» IndyCars: 2012 Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg Preview

After a long off-season full of reinvention and reflection, the IndyCar series fraternity gathers again to go racing over a new season, beginning this weekend at the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg. In what was his adopted home with his family in America, the memory of the late Dan Wheldon has been immortalised with a local street renamed in his honour. Appropriately also, the street forms part of the race circuit, at Turn 10.

While the field will be racing with heavy hearts and the threat of wounds reopening, the first race of the 2012 season will get people back thinking of racing in a more positive light, and with new cars, engines and drivers, the series sports a whole new identity this time around, as we outlined extensively in our season preview, which you can read here.

The Circuit

Date:	23-25 March 2012
Lap Length:	1.8 miles / 2.9km
Race Lap Record:	1:00.928, Sébastien Bourdais (Lola B02/00 Cosworth) – 2003 (ChampCar)

Event Schedule:	Free Practice Session 1	Fri 11:50-12:50
	Free Practice Session 2	Sat 14:50-15:50
	Free Practice Session 3	Sat 09:55-10:55
	Qualifying Session	Sat 13:55-15:15
	Sunday Warm-Up	Sun 08:35-09:05
	Race 1 (100 laps, 180mi)	Sun 12:30-15:00
Past Winners:	Paul Tracy (Forsythe Racing Lola Ford Cosworth)	2003*
	Dan Wheldon (Andretti Green Racing Dallara Honda)	2005
	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske Dallara Honda)	2006
	Hélio Castroneves (Team Penske Dallara Honda)	2007
	Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas Dallara Honda)	2008
	Ryan Briscoe (Team Penske Dallara Honda)	2009
	Will Power (Team Penske Dallara Honda)	2010
	Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Dallara Honda)	2011

* Denotes CART Championship event

St Petersburg is a challenging course, and the first corner last year can be held as testament to its unpredictability. A first corner accident, which many say was triggered by Helio Castroneves, caused multiple retirements and even saw Marco Andretti’s car on its roof at the end of the melee, although Andretti calmly slid out unharmed.

There are multiple overtaking opportunities available, incidentally the best one can be said is now at Turn 10 where Dan Wheldon Way now begins. It was the corner where Wheldon overtook Ryan Briscoe to win the inaugural IRL event at the track. Wheldon celebrated that win by jumping into the Tampa Bay.

The Players & Form Guide

2012 IndyCar Series Championship Entry List (Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg):

No.	Sponsor	Entrant	Engine	Driver
2.	IZOD	Team Penske		Ryan Briscoe
3.	Shell V-Power	Team Penske		Hélio Castroneves
4.	US National Guard	Panther Racing		JR Hildebrand
5.	CITGO / PDVSA	KV Racing Technology		EJ Viso
6.	Truecar / Lotus Cars	Lotus-Dragon Racing		Katherine Legge (R)
7.	SEAT León 1.6T	Lotus-Dragon Racing		Sébastien Bourdais
8.	Brasil Máquinas	KV Racing Technology		Rubens Barrichello (R)
9.	Target	Chip Ganassi Racing		Scott Dixon
10.	Target	Chip Ganassi Racing		Dario Franchitti
11.	GEICO / Mouser / Petropolis	KV Racing Technology		Tony Kanaan
12.	Verizon Wireless	Team Penske		Will Power
14.	ABC Supply	AJ Foyt Enterprises		Mike Conway
15.	Interush / Panasonic	Rahal Letterman Lanigan		Takuma Sato
18.	Sonny’s Bar-B-Q	Dale Coyne Racing		Justin Wilson
19.	Boy Scouts of America	Dale Coyne Racing		James Jakes
20.	Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka	Ed Carpenter Racing		Ed Carpenter
22.	Lotus Cars	Dreyer & Reinbold		Oriol Servià
26.	Royal Crown Cola	Andretti Autosport		Marco Andretti
27.	GoDaddy.com	Andretti Autosport		James Hinchcliffe
28.	DHL / Sun Drop	Andretti Autosport		Ryan Hunter-Reay
38.	TBC Retail Group	Chip Ganassi Racing		Graham Rahal
67.	TBA	Sarah Fisher Hartman		Josef Newgarden (R)
77.	Hewlett Packard	Schmidt Hamilton		Simon Pagenaud (R)
78.	Entergy / Lotus Cars	Lotus-HVM Racing		Simona de Silvestro
83.	Novo Nordisk	Chip Ganassi Racing		Charlie Kimball
98.	Barracuda Networks	Lotus-BHA		Alex Tagliani

(R) Denotes ‘Rookie Class’ driver. Entry list is subject to final confirmation.

It is difficult to say whether Penske, Ganassi or another will have the upper hand here until we start to see some practice times come in. Everyone has a new car, many have new engines, and almost all have new drivers. It makes writing a preview rather difficult, but we all must wait and see what might happen.

Bring on the new season! Let’s go racing again!