Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

Map of the track with the surrounding area
Venue	Streets of St. Petersburg
Corporate sponsor	Honda
First race	1985
First IndyCar race	2005
Distance	1.80 miles
Number of laps	100
Lap Record	1:00.928 (Sébastien Bourdais, Newman-Haas Racing, 2003, Champ Car, 106.710 MPH , 171.733 km/h)
Previous names	St. Petersburg Grand Prix (1985-1990) Kash n' Karry Florida Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (1996-1997) Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (2003)

The Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is an IRL IndyCar Series race held in St. Petersburg, Florida. The race will be televised on Versus.

Racing in the St. Petersburg area dates back to 1985. The SCCA Trans-Am Series held a race on a downtown waterfront circuit from 1985-1990. Local residents and businesses complained about noise, and the event was put on hiatus. Racing in the Tampa Bay Area also included an IMSA race at the Florida State Fairgrounds. But it only lasted two years (1989-1990).

In 1996-1997, the St. Petersburg race was revived on a course around Tropicana Field. Along with the Trans-Am Series, support races included U.S. FF2000, World Challenge, Pro SRF, and Barber Dodge. The event was well-received, but the course was considered unsatisfactory. The event went again on hiatus for several years.

In 2003, the event was revived once again. The race was first run as a Champ Car event in 2003. It utilitzed a modified version of the original 1985-90 waterfront circuit.

For 2004, however, the event was cancelled due to a dispute between the promoters. When the race returned in 2005, it switched to the IndyCar Series, and marked the first non-oval event for the Indy Racing League. Starting in 2007, the race weekend was expanded to include an ALMS event.

It was announced during 2008 race that Andretti Green Promotions, the organization that owns and operates the event, signed a contract extension with the city of St. Petersburg through 2013, and city officials hope to extend it through 2014.[1]

[edit] Past winners

2008 winner Graham Rahal practicing prior to the race

Season	Date	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine	Team
CART World Series history
2003	February 23	Paul Tracy	Lola	Ford-Cosworth	Forsythe Racing
IRL IndyCar Series history
2005	April 3	Dan Wheldon	Dallara	Honda	Andretti Green Racing
2006	April 2	Hélio Castroneves	Dallara	Honda	Team Penske
2007	April 1	Hélio Castroneves	Dallara	Honda	Team Penske
2008	April 6	Graham Rahal	Dallara	Honda	Newman/Haas Racing
2009	April 5	Ryan Briscoe	Dallara	Honda	Team Penske

[edit] Firestone Indy Lights Series

2008 Indy Lights Race 2 winner Richard Antinucci practicing

Season	Date	Winning Driver	Chassis	Engine
2005	April 3	Marco Andretti	Dallara	Infiniti
2006	April 1 (1st race)	Raphael Matos	Dallara	Infiniti
	April 2 (2nd race)	Raphael Matos	Dallara	Infiniti
2007	March 31 (1st race)	Alex Lloyd	Dallara	Infiniti
	April 1 (2nd race)	Alex Lloyd	Dallara	Infiniti
2008	April 5 (1st race)	Raphael Matos	Dallara	Infiniti
	April 6 (2nd race)	Richard Antinucci	Dallara	Infiniti
2009	April 4 (1st race)	Junior Strous	Dallara	Infiniti
	April 5 (2nd race)	Junior Strous	Dallara	Infiniti

[edit] American Le Mans Series

Overall winner in bold.

Season	LMP1 Winning Team	LMP2 Winning Team	GT1 Winning Team	GT2 Winning Team
	LMP1 Winning Drivers	LMP2 Winning Drivers	GT1 Winning Drivers	GT2 Winning Drivers
2007	#1 Audi Sport North America	#6 Penske Racing	#4 Corvette Racing	#62 Risi Competizione
	Rinaldo Capello Allan McNish	Sascha Maassen Ryan Briscoe	Oliver Gavin Olivier Beretta	Mika Salo Jaime Melo
2008	#2 Audi Sport North America	#7 Penske Racing	#4 Corvette Racing	#71 Tafel Racing
	Marco Werner Lucas Luhr	Timo Bernhard Romain Dumas	Olivier Beretta Oliver Gavin	Dominik Farnbacher Dirk Müller
2009	#9 Patrón Highcroft Racing	#15 Lowe's Fernández Racing	No entry	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports
	David Brabham Scott Sharp	Adrian Fernández Luis Díaz	No entry	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister

[edit] SCCA Trans-Am

• 1985 Willy T. Ribbs
• 1986 Pete Halsmer
• 1987 Scott Pruett
• 1988 Walter Röhrl
• 1989 Irv Hoerr
• 1990 Chris Kneifel
• 1996 Ron Fellows
• 1997 Tommy Kendall
• 2003 Scott Pruett

[edit] IMSA (fairgrounds)

• 1989 Price Cobb
• 1990 James Weaver

[edit] Course

The Streets of St. Petersburg course is a street circuit connecting existing roads with one of the two landing strips of Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg, Florida. It also dips into the parking lot at Progress Energy Park.

First bayfront course
The original 1985 Trans-Am course utilized a similar layout to the course used today. At the end of Bayshore Drive, rather than diverting off to the airport runways, the course circled around 5th Avenue Southeast around Bayfront Arena, and the start/finish line was located just south of the paddock (the parking lot of Bayfront Arena). In addition, the old course traveled further up Beach Drive Northeast, all the way to 5th Avenue Northeast. 5th Ave. NE was a very narrow segment. The course came south down Bayshore Drive Northeast, and passed by The Pier.

Tropicana Field course
The second course at Tropicana Field was located about a mile west of the waterfront location. The circuit used the roads around the perimeter of the parking lot of the stadium.

Second Bayfront course
When the course was reconfigured, the northbound segment turned at Central Avenue instead, and did not go as far as the The Pier. The pits and main straight were moved to the airport, and a paddock area was paved next to the runway. The Albert Whitted park was reconfigured/relocated, and the entire course layout was repaved.

The proposed Rays Ballpark is situated inside the confines of the current course layout and may disrupt or require changes to the track in the future.

The track's layout from 1985 to 1991

The track's layout from 1996 to 2000

Streets of St. Petersburg Streets of St. Petersburg trackmap Location St. Petersburg, Florida Time zone UTC-5 (UTC-4 DST) Capacity 40,000 Owner Andretti Green Promotions Major events IRL, ALMS Length 2.89 km (1.8 mi)

[edit] Telecast History

CART & IRL races

[edit] References

• Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg's website
• City has had false starts with racing
• Grand Prix circuit track maps of all three layouts

Coordinates: 27°45′59″N 82°37′45″W / 27.76639°N 82.62917°W / 27.76639; -82.62917