THE RACE: Even though many are saying this was not as exciting as the Homestead race, I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of cat and mouse tactics going on, various strategies being used, and it was interesting to see many different approaches and setups for this race. To shift or not to shift seemed to be the question of the day.

MOTEGI: An amazing facility. The Japanese do it again. Even though there were only 55,000 tickets put up for sale, they had 160,000 requests. The Japanese sure do love their open wheel racing.

TRACK: A very racy track.

FERNANDEZ: Nice to see him win and enjoy it after the Toronto tragedy. Interesting that his crew played the gear selection gamble perfectly.

UNSER, JR.: If the Penske is also for real on street circuits, then we will see the return of the King of Long Beach.

ANDRETTI: Nobody could touch him once he got going. It would also help if he had enough fuel to keep going.

SWIFT: Now the crucial question, is the Swift just as good on non-ovals? And why is Andretti the only driver capable of getting the Swift to go so fast...?

DE FERRAN: Another quiet, unspectacular but very effective drive to the podium.

RAHAL: It looked liked Rahal was trying to outdo Luyendyk's wild ride the week before at Phoenix. Bobby, spare us the heart attacks, keep all four wheels on the ground. Let the IRL provide the cheap thrills.

ZANARDI: Have you ever seen him so uncomfortable in a race car? Well, he'll be back in his elements come Long Beach.

VASSER: Ugh! Jimmy, the clutch. The clutch!

FITTIPALDI: Are there mosquitoes in Japan? If so, there aren't any left in Motegi.

HONDA: So they spent something like a billion dollars on this facility and couldn't convince the government to build a bullet train line?

NEXT RACE: Say what you want about street courses, but I've always liked Long Beach. It should be a dandy. I dare you to pick the winner.

TRIVIA: This may have been the first time CART raced in Japan, but it is not the first time that Indy cars raced there. Name the year, track, and winner of that event.

Deep Throttle

Copyright © 1998 by Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.