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photo: Dan Helrigel

The Firestone Indy Lights double header and IndyCar Series opener were less than uneventful this weekend in St. Petersburg.  With the exception of Friday morning the weather was stellar and the race conditions were optimal.  Versus did a great job of showcasing downtown St. Petersburg during the race coverage and showing off the location of the course.  They really sold the town to the viewers.

The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was full of surprises.  Graham Rahal, who seemed to be one of the favorites amongst the locals won the pole.  Unfortunately when the IndyCar Series took the green flag Sunday afternoon, Rahal was involved in a turn one incident as the field of cars, 3 and 4 wide in some places, had to bottle neck to make it from the runway onto the city streets.  That incident ended the day for rookie Mike Conway of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.  That is a tough start to the 09 season with Dad’s Root Beer on board as a sponsor.

Danica and Raphael Matos got into each other headed into turn 12 on lap 31.  Everyone in the stands waited for the drama to unfold.  A what appeared to be calm and collective Danica Patrick emerged from the car.  As Matos and Danica waited for the safety vehicle to give them a ride back to pit lane.  They CALMLY voiced their point of views of what had just taken place.  The fans were waiting to see Danica catch a tantrum or throw a fit, but to everyones surprise it was just the opposite.  

One of the big stories of the race had to have been Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Here we have a driver who lost his ride last season and was out of the seat up until about a week ago.  He recorded Vision Racing’s best finish ever finishing 2nd.  That is great for someone who had to jump in and set up a street course car in 3 days.  I am for one anxious to see how he does at Vision this season.  

Who is Junior Strous?  That’s what everyone was asking over the course of the weekend.  That was of course until he won both races of the Firestone Indy Lights double-header.  Strous is a rookie from the Netherlands that used to run in the Champ car Atlantic Series.  He ran a strong and consistant two races.  He is proved that himself along with The Winners Circle Group should be a force to be reckoned with on the road and street courses.  I would not count him out on the ovals either.  Strous was 6th fastest at the Homestead-Miami open test in February.  I am excited to see how this Firestone Indy Lights rookie does this season.

You can watch the Firestone Indy Lights highlights tonight on Versus at  6p.m. and a re-air of the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at 10 p.m.

After utilizing the media center at Homestead Miami Speedway for 3 days.  I finally took time to notice what a great well built facility it is.  I overhead members of HMS stating that the facility cost roughly $8 million to build.  It is definitely money well spent since everyone from the media, to the drivers, and PR reps seemed to be pretty comfortable.  The final testing sessions proved to be productive ones for Ryan Briscoe and Team Penske.  They were the first and only team to break the 212 mph mark.  At the backend of the field is Stanton Barrett once again.  You have to keep in mind that Team 3G with Stanton in the cockpit had only turned 150 laps in an IndyCar on an oval prior to tonights testing. Team 3G managed to raise there best lap from 201 mph on Monday night to 206 mph tonight.  This is a pretty drastic improvement despite the fact that they remained the slowest overall.  After spoke with team owner Steve Sudler and he was pleased with improvement and is confident that Team 3G will continue to pick up the pace into the 2009 season.  I managed to speak with Ryan Hunter-Reay and he is currently trying to work on a putting something together with HVM.  He spent yesterday evening watching the test session from HVM’s pit box.  Hopefully the two can bring some sort of sponsorship deal together.

And we are green.  The final oval test session of the 2009 IndyCar pre-season is underway.   21 cars are on track on this pleasant south Florida evening.  The afternoon was a busy one with the teams scrambling to set the cars up for Versus on track video shoot.  With the video shoot wrapping up around 3 p.m., the teams only had one hour to get the cars ready for the start of the session.  All the teams want to turn as many laps as possible to improve there oval setups.  Usually the pre-season test at Homestead Miami Speedway is just a few weeks before the season opener at HMS.  This year they will have to wait 6 months before returning to the Speedway for the season finale under the lights.  You can follow all of the timing and scoring by clicking the link

IndyCar Series live timing and scoring

Good morning from Homestead Miami Speedway.  Everyone was able to sleep in this morning since the cars do not need to be on track until 2:30 for another Versus network promotional shoot.  It’s another sunny and warm day at the track and is expected to stay that way for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.  Drivers are scurrying around attending photo shoots for various media outlets while teams are fast at work in the garages prepping the cars for the on track video shoot for Versus.  The video shoot is scheduled to wrap up around 3 giving the teams 1 hour to get everything ready before the start of the test session at 4 p.m.  Dan Wheldon arrived today after doing some promos for the National Guard yesterday.  This should bring our car count to 22 for this evenings open test session.  Keep checking back during the course of the day for updates from Homestead Miami Speedway.<-->

Today was another interesting day at Homestead Miami Speedway.  Panther Racing’s rookie driver Pippa Mann remained the fastest Firestone Indy Lights driver in today’s final practice session with her teammate Martin Plowman who is also a rookie finishing in P4.  Today the media was present for the Versus network photoshoots as well as private sessions with various IndyCar Series drivers.   Milka Duno drove for Newman Haas Lanigan Racing but it has been reported by IndyCar.com that her deal has not yet been finalized for the season.  Her car is sporting the Citgo logo with a new paint scheme.  Don’t get too excited, its not totally different. Justin Wilson also tested with Dale Coyne Racing and does not yet have a finalized deal with them.  As I was strolling through the garage area I spotted Ryan Hunter-Reay talking to various teams and crew members.  Sarah Fisher made an appearance as well strolling around and speaking with old crew members and owners.  Robert Doornbos surpised everyone with his push to P4 with a speed of 209.584 mph.  The biggest issue of the evening seemed to be all the yellows that were drawn out due to tires suffering punctures on the track.  The test session ended with Scott Dixon at the top of the charts with a speed of 211.372.  He was then followed by Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti, Mario Moraes, and Will Power.  The night wrapped up with video shoot of the Versus livery car driving around the 1.5 mile oval with other IndyCar Series cars for the new Versus network promotions.  IndyCar Series testing resumes tomorrow at 4 p.m.  and you can catch all the timing and scoring by checking out IndyCar.com