2017 IndyCar season, Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, March 10-12

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, March 10-12

The waiting and the long off season are almost over as this Sunday's 2017 season opener at St. Pete's is nearly upon us.

This will be the 14th running of the race on the current track and the 13th as an IndyCar event. The first race held at St. Petersburg was in 1985 as part of a double headliner, featuring the SCCA Can-Am and Trans-Am Series, with the Can-Am race won by Lou Sell and the Trans-Am race by Willy T. Ribbs. However, in 1990 the event was cancelled due to a combination of local residents and businesses complaining about noise and the loss of the main sponsor. It was revived briefly from 1996-1997 on a new course, around Tropicana Field. After a second hiatus, the event returned in 2003 but as a Champ Car race, using a heavily modified layout of the Bayfront course and was won by Paul Tracy, driving for Forsythe Racing, in a Lola B03/00 Ford-Cosworth. In 2004, the event was cancelled due to a dispute between the promoters but returned in 2005, this time as part of the IRL IndyCar Series, making this the first non-oval event for the Indy Racing League. It was won by the late Dan Wheldon, driving for Andretti Green Racing, in a Dallara IR-05 Honda Indy V8

Two years ago saw the introduction of aero-kits from the two engine manufacturers, Chevrolet and Honda. Unfortunately, the aero-kits proved to be rather fragile, with pieces of coming off, producing a rash of FCYs and unfortunately injuring a spectator. At last year's race both manufacturers introduced updates to their road-street/short oval aero-kits, without the issues that plagued the previous year. However, this year there are no updates as a freeze has been imposed on aero-kit development.

Last year saw Will Power qualify on pole for the second year in a row and Juan Pablo Montoya win, also for the second year in a row. However, Will Power was diagnosed with concussion shortly after qualifying finished and was forced to miss the race. Oriol ServiÃ* took his place and Simon Pagenaud inherited pole. After the race, Power was re-evaluated and instead of concussion he was diagnosed as suffering from a lingering ear infection.

Some trivia:
The driver with most wins: 3, Hélio Castroneves, 2006, 2007, 2012.
The team with most wins: 9, Team Penske, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016.

Track layout:
The Bayfront course has undergone a number of significant changes over the years, from the original 1985 layout to the modified version, which was used from 1986-1990 to eventually the current layout as used from 2003.

Current Bayfront layout:
Length: 1.806 Miles (2.903 Km)
Turns: 14


1986-1990 Bayfront layout:
2.000 miles (3.219 km)
Turns: 10


Original Bayfront layout:
2.000 miles (3.219 km)
Turns: 9


Lap record: Will Power, March 12, 2016. 1:00.245, 107.561 Mph (173.102 Km/h). Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6. Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's race:
Pole:
Will Power. 1:00.245, 107.561 mph (173.102 Km/h)

Winner:
Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske, Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6
Laps 110
Distance 198 Miles (318.65 Km)
Race Time 2:13:28
Average Speed 89.006 Mph (143.24 Km/h)
Caution periods: 2, laps 46 to 55, laps 57 to 62.
Caution laps: 16

This year's race broadcast:
ABC 12:30pm ET.

[D.R.T.]

After a long off season this opener cant come soon enough!

Pre season form is almost impossible to read but Penske will be strong but the performance of the Ganassi Honda's will be interesting to follow.

Hoping for a strong opening by JR Hildenbrand

[fieldodreams79]

Didn't see the P1 times, but Dixon, Power and Kanaan the fastest in P2. Let me find my shocked face:
P2 times
http://www.indycar.com/stats/verizon...urg/practice-2

Check that. P1 times here:
http://www.indycar.com/stats/verizon...urg/practice-1

P3 tomorrow morning.

Kudos to IndyCar.com for having a very user friendly website regarding schedules/results

[D.R.T.]

Impressive by Dixon

[Paradise City]

It's been like years since I've seen Indycar. Did they take a year off or something?

Kimball showing good pace I see. Nice to see Bourdais up there too.

[RWill2073]

Any practice or qualifying on tv or internet stream to watch other than the race?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

Any practice or qualifying on tv or internet stream to watch other than the race?

Qualifying is from 2:55pm - 4:10pm local time but nothing on the IndyCar website about showing it. Try clicking on the live timing and scoring link, just before qualifying starts.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying is live http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying result:

It's early days yet but it looks like Ganassi switching back to Honda and the freeze on aero-kits, has redressed the balance somewhat between Honda and Chevy, with 4 Hondas in the Fast Six but it's still a Chevy on Pole, with Will Power behind the wheel for the third time in a row at St. Pete's.

1 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda
3 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda
4 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet
5 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda
6 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda
7 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda
8 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda
9 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda
10 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda
11 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet
12 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda
13 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet
14 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet
15 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda
16 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet
17 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda
18 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda
19 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet
20 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet
21 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda

[fieldodreams79]

Shocking to see Power on the pole for a street race.

Seriously, a bit surprising to see Seabass and Simon down as far as they are. Issues or just off?

[Nikki Katz]

I missed it but I think Bourdais crashed, hence starting last. Don't know about Pagenaud. Honda seem a lot closer this year.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Bourdais crashed but it would seem Pagenaud just couldn't find any form.

[RWill2073]

I want to say it's shocking to see both castroneves and pagenaud so low, and while it is, if you look at who is above them, everyone except for sato and Kimball are guys that are either proven race winners or extremely talented. So the depth of the series just seems to be so much that you can see championship contenders down in the bottom half sometimes on merit. You won't find that in any other series.

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Bourdais crashed but it would seem Pagenaud just couldn't find any form.

Did he actually crash or just spin and stall bringing out the red flag.

Cars who now cause a red are parked for the rest of the session

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by D.R.T.

Did he actually crash or just spin and stall bringing out the red flag.

Cars who now cause a red are parked for the rest of the session

According to Racer.com

"Sebastien Bourdais was less than pleased to conclude his qualifying session against the Turn 13 barriers. The four-time Champ Car champion went straight on entry to the final corner at the end of his first lap, smashed the nose of his Dale Coyne Racing Honda in a meeting with the tire bundles, and caused a red flag as his car and broken front wings were retrieved from the circuit."

http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/13...the-back-start

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

It's been like years since I've seen Indycar. Did they take a year off or something?
.

Yes indeed. Feels like forever.

Love St Petersburg as an opener!

About to go green!

[fieldodreams79]

Graham spins and stalls. Is it possible to put starters on cars for road courses?

Nevermind. There's a couple others off with damage.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a clean start but Graham Rahal got hit from behind on Turn 3 and it's the first FCY of the season.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

That was a clean start but Graham Rahal got hit from behind on Turn 3 and it's the first FCY of the season.

Looks like he pinched Charlie and contact with the wall caused a side impact to Rahal.

Good move from the Mayor at the start got him to 2nd and another on the restart. Hinch to the point.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Back to Green flag and safely through Turn 3.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Power ran over the tyre hose and a drive-thru.

[bjohnsonsmith]

I lost the feed, was there another FCY?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Bourdais overtakes Pagenaud for the lead.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

I lost the feed, was there another FCY?

Yes. Debris after Kannan and Aleshin got together...Everything is mixed up on strategy because of it.

Been pretty clean since.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

It's been like years since I've seen Indycar. Did they take a year off or something?

But finally ICS is back in business!

Glad to see that the rookie Ed Jones has kept up a pretty constant pace. Though the series still needs more competitive rookies.