MIKE KING: Welcome to Panther Racing, two-time IndyCar Series champion. As you can see, obviously we're in a work environment here, so there's an awful lot going on with the team preparing cars. I will introduce to you the gentlemen that we'll have at our disposal for questions and answers in just a couple of minutes. First, though, I'd like to introduce part of the ownership group of Panther Racing for an official welcome, and here, let's say hello to Doug Boles. Doug.

DOUG BOLES: Thanks, Mike. A lot of you know, or some of you know, anyway, that I spent a bulk of my time in politics. So I get to do the official welcome like having the mayor or governor come in. Welcome to Panther Racing. We've been in here for a couple years now and really just starting to fill it up, as you can see. And actually the building next to us, as you're leaving, if you take a look at that building, we've got another 10,000 square feet over there where we house our Silver Crown car, the carbon shop. A lot of the work that goes into these cars is actually done next door. So, as you can, see we're full. We've got 54 employees, and we'll let these guys talk. On the agenda for this morning, John Barnes, who this is really John Barnes' dream that you're sitting in here today. John is up front here, both of our drivers, Mark Taylor and Tomas Scheckter. We're going to give you a chance to talk to Andy Brown, who's been with us since December of 1998, which is the first year we competed. If there's time permitting, Tim Drudge is over here. Tim is with St. Vincent's Sports Medicine, is actually assigned to Panther Racing full time. We're the first team in the Indy Racing League who has brought in a full-time professional trainer to work with our guys. As you're leaving the bus, you get out on 67, right across the street there is Decatur Central High School. They have what's called the Armstrong Pavilion. Tim can tell you more about that later but some of the guys – in fact, some of the guys may be leaving off and on today while we're here – have a specific training regimen that they go through every day, which I think most of the guys actually enjoy. It's a great opportunity to bond outside of the racetrack, outside of the shop but also gives them an opportunity to get in shape and perform better in pit stops. If any of you have seen some of our pit stops, you know that that's actually the case. With that, I'll turn it back over to Mike. But we appreciate you guys being here. It's an exciting year for us with not only the Pennzoil car that everybody is so familiar with in Panther colors but also with the new Johns Manville Menards car. So with that, we'll let you take it back over, Mike. Thanks for coming.

KING: Thank you, Doug. As Doug mentioned, John Barnes was the spearhead for the Panther Racing team. It all started coming together in 1997, came to life for real in 1998. John is here with us today to answer some questions. John, if I'm not mistaken now, the ownership group includes six with John Menard; is that correct?

JOHN BARNES: Yes, that's true.

KING: So there are six members of the ownership group which John Barnes heads up. His two drivers this year: Tomas Scheckter, certainly no stranger to any of us. Very talented young man from South Africa who joined the team, has run two events with Panther Racing driving the Pennzoil car and, unfortunately, was running very strong at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday when he experienced some very unfortunate luck. But Tomas is here with us. For the first year Mark Taylor, who is from Kent, England, has joined the team in the IndyCar Series, but this is actually Mark's second year with Panther Racing. For those of you who cover the series on a regular basis, you know Mark Taylor was the 2003 Menards Infiniti Pro SeriesÔ champion. Had a very dominating year, won seven races in the other yellow car, the No. 4 Fulmar car, which is not running in the Infiniti Pro Series this year. Instead, much of that staff and many of the crew members that were part of Mark's effort in the Infiniti Pro Series last year, now part of his IndyCar Series effort. So he is one of three drivers in the running for the Bombardier Rookie of the Year Award. So Mark Taylor, Tomas Scheckter and John Barnes. I guess, John, let's just get an opening comment from you. In terms of last time we were here, the team has grown, your trophy case has grown. It's a two-car IndyCar Series effort now. What's it now like getting set for the Indianapolis 500 in 2004?

BARNES: Like a friend of mine told me a long time ago, you're either racing at Indianapolis or getting ready to race at Indianapolis. We've been working on our program for the Speedway since we left there last year. We feel very good about the people that we have here. We expanded to two cars; we were very, very lucky to be able to acquire the people that we had. We had a meeting that was right before Christmas. We had everybody stand up individually and talk about why they wanted to be a Panther, what their racing expertise was, and what they want out of their life. I'll tell you what, (co-owners) Doug (Boles) and Gary (Pedigo) and Griff (Mike Griffin) and I were standing up front and looked at each other when it was over with and said, ‘Holy crap, where did these people come from?’ We have world champions, chief mechanics who have been chief mechanics of Formula One world champion. We've got mechanics and stuff who were chief mechanics or lead mechanics on world champions of Group C cars. Just incredible depth. And of course our engineering staff, run by Andy Brown, I think is second to none. So, when we were able to get Tomas and Mark to be our drivers, we knew that we had the angel on top of the Christmas tree. These guys really, we think, carry us to a lot more banners that we have up here on top.

KING: Tomas, for you this will be your third Indianapolis 500. You almost won your first start. How does preparation in a third year differ from maybe a rookie year or your second year at the Speedway?

TOMAS SCHECKTER: I think I've got maybe a little more understanding of what to expect and how the 500 is run and how to race. Obviously, being here with Panther, they've taught me a lot in the two races I've done. I think I've got maybe the best opportunity for me yet to hopefully try and drink milk at the end of May.

KING: Mark, you're going to be driving the Menards Johns Manville, and it will be your second appearance at the Speedway. You ran second last year at the Infiniti Pro Series race. How much do you look forward to your first 500?

MARK TAYLOR: I'm sure it's going to be exciting to get the opportunity. We had the race there last year in the Infiniti Pro Series, and it gives you a lot of experience, of course, but there's nothing like the month of May in an Indy car, to be able to drive that around. It's great to be with Panther and drive one of their cars, and Menards and Johns Manville, as well. Just the whole buildup, it's been from the beginning of the year looking forward to Indianapolis.

KING: OK, let's open it up for questions. Just remember I need to get you the mike. We are transcribing this question-and-answer session. So just raise your hand, and I'll get it to you. Don't be bashful. These guys will not bite.

Q: John, going to Indianapolis, you talked about preparing for the race. You are going to have a new aero package, new engine situation and also a new driver in the No. 4 car. Is all that a smooth transition, especially with communicating with Tomas and maybe preparing the car to his liking after, you know, very successful years with Sam (Hornish Jr.)?

BARNES: Well, first off, we did have a lot of success with the other driver of our car before this year, but the thing that we found with Tomas is he's really brought us to another level. His feedback is so incredible. With our other driver in the past, you had to beat him out of trying to figure out what the car was doing. But Tomas has really added a lot. I think he's helped the engine program a lot, worked on the traction control and the launch and the different things that he's been accustomed to in the past. So we just are excited as hell, I'll tell you. The guy just, when we heard the news that our driver was going to leave us, I'll tell you we all sit around, we knew there was one guy that we wanted because he's the guy when we were leading, we were always trying to figure out where he was because he was our biggest threat. So to have him here and have him in our cars is just – it's been awesome.

Q: About six or seven years ago when Valvoline decided to get out of open-wheel racing and concentrate on NASCAR, there was a lot made of that. But I kind of think the reality of Pennzoil not being in NASCAR and being here full time is probably fairly significant. Talk a little bit about how important that is that they're concentrating on the IRL effort.

BARNES: First of all, I'll tell you that the ownership group of Panther Racing, it is for a reason. When we first started looking at owning a team or having a team, I realized that there was a lot of things that I wasn't very good at. One of them was sponsor relations. We brought Doug in, and he's used to dealing with city and state government, and there's nothing worse than that, at least that's what he's told me. So we brought him in, and he's done a tremendous job, I mean, absolutely fabulous job of coordinating our sponsors with us. I think Pennzoil sees the benefit, you know, especially for the dollars spent to what you get in return. They've been very happy with us. And also Doug works diligently making sure we have a lot of business-to-business programs. We right now are working diligently to get Pennzoil in with General Motors to be an official supplier of oil with them and for their dealerships. We try to make it make sense not only on the racetrack but also on Monday morning when business starts.

Q: John, this is the first year you've had a two-car team. What did you have to do to – how many employees did you have to add to ramp up for a two-car effort?

BARNES: Well, first off, that's not true. We've had two cars here before. We ran Michael (Andretti) in 2001, I think, and we run the Infiniti Pro Series. We took basically the IPS people with Brent Harvey, the engineer, and Mark (Taylor) and the mechanics and moved them right over to the IRL program. They had a lot of continuity, they were very good together, worked together, and, of course, their record is better, I think, than any win/loss record in any auto racing series in history.

KING: Mark, you had a tough outing in your first IndyCar Series start but got a lot of laps under your belt at Phoenix. How are you getting acclimated to the series and how big of a change is it going from the Infiniti Pro Series to these cars?

TAYLOR: Well, there's a big change. There's probably something like 40, 50 miles per hour difference in the cars, and the cars react differently. So from a driving point of view, you spend a lot of time trying to work on that. They have cut down a lot of the testing time that you can do before the start of a season now. I think that maybe has made it harder as a rookie this year as it has any other time. Of course, the two races we've had so far haven't worked out as well as I had hoped for. But every time you get in the car you have to try to work to improve on it. I feel that I'm gradually getting to grips with the car. The car has been great to work with, and as far as the weekend is concerned, we've had good weekends, I feel. It's just the point of getting that race result that we need.

KING: Tomas, you, on the other hand, it looked like you were in line to finish the first two races with top-fives. How difficult to have a car that was good enough to maybe even contend for the win at Phoenix and leave there with the finish that obviously you were left with?

SCHECKTER: Obviously it's a little disappointing because of these guys, the hard work they put into the cars. And to have a car that was strong and easy a top-three car, if not a winning car, if we could have gotten in some clean air. But racing goes like that sometimes. The difference between good teams and bad teams is how to pick up the pieces and make sure next time they go out there we can perform the same way if not better.

Q: Tomas, in your time with Cheever as a 21-year-old, it looked like you wanted to lead every lap. Now are you kind of less – do you feel less of an urgency now to lead every lap?

SCHECKTER: I don't think I get myself into situations where I risk, while leading, will cause me a problem. And I think it's also an environment I'm in now. I'm a lot calmer in the car. The people around me don't necessarily care about leading every lap. They care about leading the last lap, and that's sort of taken the pressure off me that I have to prove something or that I have to be in the front. Everybody around me seems so calm and confident, and I think that helps me, as well.

Q: John, will there be any chance that you would add additional cars at Indianapolis by any chance?

BARNES: Well, I'd like to add the Pace Car after the race to be one here. (Laughter)

Q: John, how much involvement does John Menard have with the two cars?

BARNES: He sends the checks.

Q: John, you showed the success that Infiniti Pro Series has had for your drivers. What do you see as the future of that, and how important do you think that is to the development of the IRL?

BARNES: I think it struggled obviously this year here with having lower car count, but I think they're working hard to get more cars and more people involved with it. It's a great series, it really is. It needs, the cars need more power than what they have to help the transition from one series to another. I think they know that, but they're also concerned about the fragility of the chassis itself in going faster. But, you know, I think that the thing – it's got a bright future. It's just like the IRL, you know. I remember the first races we went to, we turned around, there were very few people in the paddock, and now you look at it and it's just like, God, the hospitality area has grown, the sponsors are growing, you know, the price tag has grown. So, you know, it takes awhile to grow. And if you look at the other organizations, open-wheel organizations, when they had Indy Lights, that thing was actually dwindling at that point in time, also. I think at the end of the year there were only like eight or nine cars that were actually actively competing. So it just takes time for it to build. I don't think of anybody in the world that would be better to run that than Roger Bailey. I think he does a great job. I know every time I walk into the paddock, he's like a magnet over to me. You need another IPS car. You need another IPS car, and it will grow and it will succeed.

Q: Tomas, your father (Jody Scheckter) was a (Formula One) World Champion. Can you say a few words about what his opinions might be of the Indy Racing League?

SCHECKTER: I think obviously since I've been racing here, he used to watch all Formula One races, and I think now he's stopped watching Formula One races and just watches Indy races because it's much more exciting. I think once people get to see how an IRL race runs, you really can't compare it to any other racing. I think that's his point of view now, as well. I think that's a lot of point of views, people are changing their minds, as well.

Q: John, you grew up a few hundred yards from here and grew up with USAC and so forth. Did you ever dream the day you'd be sitting between your two drivers, and one was from South Africa, and one's from England?

BARNES: No, absolutely not. I thought maybe, you know, one was from Camby and one from West Newton but not South Africa and England.

Q: Tomas, a lot of people don't remember that your father did drive the IROC series over here in addition to Formula One races back then in this country. He drove IROC races on ovals that when you came over here, at places like Michigan, that were running IROC at the time. Has he told you anything about oval racing as he experienced it in this country years ago?

SCHECKTER: I mean, he did some oval racing, but he really didn't give me any advice on how to drive or exactly what to do. I think I'm not sure he was – he did such a little bit of it that he said he really enjoyed it, but I remember I went to do my first official test in Fontana, and I think that first test I was quickest, and I phoned him up the next morning and, “Oh, yeah, quickest, what time or lap speed you did?” And I think it was a 221. After I told him that, he almost passed out. (Laughter) He was like, “Hey, Tomas, you get the first flight back home.” Because, you know, I mean he gives me a lot of advice how to deal with people and how to, different things in setting up the car, and that's what I really learn a lot from him.

Q: John, yesterday Penske's team and Cheever's team talked against adding a third car. Could this year be a year with the new chassis, new engines, there's so much to learn and little time that teams may be unwilling to add that extra car to take – because it will take away from the primary efforts?

BARNES: Man, I don't think it's really the attention away from the primary effort. It's the cost. Nowadays, engine leases, I think, for Indianapolis start at $500,000 and go to some place around 750 or a million. I think there's only one position in Indianapolis that pays that kind of money. So it's quite a crapshoot to be able to say, OK, this is willing to do. So I think that you won't see that as much as you had in the past. But I guarantee you there will be 33 cars in the race.

Q: Mark, last year you drove in the Freedom 100 over at the Speedway. How will it be different this year being out there in the big race?

TAYLOR: I expect it to be completely different. It's going to be a whole new experience, the whole month. With the Freedom 100 is basically a few days out of the month, and so you don't get to spend a lot of time on track. With the way that the Indy car works, you spend three weeks out on track and to work with the car. So the whole experience is going to be very different. But it's going to be great to be out there, especially that first test and to get that amount of time in the car, which I feel I need at the moment to get as much time as possible. So it's going to be exciting. I'm really looking forward to it.

Q: Mark, you've now had a little bit of time with Tomas. One of the things that Tomas excels at is racecraft but another is having a very colorful social life. Is he helping you at all with that?

TAYLOR: One thing I can say for Tomas is that he's great at setting up a car, and that's what I need at the moment. (Laughter)

KING: Are you dodging the social life question?

TAYLOR: Absolutely. (Laughter) What he does in his spare time is up to him. It's nothing to do with me. As far as I'm concerned, he works extremely hard, and I think everyone in the engineering department here will agree with me that his experience in an Indy car and what he's done before, he's been able to take that all together and make sure that he has the best car on race day. All I can do at the moment is learn from him.

Q: Tomas, speaking of social life, your team owner's pretty much a big football hero over at Decatur. Is he going to take you on Friday nights to some of the games over there and kind of show you what he did when he was much younger

SCHECKTER: I'm not sure. I don't know, John, are you?

BARNES: No. (Laughter) I mean, these guys are great athletes. There's a huge misconception about race drivers being good athletes. I mean Tomas proved that in the Superstar competition. He waxed them, you know. And it just shows today, you know, I remember when I first started racing in '68, I mean those guys, the only thing that they rushed to do was get to the White Front after qualifying. But nowadays these guys here, Tomas works out every day two or three hours, is running. Mark's the same way with Tim Drudge, running. They're doing cardio, they're doing weight lifting and stuff, you know. I can tell you they're a hell of a lot better athlete than I ever dreamed to be.

KING: If we could, let's bring Andy Brown up for just a couple of minutes.

BARNES: One thing I'd like to talk about is our relationship with Menard. You know, one of the things that he's really brought us is the ability to use a lot of toys that he had acquired through the years. The MCT/UK thing over in England has really been a great asset to us. The Menard engine development program here in Indianapolis, they built our Silver Crown engines, and, I tell you what, that thing wants to lift the front end off the ground all the way down the straightaway at Phoenix. I think they helped us a lot, and I think our future together in that is very, very bright.

KING: Andy, come on up. Andy Brown is the chief engineer for Panther Racing. Let's find out if we've got – do we have any more questions? We're going to break in a few minutes, after Andy is done, we'll be able to get one-on-ones with Andy, Mark and Tomas. Go ahead and head on out there. Are you going to hang with him?

TAYLOR: We might have some questions.

ANDY BROWN: This is scary.

KING: Andy, talk, if you would, about the, I guess the challenge to your staff now with a full-time, two-car IndyCar Series effort. The staff continues to expand, but how does it change to engineer two cars versus a one-car team?

BROWN: Well, I wouldn't know because there's no way I can engineer two cars. I'm not that bright, to be honest. But what we've been able to do in expanding the team is we've got two very good race engineers now. David Cripps is engineering Tomas's car, and Brent Harvey that was working with Mark Taylor on the IPS program last year, responsible for all those wins, is still working with Mark. So I've been able to step back and take more of an overall view, try to link the two programs, make sure that we're sharing the information between the two cars. Having those two guys on board has actually made my life quite a lot easier.

KING: Brian Barnhart told us yesterday April 3rd would be the first day we see the cars on track with the new 3-liter engine. How much work has to transpire between April the 3rd and the 1st of May?

BROWN: Fortunately, most of that is on Chevrolet's shoulders. They're an incredible partner for us, and they work real hard, and they've done such a super job with the Gen 4 to put us right back up there to where we had a chance for the championship last year, giving us good horsepower again this year. As far as we're concerned as a team, the transition is pretty much transparent. The engines externally will almost look identical, and it will just slot straight in the existing package.

Q: Will the road-course update kit do the trick to get these cars ready for road courses? Are you going to pretty much need an entirely new road-course chassis in order to get it ready for next year?

BROWN: Well, the way the chassis rules are written, we can't change the tub itself. The Dallara is obviously a pull-rod front suspension car, we can't change that, either. So we will be expecting an update kit from Dallara, which will convert this car into a road-course car. With all their history of road-course racing, the Audi is basically a Dallara, the Formula 3000 cars, we're expecting a good road-racing package from Dallara.

KING: Questions?

Q: Andy, with everybody starting with a new engine capacity in May, will the outcome of the race, a lot of it have to do is see who can get the most out of it the quickest?

BARNES: I mean, it's going to be difficult to predict what's going to happen in May until we run these engines for the first time on April the 3rd. Even when we run those engines, I'm sure that's not going to be the final race version. There's going to be a very steep learning curve initially. I don't think it's going to change our approach to how we tune the chassis that much. If it's got a little less horsepower, then we'll be running a little less drag. The two go hand in hand. But basically what we do is tune our chassis setup to match the engine characteristics that we have to work with, and that's the approach that we'll continue to adopt. It's worked very well for us in the past, and I'm looking forward to a very successful and very competitive May.

KING: Andy, given the new aero package, does anything transfer in terms of previous setup results from other tracks? Does anything transfer or do you start with a blank page in terms of acquiring new setups for the new aero package?

BROWN: We're going to do some wind tunnel testing initially to find out what the new safety regulations will mean to the car overall. Obviously, we're going to lose some downforce, I believe. The car is going to be running a little bit higher because of the new skid, but we'll wait and see what the wind tunnel results show us compared to what we're currently working with. Then we'll just adapt from there.

KING: Any other questions?

Q: I wanted to ask Tomas, as a driver who likes to go fast, do you approve of the speed cuts?

SCHECKTER: The speed, I mean, the main thing I think what they've done it for is safety, and I think no matter how fast we all like to go, I think the most important thing is that at the end of the day we're in one piece. So I have to stand by what the IRL are doing, and hopefully their reasoning for their doing it is safety. So it shouldn't be a problem. And also, the way these guys develop the cars, when they cut the speed, these guys always find it back, you know, in some way or another. You know, the 3-liter engine within a year's time might be pushing the same amount of horsepower just because these guys put so much effort and money into developing things, and I think the same with the downforce. In the beginning of the year, they had a new floor or some new rules to cut down the downforce, but by Phoenix, already we found it back just by things all over the car.

KING: Mark, you don't really have a comparison because this is your first year in the IndyCar Series. Tomas, if I'm not mistaken, you like your car a little bit loose. Do the new aero rules, do they play to your strengths in terms of the way you like a race car to feel?

SCHECKTER: Well, no matter how much little downforce or much downforce you have, you can still make a car understeer or oversteer, and that's the balance of it rather than the overall downforce. But I think what they've done a little bit is maybe the cars can't run as side by side or three abreast as easy as they were before. But certainly, like I said it before, the way they're developing, we should have the downforce back to where it was before.

BROWN: We can make it looser, if you want.

SCHECKTER: That's enough, thank you.

KING: Kind of power-slide through (Turn) 1 and have a little sprint car action here. Any other questions? We want to break for a few minutes. Andy will be available for one-on-ones, as will Mark and Tomas and John. Gentlemen, thank you very much. A pleasure being here with you today.

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