GP of St. Pete Qualifying

Takuma Sato will start on the pole for the 2014 GP of St. Pete driving for A.J. Foyt.

A four hour rain delay left a somewhat wet track and made for an (really) exciting qualifying session.

Rounding out the Top 6 was Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Scott Dixon and Marco Andretti.

In the Top Ten:

5 Chevys and 5 Hondas
5 Different Teams (A.J. Foyt Racing, Ganassi, Andretti Autosport, Penske, Bryan Herta Racing)
2 Rookies (Carlos Munoz, Jack Hawksworth)

Full Qualifying Results can be found on the Indycar site.

Josef Newgarden qualified 22nd...Alex, his #1 fan is not happy.




INDY LIGHTS:
Qualifying was canceled due to rain so the starting positions were set by practice times.

Gabby Chaves will start on pole
followed by Zach Veach and Matt Brabham

Full Qualifying Results are at Indy Lights on the Indycar site.

GP of St Petersburg Indycar Practice

The Indycar season has officially begun!!

Cars were on track in the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday. 

 

The first practice session was led by last year's winner, James Hinchcliffe, followed by Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato.

The second sessions top three were Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal and Will Power.

The third practice session was Saturday morning (prior to the rain) and the leaders were Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato.

After the three practices Ryan Briscoe leads the speed charts with a speed of 103.807.

Qualifying has been delayed till 5:00 EST due to rain and hopefully will stay that way.

Indy lights qualifying has been canceled and they will line up by combined practice points.

Check out this awesome video from Indycar for some highlights of yesterdays practices!

2014 Indycar Season Begins

The 2014 Verizon Indycar Season
starts this weekend in St. Petersburg, FL!!!
 

 

And as long, cold, snowy and snowy and snowy

as this offseason was, it's hard to believe Indycars are back already.

 

 

And as bummed as we are that we can't be there (thank you Pennsylvania State School Assessments),

we will be glued to the tv and Indycar.com site all weekend to follow the action since

 we'll be guest posting for Pocono Raceway's site about the race.

 

 

There will be lots of Racing action all weekend in St. Pete:

 

Pro Mazda
USF2000
Indy Lights

 Pirelli world challenge

 Stadium super trucks

All Leading up to the INDYCARS on Sunday afternoon!

 

 

 

  

   Some new drivers to the Indycar series in 2014:

 

Mikhail  Aleshin

 

Ryan  Briscoe (back from a one year hiatus)

 

Jack  Hawksworth (from the Indy Lights Series)

 

 Carlos  Munoz (runner up in the 2013 Indy 500)

Carlos Huertas (from Formula Renault 3.5)


WATCH THE FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX of ST. PETE

at 3:00 EST on ABC

and follow along all weekend at

INDYCAR . com
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex's Josef Update #1

If you've looked around our blog a bit

you know that our little sister Alexandra

ADORES Josef Newgarden.

 

So we weren't surprised when Alex wanted to do posts

about Josef throughout the Indycar season.

Now the season is about to begin

and we agreed to do a pre-season Josef post.

 

 

 

*  Josef is in his third year with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing as an Indycar driver. (YAY) Josef will use his experience from the first two years to win this year.  (he better win or else Alexandra will be very upset)

 

*  Josef will be having veteran Alex Tagliani for a teammate in the Indianapolis 500.

 

* This In-Car video of Josef taking a really, really fast

lap around Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama is awesome!

 

 

*  Josef is pairing up with Rising Star Racing and will be monitored on his vitals and stresses during the Indy 500 in an effort to increase driver performance. 

 

*  Josef is still up to his video antics.  In this one, Josef learns how to wear a scarf from Indycar driver Simon Pagenaud.

 



 

 

Indycar School video #1:

Indycar explained! 

 

 By kids.

 

 The 1st video in the '3-2-1 Indycar Kids Indycar School' series!

 

 

 

Learn some of the basics about this

super fast, super exciting racing series

from some of its biggest fans!

 

 

Gary Bettenhausen



From 1970 Trenton Speedway Program

From 1973 Pocono Program

 

From the 1990 Indy program

Gary Bettenhausen drove in 21 Indy 500's with a highest finish of 3rd in 1980.  He was the fastest qualifier in 1991.

 

12 Hours of Sebring 'Indycar' results

The 12 Hours of Sebring goes to Ganassi's  #1 car of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas and Marino Franchitti!!

Sage Karam ran two stints (and a great race) teaming

with Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan

and they finished sixth.

 

Other Indycar drivers results included

Sebastien Bourdais and his team finishing 3rd

Simon Pagenaud's team finished 5th

Justin Wilson' s team finished 9th.

 

Can't wait the 12 days till we get to see

all the Indycar drivers

driving in the season opener at the GP of St. Pete!

 

 

Sage Karam in the 12 Hours of Sebring

 

Sage Karam,

our great local racer,



 is racing in the 12 hours of Sebring today
with Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan
after having done a great job at the
24 hours of Daytona in January.

Other Indycar drivers we'll be watching include
Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais,
Tristan Vautier, Katherine Legge, Alex Tagliani,
Ryan Briscoe and Ryan Hunter-Reay, Martin Plowman.

 

Good Luck Sage. 

Keep impressing them so we can see you 
in the Indy 500 this year!!!

 

Joe Leonard Samsonite ad 1971

We love that our Pappy saved all his old Indycar stuff.

Today we found this in a Pocono program. 

 

Joe Leonard began his 'second career' as an

Indycar driver in the early 1960's

after being a motorcycle champion.

 

He went on to race for greats such as

Andy Granatelli and Parnelli Jones.

He won the USAC (Indycar) Championship in 1971 and 1972.

 

 

Indycar offseason news #5

Almost the start of the season and there's plenty going on in Indycar!

 

  

There will be a new qualifying format for the Indy 500 this year.  Of course we never fully grasped the old format, and our mom still misses the 2 weekends of qualifying.  We just hope we can go to Indy to watch it this year however they qualify.

 

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch will do the 'double' and race in the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte on the same day.  Cool!


 

 

Indy Lights alumni Jack Hawksworth  signed with Bryan Herta Autosport for the 2014 season.

 

Looks like Verizon will soon be announced as the new sponsor for Indycar.

 

25 Days till Indycar Season: Target Fix

Only 25 days till the start of the Indycar season.

 

Thank goodness because we're getting desperate.

 

We went shopping in Target and hunted down all the Indycar signs in the grocery aisles.