St. Pete Race Weekend Thread

[Mr Jinxx]

There isn't a time zone through the middle of Florida, I don't think ... the clocks went forward last night

[drewdawg727]

To clarify the drama - there is no time zone cutting through the middle of Florida. Anywhere east of the Mississippi River is on the Eastern Time Zone, which is five hours behind the UK.

But going back to the race, all i can say is wow. The start wasn't too interesting, but as soon as the Andretti/Wheldon tizzy happened, i knew that we were in for a ride.
I was a little upset with the Moreno/Meira contact, i think Meira lave Moreno absolutely no room, and that is very rare for Meira to do something like that.

Did it seem to anyone else that Buddy Lazier was a very hard person to lap? Dixon took a few laps to get around him which caused #'s 6, 3, and 11 to catch right up to him...

Wheldon and Hornish is another unnecessary event in the race. Ganassi looked extremely angry that Hornish "took out his driver", but Wheldoon seemed to think it would be cool to move around Hornish in the middle of the zigzag part of the course...

All of the strategies going on at the end of the race definitely had me on the edge of my seat...this race was definitely exciting and interesting...kinda made me upset that i will not be able to watch six of the races through the midseason this year :\

[drdisque]

there ARE 2 time zones in florida, however, that didn't affect this race, St. pete is in the same time zone as Miami, New York, and Boston.

The parts of Florida that are 1 hour back are located in the panhandle west of the north-south continuation of the Alabama-Georgia state line.

[Seoigh]

Originally Posted by Dutton

Ah, the race must be in the west of Florida.

I didn't realise that there was a timezone cross-over in the midst of Florida, so was inadvertently applying eastern on to western.

TIME zone change down the center of Florida?..lol ...it's barely 150 miles wide.

As mentioned, extreme western Florida (The panhandle) is part of the Central US Time Zone, that's 300 miles from St.Pete. 'Normally', the UK is 5 hours ahead of Florida (US Eastern Time), but as we just changed clocks forward Saturday night (to daylight-shifting time), it may be only a 4-hour diff for a brief period. Great racing, by the way, especially the World Challenge (saloon) support races.

[paul-collins]

Originally Posted by Seoigh

'Normally', the UK is 5 hours ahead of Florida (US Eastern Time), but as we just changed clocks forward Saturday night (to daylight-shifting time), it may be only a 4-hour diff for a brief period.

To set this straight:

Europe / Isles changed their clocks a week before North America, so on Saturday there was a 6h difference, while on Sunday (and for the remainder of the summer) the UK will be 5 hours ahead of us in Eastern TZ (and France, Spain and others will be 6h ahead).

[Dutton]

It was good to see such a relative lack of full-course cautions, but a major shame to finish the race under one.

I really don't understand Wheldon's thinking trying to do the pass where he did...why not wait until a straight?

Originally Posted by luke

Ah tough break for Franchitti. Must be down to the damage with what happened in practice...

Apparently the piece that was damaged in practice was changed for the race - but it was this newly replaced part that then failed in the race.

Was anyone else surprised that Dixon didn't come in at any point with the damage he had?

[luke]

Originally Posted by Dutton

Apparently the piece that was damaged in practice was changed for the race - but it was this newly replaced part that then failed in the race.

Yes which meant he was extra unlucky.

[Seoigh]

Originally Posted by Dutton

Was anyone else surprised that Dixon didn't come in at any point with the damage he had?

Good Catch! Dixon's Car literally seemed to be falling apart - team should have brought him in. 'Suspect they'll be spoken-to by Mr. Barnhart