2016 Season. Round 1: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, March 11-13.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Well, the waiting and the long off season are almost over as this Sunday's 2016 season opener at St. Pete's is nearly upon us.

This will be the 13th running of the race, on the current course and the 12th as an IndyCar race. The event was first held as part of the SCCA Trans-Am Series, on the downtown waterfront circuit, from 1985-1990 but when local residents and businesses complained about the noise it was cancelled. It returned 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 modified layout of the original 1985–90 waterfront circuit. 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.

Last year's race saw the introduction of aero-kits from the two engine manufacturers, Chevrolet and Honda, with Chevrolet producing the dominant package last season. They will both be bringing updates for their road-street/short oval aero-kits to St. Pete's. So, have Honda managed to play catch up with Chevrolet during the off season? Hopefully there won't be a repeat of last year's race, with bits of aero-kit coming off, producing a rash of FCYs and unfortunately injuring a spectator.

During qualifying last year, Sébastien Bourdais' long standing 2003 lap record was finally broken by Will Power.

Some trivia:
The driver with most wins: 3, Hélio Castroneves, 2006, 2007, 2012.
The team with most wins: 7, Team Penske, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015.

Track layout:


Length: 1.8 Miles (2.9 Km)
Turns: 14

Lap record: Will Power, March 28, 2015. 1:00.6509, 106.841 Mph (171.94 Km/h). Dallara DW12 - Chevrolet, Verizon IndyCar Series.

Last year's winner:
Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet
Laps 110
Distance 198 Miles (318.65 Km)
Race Time 2:16:58
Average Speed 86.735 Mph (139.58 Km/h)

Race Broadcast:
ABC Sunday, March 13. 12:52 EST.

[rwintle]

Woohoo!

Thanks for kicking this off with yet another of your excellent event backgrounder posts. Can't wait!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by rwintle

Woohoo!

Thanks for kicking this off with yet another of your excellent event backgrounder posts. Can't wait!

Me neither. Here's to an excellent season.

[fredd1]

Looking forward to seeing the new Penske paint job on screen.....Almost makes the pig look decent.

[cos]

Strong entry list too. One of the most talented fields in recent years IMO.

[gomick]

Looking forward to a great season of racing
Couple of ex-F1 rookies shall be interesting to watch...

[rustyfan]

So the broadcaster which aired IndyCar here in Sweden last year - their first year after taking over the rights - still hasn't listed the season opener on their schedule. Starting to think I won't get any coverage, which would be a bummer. Weird though that they'd drop the rights after just one year, if that indeed is the case.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Will Power gets his sixth Pole at St Petersburg, breaking his own lap record, which he set last year. Team Penske repeated last year's top-four shutout, with all four drivers finishing in excactly the same order as they did last year.

Top Honda is RH-R, followed by Graham Rahal.

1 Will Power, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.2450s
2 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.4421s 0.1971s
3 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.4995s 0.2545s
4 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.5312s 0.2862s
5 Scott Dixon Chip, Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.5395s 0.2945s
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.8803s 0.6353s
7 Graham Rahal Rahal, Letterman Lanigan, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.5893s 0.3443s
8 Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.6711s 0.4261s
9 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.6724s 0.4274s
10 Jack Hawksworth, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.7188s 0.4738s
11 Takuma Sato, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.9745s 0.7295s
12 Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m01.0571s 0.8121s
13 Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.1856s 0.9406s
14 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m01.0433s 0.7983s
15 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.2417s 0.9967s
16 Luca Filippi, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.1699s 0.9249s
17 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m01.5372s 1.2922s
18 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.2934s 1.0484s
19 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.5794s 1.3344s
20 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m01.3414s 1.0964s
21 Conor Daly, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.9385s 1.6935s
22 Spencer Pigot, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.3881s 1.1431s

[D.R.T.]

Pretty impressive by Power to bounce back from his practice accident. I think I read somewhere that it's 6 poles from the last 7 attempts at St Pete?

Fingers crossed he can keep it there during the race.

TK disappointing and a solid return for Hinch

[Lanky Turtle]

Will looked beat after doing only a handful of laps in qualifying. He's been sick and didn't participate in the autograph session or post qualifying stuff.

[rwintle]

All four series rookies way down at the blunt end of the field, along with TK (what happened?) and Aleshin, who of course didn't race at all last year.

Maybe not surprising... but I'm a bit disappointed none of them came out of the gates flying at the first event. Ah well, it's a long season.

[rwintle]

Originally Posted by fredd1

Looking forward to seeing the new Penske paint job on screen.....Almost makes the pig look decent.

I'm liking the look of Power's silver car. It'll be a b**** to photograph in bright sunlight though (like Bourdais' silver and red McAfee car a few years ago).

[Nikki Katz]

According to Autosport, Power's come down with an illness and will miss practice, possibly also the race. From pole!

[Tja]

Explains his look after qualifying yesterday. Oriol Servia on standby to step in for Power.

There has been live streaming for all sessions via YouTube so far, will they also do that for the race for viewers outside the US?

[10TENTHS]

In Germany your options are Sport 1 US, or www.espnplayer.com which is the subscriber-based streaming service.

[Tja]

Originally Posted by 10TENTHS

In Germany your options are Sport 1 US, or www.espnplayer.com which is the subscriber-based streaming service.

ESPN looks good, thanks.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Tja

Explains his look after qualifying yesterday.

It's the Taco Bell diarrhea!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Unfortunately, I missed the start and quite a bit of the early part of the race. Anyway just started watching and there's no caption, showing the running order or the lap, so I haven't a clue who is leading and on what lap the race is.

Edit: Daly leading, it's half-way through the race, it's an FCY and Power crashed out and sustained a concussion.

[bjohnsonsmith]

What happened there, just after the restart? A big mess at Turn 4.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by rwintle

All four series rookies way down at the blunt end of the field, along with TK (what happened?) and Aleshin, who of course didn't race at all last year.

Maybe not surprising... but I'm a bit disappointed none of them came out of the gates flying at the first event. Ah well, it's a long season.

Aleshin did race in 2015, in the ELMS and Le Mans 24 Hours.
Completely unrelated to IndyCar of course, but he did plenty of miles.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

What happened there, just after the restart? A big mess at Turn 4.

Muñoz divebombed Rahal and hell broke. A classic Yellows bring more yellows situation.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Congrats to JPM on back to back wins and congrats to Penske on a 1, 2. Top Honda is RH-R in third.

[RWill2073]

Kind of a boring race. Lot of my favorites were out of contention early. Wished pagenaud had won.

One big glaring negative: the broadcast. Being an imsa fan, I'm used to their broadcasts being used as infomercials, and that's exactly what this one felt like. It was an infomercial for the Indy 500. Every little thing that happened was tied into Indy somehow. Before they said it at the end, I thought to myself, the rest of the races befor Indy must be on nbcsn or something the way they're completely dismissing every other round. Sure enough, they said at the end that their next broadcast is Indy. Just a terrible production by abc. I look forward to nbcsn broadcasts.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

Kind of a boring race. Lot of my favorites were out of contention early. Wished pagenaud had won.

One big glaring negative: the broadcast. Being an imsa fan, I'm used to their broadcasts being used as infomercials, and that's exactly what this one felt like. It was an infomercial for the Indy 500. Every little thing that happened was tied into Indy somehow. Before they said it at the end, I thought to myself, the rest of the races befor Indy must be on nbcsn or something the way they're completely dismissing every other round. Sure enough, they said at the end that their next broadcast is Indy. Just a terrible production by abc. I look forward to nbcsn broadcasts.

Now you mention it, there wasn't an opportunity wasted to mention the Indy 500. One commentator referred to today's race as preparation to the 500 by Team Penske. The two races couldn't be further apart.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result:

Power never started the race due to nausea and was also suffering from concussion after the crash in practice. I missed the start and most of the first half of the race. When I started watching, I thought the commentators said he crashed out during the race but they were referring to the crash in practice. Speedy recovery.

I missed too much of the race but from what I saw, it was a bit dull. Otherwise, the season is now underway and Honda gave a good account of themselves. Rahal must be a bit peed off, after being punted up the rear by Munoz.

1 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h13m28.4650s -
2 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h13m30.7956s 2.3306s
3 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m37.3414s 8.8764s
4 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h13m37.7887s 9.3237s
5 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m38.1817s 9.7167s
6 Takuma Sato, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m54.5023s 26.0373s
7 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h14m09.1706s 40.7056s
8 Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 2h14m24.4109s 55.9459s
9 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h14m27.5854s 59.1204s
10 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h13m02.3902s Contact
11 Jack Hawksworth, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m30.1412s 1 Lap
12 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m36.5456s 1 Lap
13 Conor Daly, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m37.2666s 1 Lap
14 Spencer Pigot, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m39.8979s 1 Lap
15 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m51.6551s 1 Lap
16 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 2h14m05.6227s 1 Lap
17 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h14m08.3976s 1 Lap
18 Oriol Servia, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 2h14m08.7408s 1 Lap
19 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 2h14m14.6752s 1 Lap
20 Luca Filippi Dale, Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 2h13m39.1415s 2 Laps
21 Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h51m30.6830s Contact
22 Josef Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h41m08.0756s Electrical

- Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet - Withdrawn