Andretti

Hello!

I've decided these advance entries for ESPN.com might be a good luck charm since after my first installment we won the Long Beach Grand Prix! Let's hope the streak continues next week when we head over to Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.

The Twin Ring Motegi is an awesome track. It's a 1.5-mile oval that is set up in what they call a "paper clip." Turns 1 and 2 are pretty similar and have a much wider radius than Turns 3 and 4, which are tighter corners. The two different ends of the race track really call for a compromise in setup that I think makes for better racing.

It's all about getting through the turns. If you get the car too good in Turns 1 and 2 then you're going to struggle in Turns 3 and 4. So you really need a setup on the car that's going to work all the way around the track. The way the track is designed, it allows passing and it's really fun to drive so I'm looking forward to this race.

I've had some good results at Motegi in the past (victory in 2000) but now that we're a Honda team, it makes this race much more special since it's their home track. I know that it's one race that Honda hasn't won and I would sure love to be the one to bring home the first victory for a Honda at Motegi. So that adds a little extra incentive for all of us on Team Motorola to do well next weekend.

At Motegi, Team Motorola is switching from the Reynard to the Lola chassis, which should make things interesting. I don't think the switch is going to be a problem because we haven't tested the Reynard on an oval this year so it's not like we're throwing away any data. We did get a chance to test the Lola last month at the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval so I think we have a pretty good handle on the basic setup of the Lola and also how the car reacts to changes. So we should be in decent shape as far as our setup goes and my chief engineer, Eddie Jones, always does a great job. At the end of the day it's just another race car and we're going to treat it like another race car.

	Michael Andretti held off Jimmy Vasser to win at Long Beach.

My wife Leslie is going to be joining me on the trip to Japan, which will be fun. Leslie has gone to Japan before but we've always gone straight to the track. This year we're going to spend time in Tokyo and try to absorb some of the culture and do some sight seeing. I'm not a really good tourist but I do want to see the famous Imperial Gardens and if we get up early enough, go down to the Ginza fish market.

Japan is a totally different part of the world and a totally different culture, which I think is good to experience. Besides all of the culture, Tokyo has some awesome sushi restaurants and I'm a huge sushi fan so that's going to be one of the highlights.

Well, I've got to get going. Hopefully we'll have a good result and look for my next report before Indy! Now that's going to be another big race!

Michael Andretti, the driver of the No. 39 Motorola for Team Green, will be providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the CART season.