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Saturday, March 10
Andretti pulls a slick one over foes
Associated Press

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Somehow that No. 39 on the side of Michael Andretti's Honda-powered Reynard just doesn't look right.

After driving the No. 6 for Newman-Haas Racing for years, Andretti has moved to the all-new Motorola Racing team.


	Michael Andretti qualified fifth for Sunday's Monterrey Grand Prix at Fundidora Park.

In his first session of time trials with the new team, run by Barry Green, who also fields cars for Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti at Team Green, Andretti qualified fifth for Sunday's inaugural Telmex Tecate Grand Prix.

The track had been so slippery in practice on Friday and again on Saturday morning that Andretti, a former series champion, was surprised by the fast lap.

"I think we grabbed it out of thin air," the 38-year-old second-generation CART star said. "This was a good start for our team, but we've got some work to do tonight to get the car a little better for the race."

With such slick conditions, Andretti is a little fearful that the start of Sunday's 80-lap race could be a wild one, with all 28 cars bunched together.

"I'm happy with our starting position and my main goal is to survive the first lap and not get into any trouble," he said. "The track is very green off line, so passing during the race will be very difficult. It will definitely be a good show."

A host of other drivers in their first weekend with a new team showed mixed results.

Cristiano da Matta, one of last year's top CART rookies, was second in his debut in Andretti's old ride, while Oriol Servia, another 2000 rookie, was a solid eighth in the first race for the new Sigma Autosport team.

Former champion Jimmy Vasser, moving into the seat left vacant when Adrian Fernandez started his own team this season, gave Patrick Racing the ninth position, while rookie Scott Dixon -- last year's Indy Lights champ -- was 14th for PacWest.

Bryan Herta, driving for the new Zakspeed-Forsythe Racing, was 14th, with Fernandez 19th.

Fellow rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian, who stepped into the rides of Vasser and Formula One rookie Juan Montoya for Chip Ganassi's team, were a disappointing 20th and 21st, followed by two-time series champion Alex Zanardi in his debut with Morris Nunn Racing and rookie Michael Krumm in his first ride with Dale Coyne-PRG Racing.

Rookies Tora Takagi of Derrick Walker Racing and Max Wilson of the new Arciero-Brooke Racing, were 25th and 26th, while Shinji Nakano, driving the second car on the new Fernandez Racing team, was 27th.

Seating problem
About 1,000 of the fans who showed up Friday and Saturday for the preliminaries of the Monterrey Grand Prix found themselves looking fruitlessly for their seat locations.

Their grandstands had not yet been completed.

Miguel Rocha, a spokesman for the track promoters, said they were aware that problems of this kind often crop up during a first-time event and that they had asked Mexico's Consumer Protection Agency to be on hand to help solve these problems.

With the permission of the promoters, the CPA was offering alternative seating or refunds to the fans whose seats were not completed before Sunday. They could have either a 50-percent refund and retain a ticket to enter the grounds or a 100-percent refund and turn in their ticket.

"So far, nobody wants a full refund," Rocha said. "They all want to be here for the race."

Meanwhile, work continued on the new grandstands even as the cars raced by on the 2.1-mile, 12-turn track.

Although they said considerably more tickets could have been sold, the promoters capped Sunday's attendance at 100,000 to make sure that the crowd could be handled properly and safely. Sunday's attendance will include nearly 59,000 grandstand seats, more than 11,000 luxury suite seats and about 30,000 general admission tickets.

Adrian's popularity
Although his driving is hampered this week by a brace on a swollen, aching left forearm -- the result of a tendon problem -- Mexican driver Adrian Fernandez continues to receive a hero's welcome in Monterrey.

Asked about his popularity, Fernandez said, "It's been a process over a lot of time. I've been racing for 20 years.

"I raced in Mexico and was successful, then I raced in Europe and was successful and then I went to race in America. That's when it really started picking up."

Fernandez, who has seven career victories in CART and finished second in the championship last year, added, "It took eight years (in CART) to get to this level and (the popularity) blew up 50 percent last year because of being in the championship fight. Now it's become more difficult for me to be outside."

Fernandez slid off the track late in the qualifying session and wound up 19th on the grid.

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