patrick Racing. Because I knew I wanted to come over to U.S. and drive here in this championship. That was really a great opportunity for me to get at least the feeling, first feeling, first experiences with these races because it's completely different than road course races I'm used to from Europe. So when I got the opportunity to drive for this team, for Panther Racing, with the Rockstar Chevy car, I was really, really happy. I knew that there is like a start of a new career for me. So for me, it's obviously difficult to get used to these tracks, to get used to this kind of racing, or it was difficult, especially in the beginning last year, these two races. But now I would say I am nearly there, nearly at the speed where we need to be. I still have a lot of things to learn, especially the tracks, which I don't know. I know only Texas and California. So it is nice to d!rive these cars. It is very big adrenaline you can feel in these high-speed tracks. But I think if I run a little bit more and, as Tomas said, we need to put everything together and we need to have also good luck so that we can be really, really competitive.
SULLIVAN: How about some questions for the three? Don't be shy.
Q: I wanted to ask, next year engine-wise, Chevy will not be with you next year is my understanding?
SULLIVAN: Question is what will happen engine-wise next year.
BARNES: You know, we're not sure yet. Kind of going to wait through Indianapolis and get that sorted out and, of course, both manufacturers have talked to us and we're just going to see what happens after Indy. Who knows, maybe Chevrolet will stick around.
SULLIVAN: Questions? What's it been like for you, Tomas, you mentioned getting used to the ovals, getting used to the -- you're racing awful close side by side, what was that like for you at first?
BARNES: I would like to answer that for him. (Laughter)
SULLIVAN: OK. Get used to this.
BARNES: I can tell you the first time he ran an Indy car was at California Speedway. It was when Sam decided he was going to go elsewhere. And I heard about him forever and had watched him race a lot and was very impressed. So anyway, I sent an e-mail to his Web site because I didn't know how to get ahold of him and asked him if he would like to come over and take a test. We took him to California Speedway. Sam drove for probably half a day and then we fit Tomas in and got him on the racetrack. Within two laps, he was running the same speed what Hornish was.
ENGE: Five laps.
BARNES: Five laps, OK. The next day, there were six other IRL teams there. The next day, as California Speedway gets, we had about 25, 30 mile an hour winds. California Speedway looks fairly easy, like somebody like myself could do it but in reality, it's tough. When it gets windy, it's really tough. I remember this, you went out and ran and ran the same speed you did without the wind. You were the only guy that did. Andy Brown who was the engineer at that point in time says, well, he comes in the pits and says how is it? Tomas says it's pretty difficult with the wind, but I can keep doing it if you want me to. So we called it a day at that point in time. He's impressed us from day one, and we think he has a great career ahead of him. He is shy to tell you his talents but we've been very happy with Tomas and feel he is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Now you can tell him. (Laughter)
ENGE: Only a few words. I wouldn't be in the speed as I was if I wouldn't be in a Panther car at that time. So that's why. That's the reason why we were so quick. But it is -- I have to say it is very different to run 200, 220 miles per hour side by side to the other cars than if you were run 100 miles per hour, obviously. But the driver wants always to drive as fast as possible. And I said, you know, after a few runs, after several laps, that I was asking, ‘You know, can't we have more horsepower?’ And they told me, ‘Well, unfortunately, but we are working on it.’ (Laughter)
SULLIVAN: Questions?
Q: The two Tomases, how do you interact? You mentioned that you haven't seen all these tracks that you're running on right now. Are you able – Tomas, are you able to help him with some of these tracks?
SULLIVAN: Question is how the two teammates are working together. Is Tomas Scheckter able to help Tomas (Enge) learn the tracks.
SCHECKTER: Yeah, I think if there's information I can give to him, I'm willing to give it. I think that's the best way, is to be up front and open with your teammate. Hopefully he's up front and honest back to you, and that can build each other and also build the team up. So if there's anything he needs to know, he comes directly to me and ask about it and sometimes I will also go to him, a lot of times in St. Peter I was going to him and saying how does it feel here or what line do you use here and where do you brake; and so it works both ways.
SULLIVAN: Other questions?
Q: I would like to hear what you thought of the first experience of the IRL and a road course. We don't know, all we know is what you tell us. What were the feelings? How do you work with it from your standpoint?
SULLIVAN: Question is about the first IRL race on the street course, what was it like, experience and those things?
ENGE: The first time we run the car in Homestead on the road course track. I was really surprised how the car is braking, how it's responding, how it's actually fast, you know, around the track. I thought, you know, this car is built up for high speed ovals, and it never can be competitive on a road course track. But if you look at the times that we've done in St. Pete in qualifying compared to Champ Car two years ago, we were only probably one-and-a-half seconds off, which was less than -- or more than I think 100 or 150-horsepower less in the car. I think it's really good. So I think the car was very fast, and I was surprised. To drive the car on a road course track was a pleasure for me. It's obviously a bit different than F3000 or F1 because these cars are built up completely differently. You have different rules, and you have different things, engine, tires and whatever. But I tested the Champ Car, as well, two years ago and I would say that the car is maybe slightly bett!er than, handling-wise, than Champ Car. It's good fun, and obviously I was really enjoying the track because road course tracks, street tracks, that's something for me and I would really appreciate if we would have some more races like that on the calendar.
SULLIVAN: John, why don't you answer that, tell us from your perspective.
BARNES: Well, it was what you expect from Barry Green. He's a class person. The place was fabulously laid out. We had great attendance. You know, it was an event. It had a feeling of Motegi or Long Beach or Indianapolis. And again, I think it's going to be our schedule for quite a while. I think you'll probably see in the future we'll have three or four more of these races, you know. But like I say, Barry did a tremendous job, he and his entire organization. Nice to see Kirk Russell back there, he helped quite a bit. But the facility was fabulous. It took a lot of pain and heartaches to build the place they did in the time they did, but we were very impressed with it.
SULLIVAN: Tomas, back on a road course after being with the IRL for a while. Tell us about that.
SCHECKTER: I still thought I was still getting into it toward the end of the weekend and really starting enjoying myself and finding a decent rhythm. For sure, they've done a good job on the cars and enjoy the drive. Again, what they did with the event was unbelievable. I think it's, you know, other than Indy, it's one of the best events that we go to. The fans loved it. I think the drivers loved it, and the teams liked it, as well. Like John said, I think it's going to be around for a while.
SULLIVAN: Other questions? Up front.
Q: How did you feel that the car handled? Problem in handling?
SCHECKTER: No, I thought the car handled well. It's all obviously in the tuning that we did. To be honest, I don't think, you know, like also John said, I think the important race that we discussed in the beginning of the year is here at Indianapolis, and we really focus a lot on that. I think we've got a lot of things that we're going to surprise people there with. But we didn't put, I would say, as much effort as we did or are going to put into Indianapolis. So I think maybe some of the other teams, they pushed a little more for it, so we were very happy with our performance. We learned a massive amount, and when we go back to a road track, we're going to be in a very strong position.
SULLIVAN: Questions? Where did Hattie go? You've got something for the folks? It's the 60th year for Tom at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one of the real institutions, of course. That's quite a while, I might add. So Hattie's got those. Any other questions for our trio here?
Q: (Inaudible).
SCHECKTER: For me, when the car is good, and then it's funny, I actually – they did a program when I was racing in England on exactly what makes a race driver better than a normal driver, and they had a camera to my eye and they had a camera on the car spotted on the road. So I think when you're in a good rhythm, you don't know what's going on, you're driving on natural instincts, and you get lap after lap and let the car doing the work. But for me it's getting the car set up, and everything really comes natural.
SULLIVAN: The question is when you feel like in a rhythm when everything is working in the car, how do you get to that point, how do you know you've reached that? Where do you feel your comfort zone?
ENGE: I think you always try to drive as fast as possible, try to get everything out of the car even if the car is not good. If the car is good, you obviously know that because you are faster than the others. But if you are -- you can be also faster than the others if the car is not good. So I think, as Tomas said, I am about the same, in the same situation. First think you try to set up the car as best as possible in practices and in the rain you are just driving. Also in the practices, you are driving, you feel -- you have your feelings, you have your instincts, so you just go flat out.
BARNES: Give you an example. We were at Homestead in the first session, Tomas was quickest car there. He came in the pit after the thing, got out of the car and Andy Borne, who is his engineer, same one Helio had in his two Indy 500 wins, Andy was beating himself on the chest saying how great the car was. Tomas looked at him and said no, it isn't very good at all. So it's just a matter of learning how to drive what you have, and I think our guys here just did a tremendous job down at St. Pete doing that.
SULLIVAN: Other questions? All the way in the back.
Q: This is for Tomas Scheckter. Of all the racecourses you go through, is there a favorite for you?
SULLIVAN: Is there a favorite course?
SCHECKTER: One place that's always special ever since I ever practiced there the first time and raced there the first time has to be Indy. It just is. It's even when we were there today, it's sort of a special feeling. Even the night before, I go, I'm excited to go testing there. But I like Richmond, as well, because it's completely opposite, very tight, a lot, lot of G's, physically very hard. After they resurfaced it, there's a couple lines. But, for sure, my No. 1 track is Indianapolis.
SULLIVAN: We'll ask your favorite track. It could be anywhere.
ENGE: Yeah, because I haven't run on ovals so much yet, I think I would say Texas is very nice, Homestead, as well. Phoenix, I was surprised the most because it's a short track and you have to work with the car quite a lot, much more than on the other tracks, on the long ovals. But obviously I'm a road course kid, so I have to say Spa in Belgium, Monza, I like fast tracks. I like Brno in Czech Republic, it's a really nice track as well, challenging. And I could say some more, some more in Europe, but you can choose. You know, once you have success on the tracks, you like it as well. (Laughter) I tell you, I was in Monaco four times, and the first two times I was not able to qualify because I had an accident in qualifying and that was it. Third time, I qualified ninth but I had some technical problems in qualifying, so I was ninth. And then in the race I finish sixth or something like that. So I start to somehow like that track. (Laughter) The fourth year I was fastest or secon!d fastest in free practice, then I had a gearbox problem in qualifying, so I was again seventh on the grid. I finished third and I said I love this track. (Laughter) But the first two years I said this is -- beep -- not nice. Not nice. (Laughter) I never want to come back. But then I did and I start to be successful there. Since that point I said to myself, OK, now I can be successful on street course tracks, as well. That's what happened in St. Petersburg until the point what happened at the end of the race. But maybe I would like to come back to St. Petersburg to talk about St. Petersburg a little bit more because I think we had the best car there. We had a car to win the race. But unfortunately I have to say that the rules, they are set up with the safety car, with the yellow flags and closed pits, when the yellow flags come on, it's not really great rules because you can fight like hell, you can drive your ass off, but once there is a safety car, everybody gets together, w!hich is OK for spectators, I like it, as well, for challenge. But on the other hand, you have to be able to come into the pits when you like. So I think this sometimes helps the drivers that are not really fast, but they are consistent and they have a good strategy or they are just lucky, which happened in St. Petersburg. I know that the guy who won the race is fast, but he was more lucky than fast. So I have to say I had one of the fastest cars out there, but I was never able to get to the point to win the race because unfortunately the rules are set up like that. I think they should, might do something with it on the road course tracks to, you know, to help.
SULLIVAN: This will be our final question.
SULLIVAN: Question on the new qualifying format at Indianapolis.
BARNES: I love it. I think it's great, I think it's going to bring more people out. You know, I've been going to the 500 since 1957 or '8 and as a lot of you can remember, there was a lot more people there than what there is lately. But I think it's going to bring more people out, it gives more of an event feel. There's going to be a lot of scratching and clawing to get in those first 11 spots and then the next day the next 11. I think Brian or Tony, whoever came up with it, I think it was a brilliant idea.
SULLIVAN: Thanks for having us. Really enjoyed it. Drivers, thanks for much, John, all your hospitality. Just great. Thank you very much. (Applause)
