Nakano hoping to erase Milwaukee memories.

Shinji Nakano is hoping that his Fernandez Racing team can help him erase the memories of his accident at he one-mile Milwaukee Speedway this weekend when the CART Fed-Ex Championship reconvenes for the Miller Lite 225.

Shinji Nakano will be making his second career appearance at the famed Milwaukee Mile this weekend, the first behind thewhell of the No.52 Fernandez Racing Reynard-Honda and the Japanese driver is keen to put aside his 2000 experiences at the circuit.

The former Prost and Minardi Formula One driver will be making his 22th Champ Car start but that figure would have been three higher had he not been focrd out of the races at Long Beach, Nazareth and Rio De Janeiro last season, a legacy of an early-season cash at Milwaukee.

Nakano had recovered in time for last year's Miller Lite 225 but a miserable weekend ended in retirment on lap 71.

On Milwaukee: "I have no good memories of Milwaukee. I had the testing accident and then I crashed in the warm up, so I want to forget these memories. This year I am starting new, and it is a completely different situation. Milwaukee is not an easy track, and it is important to have a good car to have confidence there. I have had a very good car the past few races. I just need to be patient in the beginning on Friday, and work towards a good setup. If we work like normal, like we have been working, we should be all right. I had a good car and a good race at Nazareth, and that makes me feel good for Milwaukee."

On his busy schedule after Japan: "I worked harder after the race than before! Everybody was very happy after the race. I think I could have done better, but at least I could finish the race. Eighth place wasn't a great result, but it wasn't too bad. It was good for all the fans in Japan, and for my sponsors. The week after the race, I was very busy. I stayed in Japan and had a lot of interviews and sponsor visits. Yeah, Japan was good."

Nakano's team-mate and team boss Adrian Fernandez will be making his ninth career appearance at Milwaukee and his experience of the track will be of huge benefit to the first year operation and his inexperienced team-mate.

However the Mexican's record at Milwaukee is less impressive than he would like and he will be going for just his second top-five result at the track since he made his debut there in 1993.

Last season Fernandez finished eighth after a typically canny drive from 19th on the grid and it is that type of performance that helped Fernandez to a career best second in the final point's standings.

On Milwaukee: "I feel pretty confident. We had a good qualifying session at Nazareth, and were running well in the race. A lot of the things we utilized there can help us in Milwaukee. The same goes for Shinji. He is getting better on the ovals, so we should expect him to improve every weekend in terms of oval performance. What we need to improve, and what hopefully will be fixed, are the [electrical] problems we have had in the last two races so we can start scoring our first points. The first two [races] were more understandable because we were a new team and all that but in the last two races, both Shinji and myself have been performing well and the team has improved tremendously. We are getting better every weekend, so it's frustrating because this problem was something that was not in the team's control. Hopefully Milwaukee will be the start of getting some good points."

On his recent trip to Monaco for the F1 race: "The atmosphere at the race is fantastic. I saw a lot of good friends including a lot of drivers that I know from years past. I had time to talk to my good friend Jo Ramirez from McLaren, who is planning to retire at the end of the year. I had a chance to speak with Bernie Ecclestone for a few minutes. I saw Bobby Rahal ... I spent a lot of time talking to people. I hadn't been to a grand prix in a long time, and it was nice to be there especially in the company of Carlos Slim [Telmex] and his family. It was a nice, relaxing weekend. For the first time, I didn't have to worry about waking up early for practice! Just the magic of the place is fantastic. It's what comes with the race - all around it - that makes Monaco so special."

On the rumors of his involvement in F1: "That's just a rumor. I don't know how it started. Jo Ramirez is a very good friend of mine, and I spent some good time with him. Obviously our priority right now is in CART - to make our team successful, try to win the championship within the next few years, and just make this team strong. What will happen later I don't know, but at the moment we are just concentrating on what we are doing."