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They're getting
things setup for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Pete... |
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(Thursday,
4-3-08) Great working conditions, a morning view from the Media
Center window, just to left of where I am sitting... |
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Here's a diminutive version of the course
map, better seen and understood as shone here.
In addition, here's a link
to a great map of the area that will get you to the track and even the
easy access off-track parking with a provided shuttle to and from the
track. |
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Yesterday I was lamenting about the former
CCWS teams not having the latest wing updates when they tested
at Sebring and according to what I saw roaming the paddock
Wednesday (scroll further down on this page). This morning I
took this picture of the Conquest Racing #38 of Enrique Bernoldi
in the tech line, and as you can see, they've gotten the parts
and have them on his front wing. Both Conquest cars came from
Vision Racing, but it isn't clear whether they were team cars or
"pool" cars. The team now has one brand new Dallara back at the
shop, and will get another by Indy. |
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This appears to be the latest "hot setup,"
seen on the front wing of the Ethanol/Rahal Letterman Racing #17
of Ryan Hunter -Reay |
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Here's the Andretti Green version, being
tweaked for the Hideki Mutoh car. |
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Looking from the back, TCGR on the other
hand, appears to like their fins a little taller. Lets look at
some other "stuff." |
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Team Penske is all over it very early his
morning. A couple of guys might be drinking coffee, but nobody
is leanin' on a shovel. |
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Rollin,' rollin,' yep, the Graham Rahal/NHL
Dallara Honda rolls again after extensive (and expensive) repair
work this week, here the crew prepares to move the car into the
tech line. |
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It isn't often that drivers back the car
engine cowling deep into the SAFER, but Rahal did at Homestead. |
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The Justin Wilson N/H/L Dallara Honda
heading for tech inspection... |
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Here's the HVM #33 of Ernesto Viso, also
badly damaged, this time Saturday during the race at Homestead,
when Viso spun and was hit by race leader Tony Kanaan. Three
days later, after having three corners knocked off the car, the
team had it repaired and at Sebring on Tuesday and were able to
run about 90 minutes before the rains hit. This car has an
interesting history, it was one of the Kelley Racing Dallara's
from 2003. The team got it from Walker Racing after Derrick
decided he couldn't run, supposedly Walker got it from Team
Penske, who was supposed to be Derrick's technical partner. |
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A tale of two sets of wheels in search for
some tires, the OZ oval track rear wheels on the left came from
D&R Racing, those in the photo on the right are some of the road
race wheels from Conquest and Dale Coyne Racing. Both are legal,
but the ones on the left are better suited aero-wise for the
high speed ovals. I did notice today that these former CCWS
teams have a lot of chrome wheels. |
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I've been out and about this morning taking
pictures, and one of the things I want to point out is that this
course has been laid out here since 1993, when CART first ran
here. Four drivers that ran here in 1993 will again be in the
race on Sunday, former CART and CCWS divers Bruno Junqueira and
Oriol Servia, and current IndyCar drivers Darren Manning and
Ryan Hunter-Reay. While the course is essentially unchanged from
back then, wherever there is a turn where a driver, in cutting
the corner too closely, could clip the wall and bounce across
traffic and end up in a tire barrier on the other side of the
track these very abrupt speed bumps have been added. That's the
case in about eight turns now. Therefore this course is a bit
"longer" than it was in the CART year. Oriol Servia actually had
quick time of 1:02.606 in "practice session 3" and Bruno
Junqueira led "practice session 5" in 2003, posting a lap of
1:02.879. Last year Helio Castroneves posted the quickest time
in Firestone Fast Six Qualifying with an even quicker lap,
1:01.6839. This photo was taken looking back towards turn one,
at the head of the airport straightaway. Before I link course
photos taken last year, here's two more views taken this
morning. |
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This is the right/left combination through
turns 2&3 and once they close the gates this is the first of
three passing opportunities, the run down to the hard right turn
that id turn 4. |
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Here are
pictures of the course as I walked it last year at this
time. One thing does remain a constant though, the Central
Coffee Shoppe, at 530 Central Ave. in downtown St. Pete still
serves the quickest and best breakfast in this city, I've been a
customer there since 1980 whenever I'm in town. |
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(Wednesday,
3-02-08) I arrived at the course about 1:00 this afternoon, and
one thing is readily apparent, this will be a very crowded paddock
with 26 entries for the race this year. Traditional paddock
positions have been lost as well, and there are some new
"neighborhoods." As an example, AJ Foyt Racing is now camped right
next to Vision Racing, where the past three years they were in the
far corner of the paddock area across the street. |
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Here's the
Foyt hauler with his single stall under the canopy to the right,
next to AJ are the two Vision Racing haulers, holding down the
paddock position they had the past three seasons. Next to Foyt on
the left and shown below is now the two Roth Racing placements, in
a spot where we have always found Panther Racing located. |
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Further to the
left and not shown, are the two paddock positions of KV Racing
Technologies, but shown below is the Aussie Vineyards Dallara
Honda of Will Power... |
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The
story of the day though, comes from the paddock area across the
street from the Power car, just past the grassy area. That's where
Team Penske is located, and in the area to the left of them in
this picture is Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, now holding a position
that had been occupied the past three seasons by Rahal
Letterman Racing, supposedly the "technical partner" of N/H/L
Racing. Team Penske was originally slated to partner with Walker
Racing, whose ICS plans are currently on hold. From paddock
positions, I suspect the partnerships have now been scrambled. |
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That's the
Team Penske "bus" on the left, and one three Newman/Haas/Lanigan
haulers on the right, here's the rest of the story... |
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Here are the two N/H/L
Racing Dallara's of Justin Wilson in the top photo and Graham
Rahal in the lower shot. Remember this is Wednesday, and these two
teams were supposed to be testing at Sebring Int. Raceway
yesterday and today. I asked some of the crew people and learned
they "ran very little" at Sebring yesterday during the lunch hour,
before running into rain. I was told "they couldn't run any
further in the afternoon," and "with a forecast for more of the
same today," they packed it in and headed here... As you can see
the Rahal car, a brand new Dallara at the start of the Homestead
oval test, is now fully repaired and ready to practice Friday,
here are some of the related parts and pieces... |
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Here is a brand new road course/short oval wing for the Rahal car,
clear-coated to protect the carbon fiber surface. The interesting
thing is when all the former CCWS teams tested on the abbreviated
road course at Sebring, everyone used front wings that looked like
these. Under ideal conditions, with a lot of rubber on the racing
surface from the recently completed 12-hours of Sebring, they got
some very respectable results, as seen in the chart below of the
six fastest speeds posted over six days of testing. The results of
the two former CCWS drivers are highlighted in green. |
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Pos |
Driver |
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Best Time |
Best Speed |
Date… |
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1 |
Ryan Briscoe (6) |
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52.4202 |
114.689 |
3/6 |
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2 |
Helio Castroneves (3) |
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52.4531 |
114.617 |
3/6 |
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3 |
Oriol Servia (5) |
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52.7035 |
114.072 |
3/20 |
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4 |
Tony Kanaan (11) |
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52.8609 |
113.732 |
3/4 |
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5 |
Will Power (8) |
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52.9451 |
113.552 |
3/20 |
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6 |
Hideki Mutoh (27) |
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52.9513 |
113.538 |
3/4 |
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Granted that the conditions were vastly different through each of
the three test segments, Kanaan and Mutoh ran on a very green
track, while Briscoe and Castroneves, who set the quickest times,
probably had the cleanest track to work with... Anyway, what was
impressive about the runs of Servia and Power was that they were
run with the standard Dallara wings like the one above, while
Briscoe's front wing looked like this: |
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IndyCar Photo
BY Ron McQueeney |
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IndyCar Photo
BY Ron McQueeney |
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AGR's wings look like this... |
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An O/IRR
Photo BY Michael
Nelson |
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TCGR's front wings looked like this here at St. Pete last year.
The point I am trying to make is that it will be interesting to
see if any of the former CCWS teams "technical partners" will
assist them in getting the necessary front-wing add-on's that will
help them become more competitive this weekend? Here's some more
N/H/L "stuff." |
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A tale of two sidepods, one is a Homestead survivor, one a crash
replacement. That'll be the one on the bottom, a brand new piece.
One more note, I also learned today that although the Rahal car is
a brand new Dallara, once damaged, the Wilson car reportedly came
from the Vision Racing fleet... |
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The two D&R Racing Dallara's of Townsend Bell (#23), and the blue
and white Buddy Rice car, both sans sponsorship, at least for
today.
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