Kristian Kolby Q&A

"Pretty cool I suppose...I'm still waiting for my free Guinness, though! It's great to have made a bit of history and, as I see it, it's a record nobody can beat. Unless there's ever an exact dead heat, obviously."



"It all started pretty badly, actually, I had to lift off at the first corner and lost touch with the leading group. Dan Wheldon and myself hooked up and began towing each other round and caught up the pack again. With about 20 laps to go, [Matt] Halliday went round the outside of [Townsend] Bell for the lead, so I decided to go three wide around the outside of both of them. It was a little bit hairy, because it's not really wide enough to do that. It was one of those where if you pull it off you're hero, if you don't then you're a plonker."



"Yeah, with about 10 laps to go. It wasn't very good timing for me, because I felt quite comfortable in the lead at the time, and it meant we would have a couple of laps to sprint to the flag."



"Well, I always figured I'd win it. I think I touched wheels with Bell and then, as we crossed the line, I touched wheels with Faulkner. We were all running flat out, but I suppose you could say we were running rather too closely! When I crossed the line I said to myself 'bloody hell, Kristian, if you've not won that race then life's so unfair'. Then, when I saw my number at the top of the scoreboard, it felt bloody marvelous."



"Honestly? Well...I fell asleep in the car and the person who was driving kinda got lost because he thought Chicago was on the way home to Indianapolis when, in fact, it's about 250 miles in the wrong direction. He followed the signs and, when I woke up and realised what he'd done, we had to turn round. We didn't get home until 2am...what a plonker! So I didn't get to celebrate it at all but, anyway, I had to stay sensible this week because we're racing at Toronto this weekend."



"I've always been a very smooth driver and that's what you need on an oval. I'm not an overly aggressive driver, which didn't help me in Formula 3000 but it does help me here. I guess it's surprising that I'm quick on ovals straight away but it's quite nice really. We've been on the pace in most races this year, but things have gone against us slightly, but we're not far off the lead of the championship."



"I've got to concentrate on this season and get it finished, but I've got some really good people helping me out on that front and hopefully the doors will open if I keep getting good results like this."



"Obviously you miss your family and friends, but my family have been coming to some of the races and my sisters Ellen and Kirsten [who work for McLaren and Williams-BMW respectively - Ed] will be over for the Formula 1 race in September. My friends have been over as well, so it's not been so bad and I pop back home every now and then. England's quite far but it's not the end of the world away."



"Yeah, I'm really confident. I had a good car the last time we raced on a street circuit. I'm looking for podiums at every race and take the wins when they offer themselves. Hopefully we'll get the package right again, just like we did in Kansas."