St. Petersburg Tag

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG — Friday for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg had many interesting happenings across all the INDYCAR system so let’s take a look from the top down. In the NTT IndyCar Series practice sessions, Felix Rosenqvist led the first session in his first race for Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 10 NTT Data Honda. The Swede was ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the first session but Hunter-Reay’s No. 28 Andretti Autosports DHL Honda led the second session. What’s more odd is thatRead More

By Aaron Bearden, Contributing Writer Reversal of Fortune Last season Sebastien Bourdais could only watch as Josef Newgarden drove off with a championship he appeared poised to contend for before misfortune befell him at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May. In St. Petersburg he kicked off another championship chase in victory lane after the misfortune of others. Bourdais completed an emotional comeback with a victory in Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg – the season-opening race for the Verizon IndyCar Series. “This is emotional because I was able from aRead More

PALMETTO, Fla. – Rinus VeeKay introduced himself to American open-wheel fans late in 2015 when, after earning a Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda test as part of the MAXSpeed/Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Driver Advancement Program, he steadily made his way up the timing charts at Circuit of the Americas to finish third in the final session, with two seasoned veterans in front. The 16-year-old Dutchman has an impressive karting resume, with numerous championships in Holland and Europe, including Dutch Minimax and Junior titles andRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, IndyCar & Road to Indy Writer Now that we’ve had a week to digest all of the Mazda Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires action from the streets of St. Petersburg, it’s time to reflect on some interesting observations. Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires Aaron Telitz won the first Indy Lights race of the season with nearly the largest margin of victory for an Indy Lights car ever at St. Petersburg, in what was an impressive showing for the Wisconsin native. J.K. Vernay’s winning margin inRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Staff Writer This coming weekend the Verizon IndyCar Series will kick off their 2017 season with a return to St. Petersburg, Florida for what has become known as “The World’s Fastest Spring Break Party.” The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is round one of seventeen for the Series in 2017. The event is held on a temporary street circuit, one of five such races on the schedule. The race weekend is scheduled March 10-12, 2017. The defending race champion is Juan Pablo Montoya, who took back-to-backRead More

By Frank Santoroski, Contributing Writer Three days after sitting out the Verizon IndyCar Series season-opener, Team Penske driver Will Power has completed extensive evaluations and has been cleared to drive in the next event at the one-mile oval in Phoenix. The Australian driver passed the Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing (ImPACT) test and a MRI/DVI study was normal in all parameters. The evaluation was performed at the University of Miami. Power had crashed in practice on Friday and was cleared to drive the next day, showing no ill effects.Read More

Oconomowoc, Wisconsin – The start of the official 2015 Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda is quickly approaching and Oconomowoc, Wisconsin-based Pabst Racing today announced the signing of their second full-season driver, Jake Eidson. After a successful Cooper Tires Winterfest Championship where the team and driver earned two wins together, they proved to be a championship contending team this season. 19-year-old Littleton, Colorado native, Jake Eidson will join the team to pilot the #22 Pabst Racing VanDiemen for his second season of the 16-race Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship. BothRead More