Tag: Grand Prix

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Grand Prix of St. Pete race preview

The traditional NTT IndyCar Series season opener, the Grand Prix of St. Pete in Florida, gets underway this Sunday with a 27-car grid including five rookies, with Josef Newgarden and Felix Rosenqvist locking out the front row for Sunday’s 100-lap race.

Start of the 2023 GP of St. Pete (Photo by Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment).
  • Race preview/qualifying 
  • Full qualifying results

3 min read

IndyCar returns to St. Petersburg, Florida for it’s season opener in what will be the 21st running of the Grand Prix of St. Pete; a 100-lap, 180 mile race around the streets of downtown St. Pete and the Albert Whitted Airport with the race starting at 12pm ET/4pm UK time.

The 14-turn temporary street circuit never fails to bring the action as last year’s race was won in the final laps as Pato O’Ward’s car temporarily lost power, allowing Marcus Ericsson to drive by and take the checkered flag three laps later.

Marcus Ericsson leads Pato O’Ward in the 2023 GP of St. Pete (Photo by Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment)

Saturday’s qualifying saw Team Penske’s two-time St. Pete winner Josef Newgarden  put his No. 2 PPG Chevrolet on pole with a 59.5714 second lap.

Newgarden said: “I get jacked up every time I show up for an IndyCar race. This is a rockstar team.”

One of Newgarden’s main goals for the 2024 season was to secure a pole position, It is Newgarden’s third St. Pete pole, having gone without a pole in the 2023 season, last being on pole for the 2022 Detroit Grand Prix at Belle Isle.

Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet for Team Penske at St. Pete (Photo by Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)

Felix Rosenqvist, now racing for Meyer Shank Racing after being replaced at Arrow McLaren, joins Newgarden on the front row, having done a 59.5772 lap.

Rosenqvist said: “We don’t want to get carried away; the race is a different challenge. But we had a feeling from practice, from rolling off the truck, and that’s great.”

Rosenqvist broke the track record in the Group of 12 qualifying session with a lap of 59.2706 to advance to the Firestone Fast Six, beating Will Power’s 59.3466 lap in the Group of 12 session in 2022.

Six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon could only manage an 11th starting place. Dixon is still winless at St. Pete after 19 previous attempts.

Will Power also failed to make the fast six, with an eighth-place effort. Power had secured nine of the last 14 poles at St. Pete, also being a two-time winner, winning in 2010 and 2014, with Newgarden winning the 2019 and ’20 race respectively.

Tom Blomqvist was the best of the rookies, qualifying 17th with a lap time of 59.9968, driving for Meyer Shank Racing

Graham Rahal, Colton Herta, Scott McLaughlin, and Marcus Ericsson also have wins at St. Pete; 2008, 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively.

Different for this years’ race is the turn three repave, removing heavy bumps that means drivers can now go flat out through the corner.

Also different is the use of lighter chassis components on the cars including a new 3D-printed titanium aeroscreen top frame, saving seven pounds, as well as the switch to a magnesium gearbox casing and bellhousing. This is all in preparation for the arrival of the 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engines with hybrid technology this summer.

Catch the 2024 Grand Prix of St. Pete on Sunday at 12pm ET/4pm UK time.

Full qualifying results

  1. Josef Newgarden
  2. Felix Rosenqvist
  3. Pato O’Ward
  4. Colton Herta
  5. Romain Grosjean
  6. Marcus Ericsson
  7. Rinus VeeKay
  8. Will Power
  9. Scott McLaughlin
  10. Marcus Armstrong
  11. Scott Dixon
  12. Christian Lundgaard
  13. Alex Palou
  14. Santino Ferrucci
  15. Alexander Rossi
  16. Callum Ilott
  17. Tom Blomqvist (R)
  18. Kyle Kirkwood
  19. Linus Lundqvist (R)
  20. Agustin Canapino
  21. Christian Rasmussen (R)
  22. Graham Rahal
  23. Kyffin Simpson (R)
  24. Sting Ray Robb
  25. Colin Braun (R)
  26. Pietro Fittipaldi
  27. Jack Harvey

Featured Image: 2023 GP of St. Pete (Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment)

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Throwback Thursday – Targa Florio 1906

Cagno Wins The 1906 Targa Florio – (c) Pathe News

In my second Throwback Thursday feature article I look at the next race in the 1906 Grand Prix Season, the Targa Florio.

The Targa Florio was one of the very first and most challenging races. It was in 1906 when the inaugural race took place.

This race was the brainchild of a wealthy Italian businessman, Vincenzo Florio. He had made a vast fortune in Sicily and he was obsessed with cars. He initially approached a journalist in 1905 in a view to running the race but it wasn’t until 6th May, 1906 when the first ever Targa Florio would take place.

It would be a three laps of a 92.4 mile circuit in Sicily, near Palermo. Each lap would be treacherous as the roads were not designed for cars. Drivers would encounter wild animals during the race and were also at the risk of being held up by bandits in the Madonie Mountains. Most of the route was made up of mule tracks and paths.

One of the main rules was that the entries had to be production cars, of which at that time only ten had been made. One of the entrants, Vincenzo Lancia, organised the betting which in those days was very common at motorsport events. Thirty cars had initially entered the race but due to a dock strike in Genoa travel plans were hampered and only ten drivers made it to the start line.

There were ten minute intervals between cars, Lancia was the first away in his Fiat but he retired due to mechanical failure. The next driver away was Jacques Le Blon driving a Hotchkiss, accompanied by his wife and mechanic Madame Le Blon. They would be the last of the six finishers to cross the line due to a number of punctures suffered over the course.

Maurice Fournier and his brother Achille entered two cars, both Clement-Bayard’s but they would not see the end of the race due to failures, as too would the British entry George Pope driving an Itala.

The other five cars to finish ahead of Le Blon were made up of two Italians, two Frenchmen and a Belgian. Alessandro Cagno, an employee of Itala brought the car home in just over nine and half hours, averaging a speed of 29mph. He was followed by another Italian driving an Itala, Ettore Grazione. Paul Bablot driving a Berliet finished third and his fellow Frenchman Victor Rigal in an Itala was fourth. Finishing ahead of the Le Blon’s in fifth place was the Belgian driver Pierre de Caters.

So much of a success was the Targa Florio that it is still run today, though not in a competitive form.

The next race in the 1906 Grand Prix season would be the Circuit de Ardennes in Belgium and from this race only Paul Bablot would enter.

Neil Simmons

Twitter: @world_racing

 

 

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Throwback Thursday – Cuban Road Race 1906

Lancia In His Fiat For The 1906 Cuban Road Race – Photo (c) Veloce

In a series of weekly articles covering Grand Prix and Endurance racing I will be looking at all the races in order from 1906.

1906 was the first Grand Prix racing season where specific races and designated Grandes Epreuves were held.

In this first instalment I will look at the first race of that season, the Cuban Road Race which took place on 11th February, 1906.

This was a “road race” to every letter of the word. Tens of thousands of spectators gathered along the roads and highways to watch four drivers race for the crown. Mahogany trees lined the roads from Havana through Artemisa and onto San Cristobal, a 54 mile route which the drivers would need to negotiate over four laps.

It had cost $30,000 to make and upgrade the circuit with four sharp turns and an array of curves peering down steep cliffs. There was no room for error on this treacherous course.  Havana had stumped up $7,000 with The Automobile Association of America putting up $14,000 in prize money.

Four cars would start the race, only one would finish one mile from the Camp Columbia where huge stands had been erected.

The drivers were sent off in three minute intervals. Bernin was first to go in his 90hp Renault, followed by the defending champion and favourite to winner Lancia in his 110hp Fiat. Third to be started was Cedrino driving a Gustav Roek 110hp Fiat and finally it was Demogeot in his 80hp Darracq.

Demogeot lost five minutes straight from the start due to a clutch problem with his competitors speeding off into the distance.

Cedrino was out of the race at the double curve near Artemisa, 40 miles from the start line. He struck a tree and both he and his machinist were taken to the Guanajay Hospital with serious injuries.

Lancia passed the town of Artemisa, he was absolutely flying and living up to the tag as favourite when disaster struck at the railroad crossing. His machinist, Battesta, was thrown from the car, suffering a fractured arm and that effectively put him out of the race.

Only two remained, Bernin in the Renault who was leading and Demogeot who was trying so hard to make up the lost time from his clutch problem.

Bernin reached San Cristobal first in just over 51 minutes, Demogeot reached the same stage in 54 minutes.

On the return journey Bernin suffered a puncture and it was so bad that the car could not be fixed. This left Demogeot as the only entrant still running but the course had taken victims and he could not count his blessings too soon.

Demogeot and his machinist, American Charlie Harragh, finished the race in 3 hours 38 minutes and 26 seconds.

Demogeot’s great speed was fairly maintained throughout, confirming the reputation of the Cuban road as being among the worlds fastest. Despite the drawbacks of three controls, sharp corners in the town of Marianao and with crowds spilling onto the road at the curving points, he made in the first half of the race an average of 61 miles an hour.

The next race in the series would be the Targa Florio at Madonie, one in which Vincenzo Lancia would feature again.

 

Neil Simmons

Twitter: @world_racing

 

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