CHAMPCAR/CART: Greg Moore Homestead Test 98-01-12

GREG MOORE HAS UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN MARLBORO GRAND PRIX OF MIAMI

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (January 12, 1999) - Last year's Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Presented by Toyota ended one lap too early for Greg Moore, who took the checkered flag at winner Michael Andretti's rear wing. On March 21, the young 23-year-old star is determined to win the CART FedEx Championship Series season opener at Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex. Moore won the pole position for the 1998 event with a scintillating lap of 217.5 mph on the Homestead oval in the Player's Mercedes-Reynard, and led the opening 36 circuits. Suddenly, a jack failure on a routine pit stop dropped Moore to 17th position. He worked his way through the pack and finally caught Andretti on the final lap of the race. "I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind that if I hadn't had that problem we would have won the race hands-down," Moore admitted. "That air jack failure cost us the race. But the nice thing is we did have a great race, even though we had a big problem, coming from dead last to second." The Canadian maintained his torrid pace over the following five races, finishing no lower than sixth and earning a three more visits to the podium for top-three finishes. Moore dominated the oval events on the 1998 FedEx Championship Series schedule, leading the series with 113 points, but struggled on road and street circuits. Fittingly, that was what brought Moore and teammate Patrick Carpentier to Homestead Tuesday for their test session, running laps on the 2.21-mile road circuit instead of the 1.5-mile oval used for the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Presented by Toyota. "We're trying to do a lot of our road course testing here," Moore explained. "If there was anywhere that we were a bit deficient last year, it was on the road courses. With all the testing we're going to be doing over the winter on the road courses, I'm sure we'll improve with what we've got. "We'll work on our oval car when we come back here for CART's Spring Training (February 2-4). We'll have 11 hours of scheduled track time then." Moore had a sensational third season in the Dayton-PPG Indy Lights division, scoring a record 10 victories in 12 events to win the 1995 championship. He came to CART the following year as a 21-year old rookie, finishing third in the third race of the season among his three podium finishes. However, he was edged out for rookie of the year by Alex Zanardi. Moore became the youngest winner in CART history in 1997 when he edged Andretti at Milwaukee, and won again the following week at Detroit. He placed seventh in the championship. Last year he improved to fifth in the points, winning four pole positions and scoring victories at Rio de Janeiro and the U.S. 500 at Michigan. This year, Moore feels the championship is in his sights. "I think this is the first year we can legitimately say that we've got our best shot to look at the championship. I firmly believe that we have a shot at doing it." The March 19-21 weekend also features the opening round for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in Saturday's Florida Dodge Dealers 400, plus the PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Series. For ticket orders, call (305) 230-7223. For additional information, visit the Speedway's official website, www.racemiami.com.