Monteiro: What can I say? We'd fixed it.

In keeping with the difficulties already experienced at last weekend's GI Joe's 200 in Portland, the Fittipaldi-Dingman Racing entry developed a gearbox problem at the start of the race, bringing about an early retirement for driver Tiago Monteiro.

The team had its difficulties all weekend long, but was hoping that its luck would change and it could earn another top ten finish and improve in the standings. It wasn't to be , however, leaving a disappointed Monteiro to reflect on the weekend's events.

"What can I say?" the Portuguese driver pondered, "We've had gearbox problems all weekend, but we fixed it yesterday. The guys looked at it, it seemed fine and I didn't have any problems with it in the warm-up this morning.

"We've got some new pieces that we need to look at again. Our problem surfaced on the first lap and we just couldn't get it to work. The whole weekend's been off - just bad luck. We needed to get some laps in here and hopefully score some points, but that didn't happen. Now we go to test this week and definitely work on the problems we had this weekend. I'm very confident that the guys will take care of everything and we'll be back on track for Cleveland."

Team owner Emerson Fittipaldi was equally frustrated with the weekend.

"It's a pity," he said, "because Tiago and the team have been doing great work. Tiago was gentle with the gearbox but, all weekend, we had problems. We know now that it was an electrical problem, which is something out of the team's control. It was certainly a tough weekend, but we're putting it behind us and looking forward to Cleveland."