CHAMPCAR/CART: Shigeaki Milwaukee Qualifying

Saturday, June 5, 1999

Miller Lite 225  - Round #7     The Milwaukee Mile, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Shigeaki Hattori - #16          Mercedes-Benz/Reynard/Goodyear

Qualifying: 22.889 seconds 162.314 mph average 24th grid position

For the first time in his short CART FedEx Championship career, EPSON Bettenhausen Motorsports driver Shigeaki Hattori will start from the 12th row for tomorrow's Miller Lite 225 on the historic Milwaukee Mile. Shigeaki out-qualified veteran drivers Bryan Herta and Dennis Vitolo and was a scant seven one-thousandths behind Robby Gordon. Shigeaki shaved 3/10ths of a second from his previous best lap time during his qualifying run. The pole position time of 21.931 seconds was set by Helio Castro-Neves.

Vince Kremer - Chief Mechanic We're really happy with Shigeaki's progress this weekend. He's learning really quickly and his confidence is building with every mile we run. Looking forward to tomorrow'' race, the challenge will be getting through the traffic. With the small wings we run here, the heat and the high humidity, he'll have to work very hard to find ways through. I'm thankful that Shigeaki is as physically fit as he is so we shouldn't have to worry about driver fatigue.

Shigeaki Hattori - I'm very happy with qualifying today. We started off the weekend with a big push in the car but we've been working to reduce it during each session. Every time we've gone out, the car has gotten better and better. The conditions during today's qualifying were very similar to practice this morning so we didn't have to make many changes to the car. The car still has a little push but we are happy and ready for tomorrow.