Racing Returns to Downtown St PetersburgBy Carl Wagenfohr ST PETERSBURG - Downtown St Petersburg will become a festival of speed once again, as the 2009 St Petersburg Grand Prix rolls into town April 3rd through April 5th. The 3-day event features the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) sports cars, and the open-wheel IndyCar and Indy Lights series. St Pete will be the second round of the 2009 ALMS championship. Last weekend's opening round at Sebring produced close competition between Audi and Peugeot for the overall win, with Audi prevailing by a margin of only 22 seconds after 12 hours of racing. Although it set the pole-winning time earlier in the week, the pair of new Acura ARX 02a prototypes failed to finish the race. The ALMS field will be reduced by 6 cars at St Petersburg, Audi, Peugeot and the factory Corvette GT1 team deciding to focus their efforts on the Le Mans 24 hour race in June. The thinner prototype field may create an opportunity for Acura to claim its first victory. Competition in the ALMS GT class, historically dominated by Porsche and Ferrari, has become even fiercer with the entry of BMW's new M3, run by Rahal/Letterman Racing. The BMW showed good speed at Sebring, running as high as 2nd in class before a mechanical failure caused them to drop out after 140 laps. The IndyCar race will be contested by a lot of familiar faces, including last year's winner Graham Rahal, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti and last year's series champion Scott Dixon among others. But two-time St Pete winner Helio Castro Neves will not participate this year because of his ongoing tax-evasion trial in Miami. Castro Neves' Penske Racing seat will be occupied by Australian Will Power. If recent pre-season testing at Barber Motorsports Park is any indication, competition will be very close again in 2009. The top 10 lap times fell within a range of 1 second, with Power taking the top spot. Dario Franchiti, returning to the IRL as a driver for the Ganassi team, set the second quickest time, only 3/10 second adrift of Power. Next Friday's on-track activity includes practice sessions for the ALMS, IndyCar and Indy Lights, and ALMS qualifying. Saturday will feature ALMS and Indy Lights races, and IndyCar qualifying. The 100-lap Honda Indy St Pete race will run on Sunday, with the green flag dropping at 2:45 pm. |