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Before I get into the turn sequence that takes us to the park/Yacht Club/Marina-pretty part of the course that begins with turn 4, I'd like to mention the how good this course is as compared to most temporary circuits. This course layout offers three race proven and confirmed passing opportunities, and the run down into turn 4 is the first of them. As usual in "concrete canyon" racing and road/street racing as a whole, you pass under braking, and to do that you need some room, talent and finesse. With open wheel cars that are susceptible to wheel launches; it's also the reason that races on poorly designed and configured courses, that this kind of racing can produce ride-around, follow-the-leader parades, where it even becomes difficult for the leaders to pass and lap back markers. On the St. Pete course, at least for the two IndyCar events, that hasn't been the case, although the 2005 race was far better than last year, mostly due to engine manufacturer diversity and disparity. 

Back in 2005, in what was the first IndyCar road/street race ever, the Honda had a huge horsepower advantage over the Toyota and Chevy, but those cars weren't as race-capable as those powered by the Chevy and Toyota engines. The Toyota engine, in the hands of Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing could get the power to the track sooner and there was team-customized traction control to launch them out of the turns without wheel spin. That negated some of the Honda horsepower advantage, but the engine had so much power that late in the race, when it was time to go, the four Andretti Green drivers just bashed and muscled their way through and past the competition, and it became a battle between the four of them for the win. Surprisingly the cars proved to be tough and durable enough to survive hard wheel-to-wheel contact, and those that escaped the tire barriers were able to soldier on and finish the race. Back then Panther Racing was the only team using the Chevy engine, sandwiched between the Honda and Toyota engine on the horsepower scale. Panther had two great road racers in Tomas Scheckter and Tomas Enge, but the team was new to road/street racing and learning. They managed Scheckter's pit stops well and got him into a lead late in the race that the Honda cars might not have managed to counter, but then Tomas made a mistake and ended up in the tires and it came down to a Honda/Toyota run to the finish, Honda, AGR and Dan Wheldon won on a "gift" from Tony Kanaan at 2nd of three passing opportunities, more on that later.

Last year, it was an all-Honda race, but there was still diversity in the chassis area, TCGR, Rahal Letterman Racing and one of the two Fernandez cars used the Panoz chassis, probably better suited for road street racing. Even though the Panoz has won only two of six ICS road and street races held, it has been a case of the few against the mighty. Last year the Honda Grand Prix of St. Pete was a driver’s race, and the road racing standout drivers were more than up to the task, although it was Dario Franchitti that dominated practice and qualifying. Late in the final practice Dario tangled with car of Kosuke Matsuura, already into the tires in turn 4 and sustained front-end damage to his car. The parts needed to fix the damage weren't up to the challenge and Franchitti was out of the race early. As it turned out, the detuned/long-life Honda 3-liter engine, sans traction control this time around, didn't have the acceleration to challenge the passing opportunities and four of the best five road racers in the series finished in lockstep. Helio Castroneves won, followed by Scott Dixon in the Panoz, Tony Kanaan and Bryan Herta.

This year there is a new, higher torque 3.5 liter Honda engine, still with no traction control and a reported ability to get the cars off the corner better that should challenge the three passing places and render the runoff area shown above as a parking spot for one of St. Pete's finest as justified and needed. In 2005 this area could have been dubbed Sam's Place, as Hornish, in his first IndyCar street race effort, cooked his brakes and ended his race here.

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This is the entrance to turn four (not shown in the picture is the runoff area from the photo above), this turn has collected more cars and resulted in more lead changes than any other corner on the course. In the picture below we see the paint crew hard at work in the speed bump area. The gray area near the cones is where they will epoxy in the "bumps."

This is the short-chute betweens turn's 4 and five, a case of "righty-tighty" and "lefty-loosy." I'm sure some of the tires will be adjusted out of the way.

Here we see more work on the speed bump area of turn 5 as well. Back in 2005; just before the race I ran into Brian Barnhart of The IRL and he explained that although they were using the CART designed course, they were working hard at preventing the drivers from cutting the corners, bouncing off inside walls and ending up hitting the outside wall as a result. Because of that and the wide speed bump areas on several turns, the course runs slightly longer than the CART course

This 3-picture sequence shows turn 5, the approach turn 6, and the inside view of turn 7, showing the start of a waterfront park area just south of the historic St. Petersburg Yacht Club. It is one of the prettiest portions of the course, worth a tour while you watch the cars during practice and qualifying. Turn 6 was also part of the original St. Pete Trans Am course in the mid-80's. My son Michael, a teenager at the time, watched all of those races. Michael will be working with me this weekend, shooting pictures.

Intent on showing more of the park setting, I didn't shoot the turn-in to turn 8, which would be to the right of this picture, I'll insert one later today.

This is the short-chute between turns 8 and 9 on the north end of the course, facing the Yacht Club Marina. I expect this wouldn't be a good place for a car park Friday morning.

Looking back toward the exit of turn 9, which is nothing but your typical 90 degree street course "square corner." This view of the Marina won't be available race weekend, they usually cover it with a tarp, so it's worth showing now.

I simply reversed my position standing on the course and shot this view of the approach to the kink in the run down to turn 10 alongside Progress Energy Park on the right, it used to be known as "Al Lang Field" back in the day when sports facilities weren't sponsored. I saw lots of Spring Training baseball games here in the 80's, a great place to watch a ball game on a warm Spring afternoon with my son's and daughter's.

A "kinky" close-up.

Exiting the high-speed kink, this begins the run down into turn 10 and the 2nd good passing opportunity on the course.

Turn 10, in 2005 Tony Kanaan bounced one of the three TCGR Panoz Toyota's out of his way, went wide, lost momentum and Dan Wheldon got past him here to win the race. That's the "Acura Yacht Club" in the background.

The short run down to the quick right-left jog they call "turns 11 and 12."

The turn 11/12 view, just under the bridge and to the left you can see the speed bump area where Helio Castroneves tried to dive bomb AJ Foyt IV in 2005 in a failed attempt that cost him a chance at winning the race. This area is a great addition to the course, although few choose to watch from here. I'm going to try to get over there during practice.

Helio was here, although if those were his tire marks on the bumps, they were his outside tires, he was mostly in the grass, AND in the air.

I think Helio and Foyt also ended up over there in what looks like a bare spot in the grass behind the white mini.

Turns 13/14, the approach to the runway straightaway.

"X" marks the "NOT," this warning is for pilots, meaning that runway 24 is closed.

The front straightaway and "pit-in," I could have posted two pictures, but what the hey, I'm almost done here.

I'm not the only one to arrive early, "November 127 Delta Foxtrot," that's Dario Franchitti's chopper.

Well, I was one lap and done, but I could have easily walked another. There will be three racing series running this weekend, the IndyCars with 18 entries, the Indy Pro Series, running as many as 25 cars this year and for the first time the cars of the American Le Mans Series will be running with the IndyCars here. These are not "open wheel" cars, it will be interesting to see how much "muscle" their drivers will use in moving slower cars out of the way without exposed wheels to deal with. Team Penske and Andretti Green Racing have ALMS/LMP2 entries. Click on the ALMS hyperlink to see some of the familiar names on their entry list. The IPS and IndyCar entry lists are also linked. 

While the IndyCars run on an established and proven course, the following week the rival CCWS series opens their season on a temporary and far less attractive/challenging street circuit in downtown Las Vegas, her is a link to initial and updated look at that course.

The transporters from all three series will arrive today (Wednesday), I'll shoot more pictures this afternoon.

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