Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

March 13, 2019

Will Power

 

Tony Dungy 

Joseph Newgarden

Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Race day for the opening round of this year’s Indy Car series dawned sunny and warm in downtown St. Petersburg and by the time the green flag fell for the start of the first race of the year, the track was as hot as it had been all weekend and the sun beat down on both the teams, drivers and fans. Kathy and I arrived pretty early to take in all the pre-race festivities and watch part of the Indy Lights race as well as get some food prior to the start of the race.

 

Kathy

Our pit passes gave us access to the paddock, pits and grid during the pre-race warm-up and activities leading up to the start of the race as the cars were gridded and the pre-race preparations got underway. There seemed to be a huge amount of fans who had similar access as the grid was crowded this year and throngs of race fans got up close and personal with the cars and drivers as the race approached.

 

I wanted to see and meet Tony Dungy, former Super Bowl winning coach of the Indianapolis Colts who was serving as Grand Marshall, saying “Gentlemen Start Your Engines” to start the race, and riding with Mario Andretti in the two-seater for the pace laps. I was able to meet him and have a brief conversation just before he climbed into the car with Mario, which was pretty cool.

Mario Andretti and Tony Dungy

The race was led to the green flag by Penske driver and defending Indy 500 winner, Will Power who seemed to get a jump on the start and darted into the lead early. He was able to lead the first 17 laps, seemingly having the race in control until an untimely decision to try and anticipate a yellow and head for the pits when Sebastian Bourdais pulled his car into a runoff area with a blown engine. The yellow never materialized and Power’s early pitting had him falling back and never quite able to recover. He would go on to finish third. 

Pitstop strategy was what would eventually gain the win for another Penske driver as Joseph Newgarden was able to extend his middle strategy and gain a sizeable advantage on his rivals by staying out on quicker red tires longer than his closest rivals Scott Dixon, who would finish second and his brilliant rookie teammate Felix Rosenqvist who finished fourth and was never passed on track, losing time only during pit stops. He led a significant portion of the race as well and brilliantly outdueled Power at one point during the race.

 

The race was mostly trouble free, there was one pretty good wall slap by Ed Jones who was then clipped by Matheus Leist putting them both out and breaking a small bone in Jones’s hand.­­ The two full course cautions (the other was for a blown engine in Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car) were the fewest in the history of the race, meaning there were not as many restarts and less shuffling of the field.

Joseph Newgarden

Mario Andretti and Robert Wickens

James Hinchcliffe

While it at times seemed like a pretty dull parade of follow the leader, there was actually some decent action back in the pack and on the rare occasion when the leaders were in contact, the racing between them was stellar. Two rookies in addition to Rosenqvist finished in the top 10, with Colton Herta finishing in 8^th place and Santino Ferrucci coming home in 9^th place, each completing excellent drives.

Santino Ferrucci

 

It was overall a pretty decent start to the season and a good first race for a lot of drivers. Our favorite driver James Hinchcliffe had a steady drive to finish sixth, in spite of having to deal with some slower traffic that he just could not seem to get around. Passing at St. Pete is pretty tough, especially if drivers take it upon themselves to make their cars wide even when laps down, but such is racing. They will all be back at it in two weeks for the inaugural Indy Car race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. 

Marco Andretti

Marcus Ericcsson

 

http://gpstpete.com/