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Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented, ML, its owners and affiliated administrators and advertisers shall have neither
liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly by the information contained
herein. ALWAYS call travel companies directly to confirm any information before traveling, booking or paying for anything. No material From ML or any web site owned,
operated, created, licensed or controlled by ML may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed in any way, except that you may copy
material for your personal, non-commercial home use only unless prior written permission has been given by ML or the respective copyright owner, and provided you
keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Anything submitted to the site for publication on the site will be reviewed. ML reserves the right to edit any
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| PHOTO OF THE DAY The 2009 IRL IndyCar Series season kicks off this weekend with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (St. Pete GP photo) |
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NEXT: IRL - St. Pete
| SUNDAY, APRIL 5, 2009 "LIVE UPDATES" GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG |
1:00 PM
For someone who as only driven Hondas my entire life (along with my family), it
makes me proud to see a Honda Accord as the Official Pace Car, driven by the
legendary Johnny Rutherford, pacing this and every IRL race in 2009.
AGR Promotions and the city of St. Petersburg will today announce a contract
extension to hold the race here (details to come).
You'd never know that the entire country is in a deep recession by the amount
of people here this weekend. Near perfect weather conditions aided the
attendance, I'm sure. It's my believe that when times are hard for everyone,
that organizing what might seem as a frivolous activity (a race) would be
insensitive to the needs of so many people. However, I believe we all need
some stress relief sometimes, and spending a little bit of discretionary income
at an event that is organized to be fun for everyone, including families, is a
good thing.
New at this year's St. Pete race is the area inside the garage on site that used to
have vendors placed under the roof. Now, many of the IndyCar teams are set
up inside, away from the sun, and with no awning to put up or take down (a
huge and sweaty undertaking). It's a bit dark and a bit noisy, but the teams
seem to like it.
Roger Penske has said publicly that if Helio Castroneves is cleared of all tax
evasion charges (which could be known as soon as this week if the case goes
to the jury), he WILL have a third car at Penske Racing for him for the next
available race. That means, we may see Helio back in a Penske machine as
soon as Long Beach. Missing St. Pete won't necessarily knock him out of
contention for the championship, as most teams - good, bad, or otherwise -
have a DNF during the season. Helio just got his out of the way early. Here's
hoping for good news for Helio, as the series misses him.
10:00 AM
Yet another beautiful day here in St. Petersburg - it's already 75 degrees, and
very humid! There's a chance of rain today (which could make the IndyCar
Series race pretty interesting), but so far there's not a cloud in the sky!
The IndyLights race from yesterday was really entertaining, with a huge amount
of talent in the field - way more so than any other year. Almost every driver has
been a champion in some other form of racing, and there's probably 15 on the
grid that could win the race. Considering that when the Indy Lights Series (then
called the Indy Pro Series) was created under the IRL banner, they struggled to
get 8 cars. This weekend, 27 drivers showed up, filling cars from many strong
teams. A big congratulations goes out to IRL Indy Lights head honcho, Roger
Bailey, for his continued dedication to developing young race car drivers.
Lots and lots of yellows in today's second Indy Lights race - hopefully not a sign
of what's to come in the IndyCar race this afternoon.
The Andretti Green Promotions group has found a way to paste a sponsor's
name on almost every aspect of this event. There's signage on every square
foot of available space, and even each corner of the circuit has a corporate
name attached. The volunteers are sponsored, with their shirt front a simple
name and logo of Konica Minolta. Knowing how hard it is to get sponsors right
now, and the amount of time it takes to land and process just one corporate
partner, this is a massive effort by the AGR staff to create an atmosphere where
it has become completely attractive for businesses to want to affiliate with this
event.
For someone who as only driven Hondas my entire life (along with my family), it
makes me proud to see a Honda Accord as the Official Pace Car, driven by the
legendary Johnny Rutherford, pacing this and every IRL race in 2009.
AGR Promotions and the city of St. Petersburg will today announce a contract
extension to hold the race here (details to come).
You'd never know that the entire country is in a deep recession by the amount
of people here this weekend. Near perfect weather conditions aided the
attendance, I'm sure. It's my believe that when times are hard for everyone,
that organizing what might seem as a frivolous activity (a race) would be
insensitive to the needs of so many people. However, I believe we all need
some stress relief sometimes, and spending a little bit of discretionary income
at an event that is organized to be fun for everyone, including families, is a
good thing.
New at this year's St. Pete race is the area inside the garage on site that used to
have vendors placed under the roof. Now, many of the IndyCar teams are set
up inside, away from the sun, and with no awning to put up or take down (a
huge and sweaty undertaking). It's a bit dark and a bit noisy, but the teams
seem to like it.
Roger Penske has said publicly that if Helio Castroneves is cleared of all tax
evasion charges (which could be known as soon as this week if the case goes
to the jury), he WILL have a third car at Penske Racing for him for the next
available race. That means, we may see Helio back in a Penske machine as
soon as Long Beach. Missing St. Pete won't necessarily knock him out of
contention for the championship, as most teams - good, bad, or otherwise -
have a DNF during the season. Helio just got his out of the way early. Here's
hoping for good news for Helio, as the series misses him.
10:00 AM
Yet another beautiful day here in St. Petersburg - it's already 75 degrees, and
very humid! There's a chance of rain today (which could make the IndyCar
Series race pretty interesting), but so far there's not a cloud in the sky!
The IndyLights race from yesterday was really entertaining, with a huge amount
of talent in the field - way more so than any other year. Almost every driver has
been a champion in some other form of racing, and there's probably 15 on the
grid that could win the race. Considering that when the Indy Lights Series (then
called the Indy Pro Series) was created under the IRL banner, they struggled to
get 8 cars. This weekend, 27 drivers showed up, filling cars from many strong
teams. A big congratulations goes out to IRL Indy Lights head honcho, Roger
Bailey, for his continued dedication to developing young race car drivers.
Lots and lots of yellows in today's second Indy Lights race - hopefully not a sign
of what's to come in the IndyCar race this afternoon.
The Andretti Green Promotions group has found a way to paste a sponsor's
name on almost every aspect of this event. There's signage on every square
foot of available space, and even each corner of the circuit has a corporate
name attached. The volunteers are sponsored, with their shirt front a simple
name and logo of Konica Minolta. Knowing how hard it is to get sponsors right
now, and the amount of time it takes to land and process just one corporate
partner, this is a massive effort by the AGR staff to create an atmosphere where
it has become completely attractive for businesses to want to affiliate with this
event.