Five Series, Eleven Races, One Race Track as Open Wheels and Sports Cars take to the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida

By: Chris Jameson / RaceCanada
March 24, 2015

A lot of racing action on tap in Florida this weekend at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with the opening rounds of Indycar and the Road to Indy series for Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and USF2000. The open-wheelers will be joined by the Pirelli World Challenge Championships which will haves rounds three and four for the GT/GTA/GT Cup and GTS classes. With double-headers for the three Road to Indy series and Canadian drivers across the board, this eleven race weekend will keep us pretty busy here at RaceCanada.ca starting with practice and qualifying on Thursday for World Challenge on the 1.8 mile 14-turn temporary street circuit.

Before we get to the World Challenge entries though, let's have a look at the changes in the open wheel field.

First up we have USF2000 and the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. As of March 8, the entry list comprised nineteen (19) entries including two Canadians. First we have the return of James Dayson (Vancouver, BC) who competes in the Masters division with ArmsUp Motorsports. He will be joined on the grid in 2015 by Parker Thomson (Red Deer, AB) competing under the JDC Motorsports tent in his rookie season

USF2000 St. Petersburg Track Records:
Qualifying – Spencer Pigot 1:13.284 = 88.423 mph March 23, 2012
Race – Matthew Brabham 1:13.064 = 88.689 mph March 24, 2012

# 16 James Dayson Vancouver, BC ArmsUp Motorsports
# 80 Parker Thompson (R) Red Deer, AB JDC MotorSports

In the Allied Building Products Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for ProMazda we see eighteen (18) entries as of March 14 and most notable we see some team changes and a new entry moving up. Garret Grist (Grimsby, ON) has made the move to Juncos Racing after finishing to 2014 season 8th overall in the championship with Andretti Autosport where he picked up two race victories. Stepping in at Andretti is Dalton Kellett (Toronto, ON) who finished 10th last season. Meanwhile Daniel Burkett (Winnipeg, MB) has stepped up from USF2000 to the Pro Mazda series and will make his rookie series debut with Cape Motorsports. Burkett finished 11th in the 2014 USF2000 standings.

ProMazda St. Petersburg Track Records:
Qualifying – Conor Daly 1:10.352 = 92.108 mph March 27, 2010
Race – Jack Hawksworth 1:11.439 = 90.707 mph March 24, 2012

#2 Daniel Burkett (R) Winnipeg, MB, Cape Motorsports
#5 Garett Grist Grimsby, ON, Juncos Racing
#28 Dalton Kellett Toronto, ON, Andretti Autosport
R = Series Rookie

The Mazda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Presented by Peninsula Pipeline for Indy Lights has lists a starting grid of thirteen (13) entries as of March 20. We expect to se some intense racing in the Lights series this year with some very competitive drivers. It should be noted that nine of these drivers are rookies to the series, but they come with some impressive credentials including former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton who will also be a work driver for the Nissan NISMO World Endurance Championship team in 2015. That aside however, everyone will be keeping a close watch on 2014 Pro Mazda championship rivals Scott Hargrove (Vancouver, BC) and Spencer Pigot. The two battled all season long with Pigot taking the championship by just ten points at the end of the season. The duo also battled in the Porsche GT3 Cup Canada series with Hargrove coming out on top in that championship. As we mentioned, this should be intense, exciting series to watch in 2015. Hargrove is driving for 8Star Motorsports in 2015

Indy Lights St. Petersburg Track Records:
Qualifying – J.K. Vernay 1:06.3497 = 97.664 mph March 27, 2010
Race – Sebastian Saavedra 1:07.2141 = 96.408 mph April 5, 2009

#8 Scott Hargrove (R) Vancouver, BC 8Star Motorsports

Then there is the main event – the Firestone Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg for IndyCar and of course all Canadian eyes will be on the Schmidt Peterson #5 Arrow Electronics Honda of James Hinchcliffe (Oakville, ON). Hinchcliffe, winner of the 2013 edition of the race, did not fare so well last season finishing 19th in the race, but back with a new team, new sponsor and renewed energy, "Hinch" will be looking to make a point in the opening round that this is going to be a benchmark season. 

Pirelli World Challenge Championships

We now switch focus to World Challenge which will run two races – rounds three and four on the season, on the St. Petersburg street circuit. The series has a total of sixty-three (63) entries across four classes (GT: 16; GTA: 18; GT Cup: 9; GTS: 20) and will run GT/GTA/GT Cup in one race while GTS runs a separate race.

The Canadians come to St. Petersburg with a mixed bag of results starting with Olivier Beretta taking the victory in race one of 2015 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in the R. Ferri Motorsport (Toronto, ON) Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia. Finishing 8th in the second race, Beretta comes to St. Petersburg sitting third in the driver's championship.

For AIM Autosport (Woodbridge, ON), the learning curve continues in Florida following a good start at COTA with new partners, new cars and new drivers. The setup on the Nissan GT-R GT3s certainly proved a challenge at COTA under race conditions but having worked with these particular guys, nothing was left unchecked in the "how do we do better" column heading to St Petersburg and it should be fun to watch the #33 (Davison) and #05 (Heitkotter) on the street circuit.

In GTS, Mark Wilkins (Palgrave, ON) will be looking to improve on his 7th (race one) and 6th (race two) place finishes. The Kinetic Motorsports Kia Optima is strong but on some tracks it is difficult for the 2-liter turbocharged front-wheel drive car to match the big V8 monsters from Detroit.

And speaking of V8 monsters, we are hoping to see Max Riddle (Vancouver, BC) back behind the wheel of the TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Max started the weekend at COTA before falling ill so his Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge team mate Kris Wilson stepped in to drive. Max had shown that the car was quick in practice and Kris proved it by taking the win in race one that weekend.

GT - #33 - JD Davison,St. Petesburg, FL - AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R-GT3 (AIM Autosport)
GT - #61 - Olivier Beretta, Monte Carlo - R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 458 GT3 Italia
GTA - #05 - Bryan Heitkotter, Fresno, CA - AE Replay XD Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R-GT 3 (AIM Autosport)
GTS - #38 - Mark Wilkins, Toronto, ON - Kinetic Motorsports / Kia Racing Kia Optima
GTS - #07 - Max Riddle, Vancouver, BC - TRG-AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT4

And before we forget, once again the IndyCar circuit is joined by Robbie Gordon's Stadium Super Truck Series (SST). These guys are tons of fun to watch and they will ofetn have guest drivers in the series which makes it even more entertaining. Can't wait to see them when they get to Toronto in June.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

IndyCar Broadcast Schedule:
• IndyCar Firestone Grand Prix of St Petersburg
• ABC - 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm (ET) Live

Indy and Road to Indy Live Timing & Scoring:

• USF2000: http://www.usf2000.com/results/live-timing

• ProMazda: http://www.starmazda.com/results/live-timing/

• Indy Lights: http://indylights2014.com/live-timing/

• Indycar: http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

Pirelli World Challenge Live Stream and Timing & Scoring

World Challenge Live Streaming: http://www.world-challengetv.com/

World Challenge Timing & Scoring: http://www.world-challenge.com/liverace/index.html

Complete on-track schedule – all series (All times Eastern Time) 

Thursday, March 26, 2015
3:00 PM - Pirelli World Challenge GT, GTA, GT Cup Testing
4:15 PM - Pirelli World Challenge GTS Official Practice
5:30 PM - Pirelli World Challenge GT, GTA, GT Cup Official Practice
6:15 PM - Pirelli World Challenge GTS Qualifying

Friday, March 27, 2015
8:00 AM - US F2000 Practice
8:45 AM - Pro Mazda Practice
9:30 AM - Firestone Indy Lights
10:15 AM - Pirelli World Challenge GTS Race #1- 50 minutes
12:30 PM - Verizon Indy Car Practice
2:00 PM - US F2000 Practice
2:45 PM - Pro Mazda Practice
3:30 PM - Firestone Indy Lights Practice
4:15 PM - IZOD Indy Car Practice
5:45 PM - Pirelli World Challenge GT-GTA-GT Cup Qualifying
6:30 PM - 7:00 PM SST Practice

Saturday, March 28, 2015
8:00 AM - US F2000 Qualifying
8:45 AM - Pro Mazda Qualifying
9:30 AM - Indy Lights Qualifying
10:15 AM - USF2000 Race #1
11:10 AM - Pirelli World Challenge GT-GTA-GT Cup Race #1
12:30 PM - Verizon IndyCar Practice
1:30 PM - 2:10 PM Pro Mazda Race # 1
2:25 PM - Indy Lights Race # 1
3:30 PM - SST Race #1 – 30 minutes
4:15 PM - Verizon Indy Car Qualifying and Fast 6
5:45 PM - 6:35 PM Pirelli World Challenge GTS Race # 2- 50 minutes

Sunday, March 29, 2015
8:55 AM - USF2000 Race # 2
9:50 AM - Pro Mazda Race # 2
10:45 AM - Pirelli World Challenge GT-GTA-GT Cup Race # 2
12:00 PM - Verizon Indy Car Warm-up
12:45 PM - 1:55 PM Indy Lights Race# 2 – 45 laps
2:10 PM - SST Race # 2
2:50 PM - IZOD Indy Car Pre Race
3:30 PM - IZOD IndyCar Race – 110 laps