INDYCAR: St. Petersburg Preview

IndyCar

INDYCAR: St. Petersburg Preview

Round 1 of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship kicks off on Friday as 26 cars practice for Sunday’s 100-lap Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Marshall Pruett | Posted March 22, 2012

Lotus-powered teams had to remove their engines at the track and wait as the motors were updated in the paddock before re-installing the units Thursday afternoon. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

Round 1 of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series championship kicks off on Friday as 26 cars practice for Sunday’s 100-lap Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Circuit: St. Petersburg, 1.8-mile, 14-turn street course located in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.
Entry List: Click Here
Event Schedule: Click Here
Live Timing & Scoring: Click Here
Social: Follow @marshallpruett, @gpstpete and @indycar for updates.
Spotters Guide: Click Here
Television: Daily trackside updates Friday through Sunday by Robin Miller on SPEED Center, race broadcast Sunday, March 25th, 12:30 p.m. ET, ABC.
Tickets: Click Here
2011 Race Winner: Dario Franchitti
2011 Pole Winner: Will Power, 1:01.96 seconds

Event Preview:

With Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of our 2012 season preview now posted, the only thing left is to preview the first race of the year.

Most of what was written in the three-part season preview applies to St. Pete, but two drivers in particular stand out as being ready to win Round 1.

Reigning series champion Dario Franchitti and runner-up Will Power are the natural candidates to pick for the win, but their teammates could steal the show on Sunday.

Scott Dixon hasn’t made it to the finish line at St. Pete due to crashes (or pitting for repairs and falling down the running order) since 2007, and something tells me the 31-year-old Kiwi is ready to end that streak. If not, if he finds the wall again, look for the Ganassi veteran to try and get the race removed from the 2012 calendar.

Ryan Briscoe has also looked like a man on a mission on pre-season testing, and the new Dallara suits his style quite nicely. On a gripless street course, understeer is a way of life, and Briscoe’s No. 2 Team Penske car could be primed for a repeat of the win they scored here in 2009.

If you’re placing bets, Franchitti and Power are the obvious picks, but don’t sleep on Dixon or Briscoe because they just might deliver a big payday. If you’re willing to split your bet five or six ways, KV Racing’s Rubens Barrichello is another that could come up big in his series debut, and Ganassi’s Graham Rahal possibly has more momentum behind him coming into St. Pete than any of the other 25 drivers in the field.

Wildcards and dark horses abound at St. Pete, with Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay, Schmidt Hamilton’s Simon Pagenaud, Foyt’s Mike Conway, Rahal’s Takuma Sato, KV’s Tony Kanaan and a few others looking like they’re ready to fight for a spot in the top 10.

Behind The Scenes: Tech Bulletin Timing

You have to feel for some of the IndyCar teams who received some untimely news over the past week.

After holding its Spring Training session the week of March 5th-9th, a few problems were found with the Dallara DW12 as teams ran across the series’ technical inspection pad.

One item, as the inspectors found, was a lack of conformity on the positioning of the strakes in the car’s underwing tunnels. It appears to be a simple issue of the tolerances being off, and to correct the issue, the series sent out a tech update with the exact measurement coordinates the strakes must be positioned at starting with St. Pete.

Some teams had to perform major and minor surgery to parts of their cars in the paddock after issues were found in tech at Spring Training and during chassis assembly. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

Teams also reported fitment issues with the top of the car’s fuel bladder mounting point, and specifically the fuel vent fitting. To fix the problem, the series is providing those teams who’ve encountered the problem, but to complete this update, a new hole that’s two inches in diameter—slightly less than the size of a tennis ball—must be drilled in the chassis.

These two items aren’t particularly worrisome except that the strake bulletin went out last Thursday, just as some teams were rushing to get their cars prepped and in the trailer. The fuel bladder “git your hole saw, Fred” bulletin went out on Monday and many teams had sent their transporters down the road to unload on Wednesday.

Having to do major chassis surgery in the field is never preferable, and a lot of people in the St. Pete paddock were left wondering why issues that were raised weeks ago were only addressed just days before opening practice.

Behind The Scenes: Relieving Tire-related Pressure

The dynamic between the IndyCar Series and Firestone has changed for 2012, with the tire manufacturer transitioning from heavily subsidizing its IndyCar tires to becoming more of a paid vendor.

Another change for the new season came with the reduction of one set of tires per event from 2011, with 8 sets—five primary and three alternate—now available rather than nine sets a year ago.

With teams’ tire bill increasing by something like 80 percent, there were some rather angry folks left wondering why a bigger price tag came with fewer tires. According to Firestone, the reduction in sets wasn’t anything sinister; like the engine manufacturers and their forecasts for the number of engine leases that would be required in 2012, Firestone also had to pick a supply number when planning budgets for IndyCar tire production.

22 cars were forecasted, but with the jump to 26 and a fixed, single run of tires already completed, reducing the number of sets allotted was the chosen method to accommodate the extra cars.

From a practical standpoint, there was an even greater concern. IndyCar teams are always looking to put fresh rubber on their cars during pit stops, and with one less set to work with, and the need for more stops due to the smaller 18.5-gallon fuel tanks, the series risked having a ghost town during its opening practice session each weekend as many teams sat and saved tires.

With all of the positive momentum surrounding the series headed into 2012, leaving fans staring at a mostly empty track on Fridays seemed like a PR disaster, and the series considered shortening the opening practice to just 30 minutes to try and force on-track activity.

A (somewhat) happy medium was found on Friday when teams were told a ninth set of tires would be allowed this weekend.

The practice is expected to continue at other venues this year, giving fans a lot more cars in action on Friday.

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