Q&A: Fernandez, Jourdain Jr, Gonzalez, Rojas.

With the Champ Car World Series due to touch down in Mexico for the Tecate Telmex Grand Prix next weekend, it was only natural that the championship's Mexican contingent should fall under the spotlight during the build-up.

Joining veterans Adrian Fernandez and Michel Jourdain Jr in the 'hotseat' were series rookie Roberto Gonzalez, who will be making his second Champ Car start in Mexico, and Memo Rojas, one of the standout stars of the supporting Barber Dodge Pro Series.

Eric Mauk:
Adrian, a busy time for you, you had a long day yesterday in Los Angeles, entertaining much of the Hispanic media, then you're off to Mexico to shoot a commercial tomorrow for the first of two races you'll have in Mexico this year. How much does the crush of media around these races hinder your focus? How tough is it to get your car and team ready, and do all of the media obligations that are heaped upon you, for these Mexico races?

Adrian Fernandez:
It's just a matter of organising yourself. This is not the first time we are doing it - it's not the first time that we are going to be racing in Mexico - so that's helped us know what to expect and why we've been organising ourselves to the point of trying to be, you know, more efficient with our time and everything. We're pretty much under control in all those respects.

EM:
Michel, last week was a big week for you as well. You were in Monterrey with us, giving pace car rides. Before that, you met the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, and other dignitaries down there. Tell us about that, and how it came about that you met the president of Mexico...

Michael Jourdain Jr:
I think to come to Monterrey was organised before, and it was a coincidence that the president was there for an official trip, I guess. They just organised for us to meet him. He was in a convention centre that is right next to the track, and we were going to meet there, so they organised a quick meeting. It was very nice, it's always very exciting to meet the president. Before that, I was with the ex-governor, who is now the secretary of economics in Mexico. The next day, we had a press conference with the governor of the state, the mayor. It was a good day. Then there were the pace car rides, driving nice people - a lot of fans and a lot of sponsors. So it was pretty nice.

EM:
Roberto, as Michel said, you were down there for two days giving pace car rides. It was non-stop. The support from the fans and media down there was unbelievable. You were participating, driving in some of those pace cars and getting ready to drive in your first Champ Car race in front of your hometown fans. Are you excited about getting down there, getting this thing rolling?

Roberto Gonzalez:
Yes, I'm very excited to race there. I've been there for the past two years just as a spectator, always wishing to be there driving. So this is going to be my first year. It's very exciting. It's too exciting, I don't know how to express it. Last weekend was a great event. There was a lot of media, and it was also a great opportunity for us as new drivers. We got to get around the track a couple of times, and just have fun with the media guys - show them a little bit of what we feel during our hard drives around the track.

EM:
Memo, you were down there as well giving out some rides and meeting a lot of people. You're just getting your season started and, to start off, with a podium finish at St Petersburg - tell us about the way you feel things started for you in 2003....

Memo Rojas:
I'm very happy with the way the season started for us. A podium finish is always good to start the season. I had a little bit of troubles with qualifying because my engine blew, but we were able to deal with that. For the second qualifying, we got it fixed and were able to get a podium finish at the end. I'm thrilled for this season, especially going to Monterrey which, for me, is the first time I will have raced in my country in the last four years. I'm very excited, because the sponsors and family and friends are used to watch you on television - either live or just during the news - but now they're going to be able to go and watch and see it live. For me, that's thrilling and very exciting. I'm happy to be racing at Monterrey, and am looking forward to next week.

EM:
As we all are. Let's go ahead and open it up for questions from the media....

Q:
Michel, your Mexican sponsor, Gigante, did some interesting promotions in Mexico City. Can you tell me some things you've been doing to promote the Monterrey race and how it affects the build-up for you?

MJ:
It's been really, really busy, you know, with the press starting on Monday after St Petersburg. It was really, really busy those first couple weeks in Monterrey. Right now, this week, I'm in Columbus in the [Team Rahal work] shop. My personal trainer is right here, and I'm working out really hard. On Tuesday I'm going - actually, I'm going back on Friday - to Monterrey for some promotions, and going back to Mexico City on Saturday, then on Tuesday back to Monterrey. I have other promotions on Tuesday night or Wednesday, dinners with big suppliers, with Gigante and Office Depot, with a lot of people. It's going to be really, really busy.

Q:
Obviously, as we all know, this is a very, very big weekend for all of you, from the experienced guys to the rookies. Adrian, you're the most experienced guy, the guy who's driven so much of the interest in Champ Cars in Mexico. Could you talk about how well-established the sport has become there in Mexico, how far it's come in such a short period of time, how you've seen it grow in the past few years...

AF:
Sure. Well, it hasn't been that quickly. If you think about it, it's been a while since things like this have happened in Mexico. It's been a process, from different drivers starting from the Rodriguez brothers, then we have Hector Rebaque, Josele Garza, Bernardo Jourdain, just different drivers, different eras, different times. For a period of time, we really didn't have anything. To be able to go to the United States, or to be able to go to England, it was basically crazy, absolutely impossible. So there were not many opportunities to race outside. Our racing in Mexico was good - we have a good championship - but it was just that. It was not very professional in terms of being able to grow towards a bigger series.

So, over a period of time, racing has grown tremendously in Mexico - to the point of having more interest in companies - and this is all part of also the initiative of Tecate, Gigante, Quaker State, Herdez and Telmex, to be able to support us right from the beginning and believe in this project. With a combination of promotions and results and all that, it grew up to the point of making a lot of noise in Mexico, becoming a big sport. Now that has influenced other companies, other drivers to come to CART.

It's nice to see it growing, because it's something that we always wanted. I think, you know, now with people like Michel and Mario [Dominguez] and Roberto coming, you have secured I think for a great part of our immediate future for international racing.

And I think, also, the Mexican local racing is starting to grow even more. Events like Mexico, like Monterrey, do good for our racing in Mexico, for the local racing, because it attracts new sponsors, brings in new companies and all that. That's fantastic. It's starting to become a little bit like the Brazilian sort of situation - although not yet as big. If we continue like this and we all put our help to try to keep all this, I think our future in racing looks pretty bright.

Q:
Michel, you've been there in the middle of this growth as well, now you've got yourself into a top team. You're in with a chance at the championship, running second in the points. How does all this affect you? Do you feel this is sort of a motivation, or do you feel it's pressure? How does this whole situation affect you?

MJ:
Yes, I think I been in a really good situation because, like Adrian says, since we were young, we were in racing. When I was younger, when racing in Mexico started to get a little bigger, one of the first things I remember is Josele Garza leading 13 laps at Indy. I mean, when Adrian came through, went to Europe, I remember that, when he left Mexico, that was really big, you know - everybody was really talking about that. And he tried so, so hard.

Like he said, it's what happened to my dad. My dad, when he used to race in Mexico, could just go on a Sunday with his helmet and he could drive five cars. But, if you tried to go to the States or Europe, nobody would help. So, for people like Adrian and all the guys that went to Europe, it was so hard. But Adrian was the most successful. He came back to Mexico, racing Formula Three, then in the States. He worked so, so hard at it. He was very smart, he was working on a good team, running very well in Indy Lights, brought himself in a different team in CART, started doing good, getting results, and worked so hard at the sponsors. I think all that is what has helped all of us here - later Herdez got in, then I came in. Just more and more people started coming. It has changed so, so much. Now, with the races in Mexico, the racing world in Mexico is so different in ten years.

Q:
Adrian, what was your reaction to the cancellation of the race at Road America?

AF:
Well, obviously it's something that you don't want to hear. It's definitely one of our favourite racetracks. I mean, it's been the all-time favourite for us. It's going to be deeply missed by all the drivers. But, you know, there were some issues that CART had to fix and, unfortunately, they could not be fixed without cancelling the event. We all hope that that event can come back in the future and we can go back there and have the solution all fixed by then.

Q:
The first race at Road America was won by a countryman of yours, Hector Rebaque. What memories do you have of that, if any?

AF:
To be honest, I don't remember anything of that. At that time, to be honest, we had not much coverage of Indy cars in Mexico. You know, we knew more about the Indy 500 and Formula One, things like that. I just don't remember much about it. I really came more in contact with CART and all that after I came back from Europe. I mean, we knew about it, but I think I was very young when all this happened, so I don't really remember much.

Q:
In previous years, the only race in Mexico was Monterrey. With the great success in Mexico City, do you see that detracting from the Monterrey event at all?

MJ:
I mean, in the past, you know, even when we had Houston, racing in Houston was like racing in Mexico. Like in Denver, they played the Canadian anthem, in Houston they should have played the Mexican anthem. In racing, it's really big, you know, in all the north of Mexico, Mexico City, all these places. A lot of people that went to Mexico City were there for the first time. But there's people coming to Monterrey all the way from the north of Mexico, from the south, from everywhere. They're going to come to Mexico City - some can only come to one.

I mean, if you put the two together then there could be, say, half a million in the three days for the two races. We have 100 million people in Mexico. A lot of people that go to one go to the other. So I think both events can be really, really huge. Last year, we had both events and they were really big. I cannot see one distracting from the other.

EM:
Roberto, then Memo, you hear about Adrian and Michel talk about how tough it was for them to get started. Talk about how what they have done in the last five or six years that has made it easier for you guys, or do you think it has gotten any easier for you guys to break into racing?

RG:
I think what they have achieved has really changed motorsports in Mexico. It's really helped us. They've opened international motorsports to the eyes of business companies here in Mexico. In that sense, we really owe, first, Adrian a lot and, then, Michel also - he's been there for a while now. We owe, like Adrian said, Tecate, Quaker, Telmex, Herdez - we owe them a lot.

I also had the opportunity to live through a little bit of what Michel and Adrian had to live. The past three years, I've been racing in Europe. It was basically a time where no other Mexicans were racing over there, so it was like a first timer. We really had to work hard for that. But it definitely is part of what Adrian and Michel have already created.

MR:
I think, for me, it has been the same. Similar to Roberto, I've been able to witness how racing has changed. I remember the first time I saw Adrian race a Champ Car when he was racing here in the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. I remember I was like ten or eleven years old. For me, it was amazing to watch. That was one of the moments that, for me, pushed me to be a race car driver, because I was in love with the car, and then I was able to see how the sport began growing.

As Adrian said, it's very difficult to get started. I've been struggling a lot getting support. And, right now, I'm very fortunate to be involved with the Telmex racing team, for supporting young drivers involved directly with the Champ Car ladder system. So I'm very happy, and fortunate, to be part of it. Hopefully, I can follow Adrian and Michel and Roberto's steps in the future.