source: cart.com
Copyright © 2003, CART, Inc

Champ Car Rookie Mario Haberfeld, one of the pleasant surprises of the season, is looking for a quick recovery from a disappointing weekend in Cleveland last week, and thinks the Molson Indy Toronto might be just what the doctor ordered. He and his Mi-Jack Conquest Racing team are well prepared for the season's second street course event.

"This is one of the great events on the Champ Car Calendar, but we don't want to just be part of the show", said Mario, "We need to get headed in the right direction again. We deserved better than got at Cleveland, but that's over now. The guys worked really hard all week to get ready for this trip, and it would be great for them to be rewarded with a good result."

Speaking of events, Mario will be involved in the Champ Car outreach to the large Brazilian population in the Toronto area. Thursday night, he and countrymen Roberto Moreno and Alex Sperafico are scheduled to make a number of Molson-sponsored appearances at nightspots in the area, all in the line of duty, of course.

Team owner Eric Bachelart is also upbeat for the weekend. "We think we've made some progress in setting up the Reynard for this type of circuit," Eric said, "We definitely improved the car during the weekend at Cleveland. The problem with the gearbox didn't allow us to show that in the race, but perhaps we'll have better luck here. Besides, Mario has been excellent the last few races, and we think we've got about the best young driver in the series."

Despite a points-free weekend at Cleveland, Mario maintained his championship positions. He came out of the 11th place overall in the drivers championship, and third in the Rookie of the Year standings. His 41 points are still just four behind Darren Manning (2nd). Sebastien Bourdais, winner of the Cleveland race and leader of the ROTY championship, now has 74 points.

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE: The Molson Indy Toronto can be seen Sunday July 13th, LIVE on CBS at 12:30 ET. SPEED will broadcast second round qualifying LIVE on Saturday July 12th at 12:30 PM ET.