INDYCAR: St. Petersburg Notebook

IndyCar

INDYCAR: St. Petersburg Notebook

Rahal’s sensational win comes on heels of new 4-year contract for race; ex-Champ Car teams shine.

David Phillips | http://www.racer.com/speedtv | Posted April 07, 2008 St. Petersburg, Fla.

Graham Rahal surged to the front and stayed there in his first IndyCar Series start. (Greg Aleck/Fastline photo)

FOUR MORE YEARS The IndyCar Series and American Le Mans Series will be racing in the streets of St. Petersburg for at least the next four years as the result of a multi-year extension of the existing agreement between the city and Andretti Green Promotions, promoters of the event since 2005. As well, AGP announced tentative agreements for multi-year extensions of its partnership with American Honda Motor Company on behalf of its Honda and Acura brands, title sponsors of the IndyCar and ALMS races, respectively.

“Since the inception of this event, our success has been largely due to the cooperative partnership AGP enjoys with the City of St. Petersburg, American Honda, the IndyCar Series and the American Le Mans Series,” said AGP managing director Kevin Savoree. “We had a very big vision for this event when we first presented it to the city in 2004, and to be able to announce this agreement today is not only a milestone for our organization but a great day for racing fans in the St. Petersburg area.”

In recent months there had been speculation that the event’s days were numbered given plans for a new baseball stadium in the area where the race is held. Today’s announcement put paid to that speculation.

“I can’t express how excited I am to have this piece of our model nailed down for the next few years,” said Savoree. “It really speaks to the stability of racing here in St. Petersburg. We’re here to stay. Who knows what may or may not be here in five years? We hope the race site and the paddock area are intact. We have a great partnership with the city.”

“The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has been a terrific thing for the city of St. Petersburg the past few years,” said St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker. “It’s had a tremendous economic impact, generated a lot of media exposure and it has rapidly become a tradition that’s part of the fabric of our city. Having two premier events in two days is an incredible asset for a city to have.”

FEELING RIGHT AT HOME There are undoubtedly plenty of practical and/or technical reasons for the fact that Oriol Servia enjoyed a strong weekend at St. Petersburg. Servia, of course, was no stranger to the St. Petersburg circuit, having driven to a 12th-place finish for Patrick Racing in 2003 in the one (and only) CART race here. Of course, the fact that Servia and his KVRT team have been racing on a steady diet of road and street circuits the past few years helped, as did their technical partnership with perennial IndyCar Series front-runners Target/Chip Ganassi Racing . . . not to mention the fact that Servia was sharing information with teammate Will Power, who set the fastest lap of qualifying yesterday. But there was also an, er, surreal element to Servia’s success, given the fact that St. Petersburg is home to the Salvador Dali Museum . . . and that Catalonian driver is a big fan of the Catalonian painter; so much so that he has sported various Dali-esque paint schemes on his crash helmet over the years.

Servia and KV Racing enjoyed a strong showing at St. Pete. (LAT photo)

“I’ve always liked his work for many reasons and I’ve always had something of his typical drawings on my helmets for the past 15 years,” said Servia, who made a point of visiting the Dali Museum this week. “I’ve had the melting watches. For the last year and a half, I’ve had his face on the side. I think it’s cool because it’s his typical crazy face and also the way he looks from the car it’s like he’s almost peeking out of the cockpit. It gives the helmet a different look.

“I’m not a big art person in general, but I love his work because there’s so much detail in it. He was so creative and he’s one of the few painters that got to see his success. It was always an inspiration to see somebody so creative and being successful doing his own thing. We only see his craziness, but he was a really hard worker.”

The hard work put in by Servia (and the KP Racing Technology team) at St. Petersburg resulted in seventh on the grid and a seventh-place finish.

NO JUSTICE (Part 1) One of the best drives of the day netted little in the way of results for Jay Howard. The ’06 Firestone Indy Lights Champion started 20th as the sole representative of Roth Racing after the team’s eponymous driver/owner withdrew from the race after a crash in the morning warm-up. Howard took full advantage of the wet-weather prowess he developed racing in his native England to advance through the field in the rainy opening segment of the race to run as high as fifth by mid-race and looked like staying there despite fierce pressure from Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan.

“I’ve done a lot of wet weather driving in the U.K.,” said Howard. “I felt things out early on, found where the grip was at different parts of the circuit and then went pretty quickly. I was able to make my way through the field pretty well. My car was slightly better in the wet, but even when the track dried and we went to slicks we were doing well.”

Indeed, it was Briscoe who “cracked” under the pressure rather than Howard, as the Aussie clipped the inside wall at the apex of Turn 10 on Lap 56, launching his Penske Dallara-Honda into the outside wall with predictable results.

But Briscoe’s crash, ultimately proved the undoing of Howard’s effort as virtually the entire field pitted during the ensuing full course yellow and, in the process, the #24 Cirrus Dallara-Honda dropped all the way to 15th. Although Howard subsequently regained some of the lost ground, his race was to destined end in cruel fashion when he tried to follow Will Power past Dan Wheldon in Turn One on the final lap in a bid for ninth place. Although Power made it through, Howard did not. He and Wheldon banged wheels with Wheldon slithering off and back on track and Howard retiring with damaged suspension.

“I tried to follow Will past Dan,” said Howard. “Dan probably wasn’t expecting a second car to come through behind Will. He came across, we hit and that was it.

After a problematic debut at Homestead, Howard showed racy form at St. Pete. (LAT photo)

“It’s too bad we didn’t get the finish we might have wanted, especially for the crew who have worked so hard all through the nights this weekend. But I think people saw the sort of performance we’re all capable of.”

NO JUSTICE (Part 2) Darren Manning was another driver who deserved better than the unlucky 13th spot that was his final lot at St. Petersburg. Manning started 13th in A.J. Foyt’s entry and ran as high as fourth at mid-race.

Although he slipped down the order on his final pit stop, he was following eventual third place finished Tony Kanaan back through the field when the gearbox on his ABC Supply Dallara-Honda played up just before the Meira/Perera crash on Lap 76.

“Our car was pretty good,” he said, “and we had a pretty good race going right until the very end. I was following Tony (Kanaan) back through the field and I was just lining up to pass (Enrique) Bernoldi when I got stuck in fourth gear. I think I was faster than Tony and I really think we could have given him a run for third. But it was all for naught as it turned out. Disappointing for everyone.”

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS FOR CONQUEST Today was a case of good news/bad news for Conquest Racing. Franck Perera and Enrique Bernoldi both ran up front at various stages of the race, with Bernoldi even taking a turn in the lead on Lap 45-47.

Perera, too, was quite competitive and looking at a top-10 spot before crashing out of the race after as the result of an, er, optimistic bid to pass Vitor Meira in Turn 10 on Lap 76.

“With the slicks we were running fifth or sixth behind (Tony) Kanaan, and I was faster than him and catching him,” said Perera. “Then the yellow came out and, after the pit stop, I was stuck behind some drivers that were slower than me. (Vitor) Meira was blocking me when I was trying to get by. I don’t like being stuck behind someone slower than me, so I tried something. It’s a shame I crashed.”

Meira thought it more than a shame.

“What an absolutely stupid rookie mistake,” he said. “(Franck) Perera was totally wrong. It was a dumb rookie mistake and something you’d expect out of somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing on a street course. To pass here you have to be side-by-side, at least, and you can’t pass where he crashed me with just your nose inside. He didn’t have one fifth of his car in position to pass me.”

Fortunately, Bernoldi’s run had a happier conclusion as the Brazilian brought the Sangari Dallara-Honda home in fifth place.

“My car was very nice to drive, especially in the wet,” he said. “When we stopped to change to slick tires the pit stop wasn’t great and I lost some positions. But I was able to overtake a lot of people on the racetrack. It was a lot of fun outbraking and passing people. These cars are not like Formula 1 cars. You can follow another car close enough to be able to overtake them on the brakes.

“I’m really happy with the result, especially after a not so good weekend at Homestead (where Bernoldi finished 18th). I think it’s a big week for the whole team to be leading the race and to finish fifth. I’ve been out of open-wheel racing for more than two years, so it takes a while for me to get back. But I think this is good practice. Two hours in these conditions . . . that’s a big lift for us.”

KUDOS TO NEWMAN/HAAS/LANIGAN RACING Needless to say, Graham Rahal’s win -- coupled with an equally competitive showing by Justin Wilson that saw the McDonald’s entry lead laps 16-33, was a welcome boost to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. Like all the teams “transitioning” from the Champ Car Worlds Series, NHLR had roughly a month to prepare for the IndyCar Series, starting virtually from scratch. Their first planned road course test was scrubbed owing to a paucity of equipment, their second test was all but totally rained out and then Rahal crashed his car in testing at Homestead and missed the race.

Needless to say, rebounding by qualifying two cars in the top 10, have both of them lead the race and one of them win, was a big boost for the team. Asked if this was the most memorable win in his distinguished career, Carl Haas said “well, that’s going a long way. But it’s a real credit to our guys who have been working 80 hours a day for the past six weeks. And to Graham. He did a great job today.”

“For the guys . . .I think the biggest thing is this team, we don’t have a backup car,” said Rahal. “We barely had enough parts to put it together this weekend. And we knew that if anything . . . if I had hit the wall or anything had gone wrong this weekend, there was a chance we weren’t going to be racing here, too. So overall I think that the guys just feel so good, especially after Homestead, to be here sitting in
this position.

“I think that (the win) feels even sweeter for me to know that the guys can celebrate tonight and know that we won a race together and put what happened last weekend out of their mind.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Phillips

Senior writer, RACER Magazine

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