St. Petersburg Race Report – 2012 IndyCar Series

St. Petersburg Race Report – 2012 IndyCar Series:

**Photo courtesy of Helio Castroneves Facebook Fan page.

While the Formula 1 drivers were fighting heavy rain and humidity in Malaysia, the IndyCar pilots were treated to sunburn weather in St. Petersburg, Florida for their season opener.
Chevrolet-powered cars dominated qualifying, but as the race unwound the Honda machines seemed to find parity. Lotus needs development.
Helio Castroneves in a Chevrolet-powered Penske machine won, with Scott Dixon putting a Ganassi team, Honda-fired car in 2nd. Then three more Chevys before the next Honda. Nice touch at the end of the race as Castroneves stopped at Dan Wheldon Way to honor the late driver who was involved in developing the new Dallara chassis.
It was a good start to the season.
Do you like the new look of the cars? Some of us find it a welcome change and wonder if it is a reason there were no first-turn shemozzles. Others would mumble “bumper cars,” particularly when the cars are seen from behind. Then again, it’s nice to know that a car-to-car tap doesn’t mean a retirement or necessarily force a pit stop.
Wade in with your comments, and tell us what you think.
One nice touch in the television broadcast was the wing-mounted camera off the right rear with a wide-angle view…interesting to watch the tire camber changes.
In case you are one of the fans upset because you can’t watch IndyCar qualifying on television, you can find it on the web here. Online, you’ll be able to follow a comprehensive timing and scoring display and also find lots of in-car video.
You can check it all out next week when the IndyCars race at Barber Motorsports Park in the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 1, 2012.
(** Full race weekend schedule here.)
**Photo courtesy of Helio Castroneves Facebook Fan page.


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