IRL Streets of St. Petersburg News and Notes

Driver to win the IRL Streets of St Petersburg

Ryan Briscoe +1300
Vitor Meira +3500
Graham Rahal +4200
Will Power +4500
Oriol Servia +4800

The CART drivers have the IRL drivers outclassed when it comes to racing on any street race and you cant go wrong taking a shot on any of these drivers,Will Power is a great driver when it comes to any road course and 45/1 is a unreal price for this race.

Will Street Course Level the Field?
RacingOne.com

Last weekend was a baptism under fire for the nine cars fielded at Homestead-Miami Speedway by teams transitioning from Champ Car for the unified IndyCar Series season opener.

Franck Perera was the fastest qualifier of the transitional group, starting 13th on the 25-car grid for Conquest Racing. Oriol Servia led the group in the race, finishing 12th for KV Racing Technology - five laps behind winner Scott Dixon.

Sunday, the Champ Car grads will be on more familiar turf, running on a street circuit - the type of track that was Champ Car's bread and butter. Also playing in their favor is that this will be the first road race to utilize paddle shifters and a variable-ratio steering rack.

However, the teams will still have to come to terms with the IRL's Honda-powered Dallara - which is a big difference from the turbocharged Cosworth-powered Panoz that ran in Champ Car. The teams have had only a month to put the new cars together, with only two days at Sebring being their only testing on a road circuit.

The Sebring results looked promising. Servia was quickest of the second test two weeks ago with a lap of 52.7035, 114.072 mph, followed by Will Power, 52.9451, 113.552 mph.

While Power was only a half-second off the lead Ryan Briscoe's leading lap of 52.4202, 114.689 from the open testing for the IndyCar Series regulars earlier in March, he pointed out that the closeness is misleading.

"If you're a half-second off around Sebring, that's a lot," Power said during testing last week at Homestead. "Sebring is a short circuit with not many corners, and it has a lot of grip. For us, a half-second there is probably one second around a full circuit like St. Pete.

"I'm not sure where we're going to be at, to be honest," Power said. "It's going to be tough. Even if people think we went well at Sebring, that's an easy track to be fast on. This part is the season is going to be pretty hard."

Servia also felt it's going to take longer to be competitive with the series' regulars.

"Closer to the end of the season, we should know the car better and everything should be a little easier," Servia said.

"For sure we have a lot of chance to fight for the victory on the road courses than the ovals," said Perera, who finished 14th in the opener, six laps down. "It's going to be a long season. But I'm a driver that usually learns tracks quickly, so it’s fine for me."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing missed the opening Sebring test because the team wasn't ready. Then, Graham Rahal crashed early in the Homestead test and was forced to withdraw, and will make his series' debut this weekend. Teammate, Justin Wilson competed at Miami, finishing 15th.

"I'm pleased that we completed our first IndyCar Series race," Wilson said. "We went to Sebring on Tuesday to get an idea on how these cars feel on a road course. Then, we go to St. Petersburg and do something we are more familiar with. We should be further up front. Not necessarily at the front, but certainly further forward on the time sheets."

Competitors will have a new qualifying system that will be used in all IndyCar Series road and street events. In the past, teams ran single-car time trials. The top six then ran in the Firestone Fast Six Session, with the opportunity to better their time.

The Firestone Fast Six is back, but in a different format.

Teams will practice on Friday for a total of two and a half hours. Saturday, the cars will be randomly divided into two groups, with each getting a final 30-minute practice session. Saturday afternoon, each group competes for 20 minutes. The fastest six cars from each group advance to the second round; the slower cars fill positions 13 on back on the starting grid.

The 12 advancing cars have their times erased and get a 15-minute group qualifying session, with the fastest six moving to the Firestone Fast Six, while the remainder will start the race in positions seven through 12.

Qualifying times are again erased for the Firestone Fast Six, with the teams getting 10 minutes to determine starting positions one through six.

The fourth annual Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg takes the green flag at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The 100-lap, 180-mile race will be televised live on ESPN.

Newcomer Wilson sets pace in opening practice at St. Petersburg
ESPN.com

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- On the familiar turf of a street course, the drivers and teams making the transition to the IndyCar Series from the Champ Car World Series showed their true potential in the opening practice for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Justin Wilson was fastest overall despite running out of fuel in the dying minutes of the 90-minute session. Wilson clocked a 63.521 second (102.014 mph) lap in his McDonald's Dallara-Honda, besting IndyCar Series veteran Vitor Meira in Panther Racing's similar car by 0.24 second.

Wilson's teammate, rookie Graham Rahal, was fifth fastest in the session as former Champ Car teams turned four of the 12 fastest times.

"I'm a bit surprised we're at the top of the timing screens, but the car feels really good," said Wilson, who has also been classified as a rookie despite claiming nearly three years of Formula One and four years of Champ Car on his resume.

"The challenge will be to remain up there in qualifying and the race," Wilson added. "These cars slide around a lot more than the Champ Cars, but they are fun to drive and we're learning a lot about how to make them go fast on a road course."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team manager John Tzouanakis was delighted to see both NHLR cars in the top five.

"It's the first time we've seen the crew guys' teeth in a few weeks because they finally have something to smile about," Tzouanakis said. "There are a lot of options you can change on these cars, from rocker arms to wheelbase, and the different power characteristics of the engine made us re-think the gearing.

"But it sure feels good to 'win' a practice session."

Tony Kanaan ended the morning action third fastest ahead of two-time defending St. Petersburg champion Helio Castroneves as the top 13 cars circulated within a second of Wilson's time.

Marty Roth brought out the caution flag twice during the session with spins, while Ryan Hunter-Reay completed only six laps after suffering a suspension mount failure on his Rahal Letterman Racing entry.

Champ Car teams much improved on first street circuit of IndyCar season
April 5, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Back on somewhat familiar ground, the IRL IndyCar Series newcomers are getting racy.

A week ago, in the season-opener on the oval at Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was all IRL regulars up front.

Former IndyCar champion Scott Dixon won the race, followed by returning drivers Marco Andretti, former champion Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves. Tony Kanaan, another former series champion, led late in the race only to be knocked out when he crashed into a lapped car.

But the competition will be tougher this week with the nine teams from the rival Champ Car World Series - merged into the IRL last month - enjoying the familiarity of racing on a temporary street circuit.

That was evident Friday in practice for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, with four transition drivers among the top 10.

Most of those drivers were overmatched at Homestead, where several of them drove their first race on an oval and all of them had to deal with cars that were new to them and with little testing.

But St. Petersburg is a different story, with all of the newcomers well-versed in turning both left and right.

Justin Wilson, a two-time Champ Car series runner-up in his first season with eight-time CART/Champ Car champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, led the morning practice and wound up fourth for the day.

That was somewhat surprising considering he managed only 15 laps in a team test on the road course at Sebring earlier this week because of rain.

``I definitely feel more comfortable and more at home on this circuit, compared to last weekend, just because this is what we've been doing for the last couple of years,'' Wilson said. ``The oval was great fun. We've got work to do to try and get the car a little more efficient and a little bit quicker.''

Asked the biggest difference between the cars he drove in Champ Car and the IRL's Dallaras, the Englishman said, ``From a driver's point of view the biggest difference is, obviously, not having the turbo. The Champ Car has a little bit more power, a little bit more downforce but, ultimately, the scaling is about the same. So it's been quite easy to adapt to this car and get used to it.''

Castroneves, winner of the last two races at St. Petersburg, led the way Friday with a fast lap of 1 minute, 3.307 seconds, an average of 102.359 mph. Close behind were Kanaan at 1:03.368 (102.260), rookie Hideki Mutoh at 1:03.449 (102.129), Wilson at 1:03.521 (102.014) and former Champ Car driver Will Power at 1:03.598 (101.890).

Other transition drivers in the top 10 were rookie Franck Perera in sixth and Oriol Servia 10th. Servia's 12th-place finish was the best for the newcomers at Homestead.

``The car earlier was really out of the window, but we worked out a couple of things,'' Power said. ``The team made the adjustments we needed to make and now it is much better to drive, much more for my style, so I am looking forward to tomorrow's qualifying.''

That should be interesting for all the teams, since the IRL has changed its qualifying procedure on street and road courses, taking a page from Formula One's rulebook.

Like F1, the new procedure will include multiple sessions, with the slowest drivers eliminated in the first two.

The new system will go into effect in Saturday's qualifying on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit in downtown St. Petersburg.

There will be a random draw to divide the teams into two groups for the morning practice and for segment one of qualifying. The six fastest cars from each group will advance.

The remaining cars will run together in segment two, with the fastest six cars from that session advancing to a 10-minute shootout to determine the pole and the rest of the top six for Sunday's race.

``On paper, it looks good,'' Kanaan said. ``We'll see tomorrow what we think about it.

``It's going to be interesting to see how the draw comes out. Maybe we're going to see a group of very strong guys together in one group and maybe another not so strong group. Or maybe we'll see a mix. So I don't know what to expect.''

Castroneves agreed, noting, ``It's hard to predict how things will go because we haven't done it yet. But it will be new for everyone, which levels the playing field. The new format will definitely give us a new challenge.''

Will Power is a great driver when it comes to any road course and 45/1 is a unreal price for this race.

Kanaan edges Power for St. Pete pole
Sat 5th, April 2008

St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan won the pole for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The No.11 AGR driver circled the 1.806-mile St. Petersburg street course in one minute, 02.5322 seconds (103.627 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was Kanaan's first of the season and ninth of IndyCar career.

"It's a great comeback from last week," said Kanaan, who started and finished eighth last week at Homestead.

Starting alongside Kanaan will be former CART driver Will Power who posted a time of 1:02.6096.

"We're really happy with Will," said KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser. "I'm proud of all my guys, they've been working everyday for the past month."

Justin Wilson (1:02.6426) and Helio Castroneves (1:02.6462) will start in row two.

Power showed that the former CART drivers were ready to compete this week after last week's slow start by winning the first session with a time of 1:02.6560 edging Kanaan. They were among six drivers, including Graham Rahal who missed the season opener, to advance to the third session.

Justin Wilson with a time of 1:02.7341 edged Ryan Briscoe in the second session and moved into the next round along with Marco Andretti, Castroneves, Oriol Servia and Dan Wheldon. The surprise of the run was the fact that Scott Dixon failed to move on.

The 12 quickest drivers, six from each qualifying group, then went at it for 15 minutes to eliminate six drivers for the final session - the Firestone Fast Six.

In session three, Power again showed the way, posting the best lap of the day at 1:02.1355. Joining him in the finale were Ryan Briscoe, Wilson, Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Castroneves. In the final session Kanaan put up a time midway through the run and no one could better it.

The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (et).

IRL-Grand Prix of St. Petersburgh Lineup
April 5, 2008

1. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 103.627 mph

2. (8) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 103.499

3. (02) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 103.444

4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 103.438

5. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 103.338

6. (17) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 102.845

7. (5) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 103.279

8. (10) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 103.191

9. (06) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 103.165

10. (34) Franck Perera, Dallara-Honda, 103.062

11. (14) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda, 102.835

12. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 102.460

13. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 102.472

14. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 102.409

15. (33) Ernesto Viso, Dallara-Honda, 102.359

16. (15) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda, 102.274

17. (4) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 102.131

18. (36) Enrique Bernoldi, Dallara-Honda, 102.117

19. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 101.924

20. (24) Jay Howard, Dallara-Honda, 101.656

21. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 101.566

22. (19) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 100.999

23. (23) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Honda, 100.640

24. (2) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 100.466

25. (25) Marty Roth, Dallara-Honda, 95.711

26. (18) Bruno Junqueira, Dallara-Honda, 93.392

Rahal in Victory Lane at age 19

St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Nineteen-year old Graham Rahal won Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on the streets of St. Petersburg in his first IndyCar Series race. He is the youngest driver to win an IndyCar event. The No.06 crossed the finish line 3.5192 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves.

The key to winning the race was the decision by his pit crew to stay out on lap 56 when everyone else pitted for fuel. Rahal got around Ryan Hunter Reay (the only other car to stay out) on lap 65 and had enough fuel to make it to the checkered flag.

"What a job for the team, its been a struggle the last couple of weeks," said proud papa Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner. "To come out like this after not being able to race last week in Homestead...wow."

With rain falling, the race began under yellow and continued that way for 10 laps before actual racing began. It likely meant the race would not complete the 100-lap distance before the two-hour racing limit was reached.

Finally the "real" racing began on lap 11. Within three laps, three cars had spun, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and Mario Moraes.

Meanwhile, up front it was Tony Kanaan, Justin Wilson and Castroneves leading the way. Then Kanaan pitted on lap 17 and was penalized for a pit road infraction. It left him back in 11th place as the field went back to green on lap 20.

Wilson inherited the lead and the former CART driver was showing his wet weather prowess. Wilson built the lead to more than two seconds on Ryan Briscoe as they hit the 30-lap mark. But a debris caution flag slowed the field and erased Wilson's big lead.

Wilson elected to pit giving up the lead to Briscoe as only half the field pitted. He came back in 12th place.

Briscoe quickly built the lead to 2.5 seconds over Franck Perera at lap 36 after only two green flag laps. But Kanaan was coming and up to third place. Wilson was also moving back through the field, already up to 10th. By lap 41 Wilson had passed four more cars and was up to sixth place.

Lap 42 saw Andretti's day end with a broken half shaft.

The drivers began to change over from rain tires to slicks because they saw that the could safely make it around the track. Those that gambled early benefited from the gamble and the top of the charts was jumbled with an interesting mixture of drivers.

Enrique Bernoldi was the race leader with Ernesto Viso, Vitor Meira and Darren Manning the top-four. Bernoldi didn't last long, as Viso passed him on lap 48. Meanwhile Briscoe was in sixth and Kanaan in eighth. Viso's lead was up to three seconds by lap 53 as he was really showing off his abilities.

Briscoe was still sixth when on lap 56 he clipped in corner and slid off line. With all the water he had no chance to keep it off the wall and his race was done. The accident would give the almost the entire field a chance to make their final stops.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rahal stayed out to lead the race with Viso in third after an 8.7-second stop. Castroneves and Wheldon jumped to third and fourth, respectively.

Hunter-Reay and Rahal were gambling on enough caution flag laps to be able to reach the end of the race. Rahal got around Hunter-Reay on lap 65 and the on the next lap they both got some help when Ed Carpenter spun to bring out a yellow flag.

They went back to green and on the first lap Castroneves slid past Hunter-Reay for second place. He now had about 22 minutes left to track down Rahal, who held a 2.7-second lead.

But he wasn't gaining as Rahal put up his fastest lap of the race on lap 70 to extend the margin to 3.7 seconds. The gap was 4.6 seconds just three laps later.

Lap 74 saw Scott Dixon limp slowly into his pits with what appeared to be a wheel problem. Two laps later the caution flag came out again this time for a three-car incident involving Townsend Bell, Vitor Meira and Franck Perera. It would be a lengthy cleanup leaving little time for Castroneves to catch the rookie. On the other hand, the Brazilian was right on Rahal's rear bumper for the restart.

When they got the track clean it looked like there were maybe four laps left to race. Rahal got a good restart and opened up three lengths on Castroneves. Two laps to go and Rahal built the lead to more than one second. All he had to do on the last lap was keep it off the walls. Rahal did and become the youngest IndyCar Series driver, winning in his first start.

Kanaan, Viso and Bernoldi completed the top-five. Castroneves' second-place finish will give him a 10-point lead over Dixon as they held to Twin Ring Motegi on Sunday, April 20th for the next event.