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In the Streets of St. Pete
By A.J. Foyt
 I
am not a fan of IndyCars racing on the streets, but the Honda Grand
Prix of St. Petersburg was a successful event in many ways even if
it wasn't that great a day for my team and my grandson, A.J. Foyt
IV.
For one thing there were people in the grandstands and, yes there
were far fewer and smaller grandstands than where we usually race
but it still feels good to see fans filling the seats. The
atmosphere reminded me of another street race, the Long Beach Grand
Prix in southern California. It's a party and the racing is
secondary.
I left early (more on that later) but I was surprised that there
were quite a few people making their way to the parking lots by the
halfway point. I guess those fans were more interested in the party
than the race or maybe they were expecting a more exciting race.
It's just hard to get away from follow-the-leader racing on the
street circuits because there is so little room to pass or race
wheel-to-wheel which is what the IRL IndyCar Series built its
reputation on.
 That
reputation didn't sell enough tickets to our race in Phoenix last
month so I guess the IRL needs to change some things if they're
going to grow. And it looks like road racing is going to become a
larger part of the schedule. Unless the oval fans start supporting
those races in greater numbers, I don't see how the IRL has much
choice.
I don't think A.J. IV is a big fan of street racing at this point in
his career. He has a lot to learn and the one thing he wanted to do
Sunday was to stay out of trouble and try to get as much experience
as possible. He started last because we had some problems with the
shift mechanism just before qualifying and so he didn't post a time
(which wasn't a big deal because he wasn't going to start too much
further up front anyway).
A.J. IV struggled to adapt. Earlier he had jokingly asked about
getting some fenders and a steel nose for this race and I was
wishing we could have gone for the steel nose. By race time, the 14
had its third nose assembly. Of course some of the teams with much
more experienced drivers had to replace a lot more than that--that's
just the way it is with the street circuits.
Once the race got underway, A.J. IV and Ed Carpenter (the other kid
whose experience was exclusively oval track) were running together
when the leaders came upon them 11 laps into the race.
A.J. IV let a couple leaders pass but when Helio Castroneves tried
to pass, the two cars were going for the same part of the track and
they crashed. Where Helio tried to force a pass, there is a reverse
crown to the road so if you get off line or out of the groove, the
car will shoot off into the wall. I know A.J. IV was concerned about
that and he tried to give Helio as much room as possible which made
Helio think he was leaving the door open. But A.J. IV knew if he
didn't get into the groove by a particular point, he'd shoot off
into the wall. I think he was counting on Helio to lift and Helio
was counting on A.J. IV to lift more than he did. Helio hit A.J. IV
in the sidepod sending the 14 airborne and they both spun across the
track into the grass and eventually the wall.
I felt with Helio's considerable experience and A.J. IV's total lack
of street circuit experience that the burden was on Helio to use his
best judgment which honestly I don't think he did. A little patience
would have gone a long way, and he'd probably agree. You just can't
assume too much on the part of rookies.
Helio apologized to me as I went back to the garage area which I
appreciated. And I felt sorry for him too because he had a
legitimate chance to win the race. And I know A.J. IV felt bad too.
So A.J. IV's race ended before he completed 12 laps of the 100 lap
race. If he'd been able to run the entire race, he would have
learned a lot but even Ed was out after 32 laps. In fact eight of
the 21 starters were eliminated because of accidents.
That's the difference between street courses and road courses, the
margin for error. The street circuits, narrow and lined by concrete
barriers on both sides, have no margin for error. You have to deal
with transitions in surfaces and reverse crowning on roads, all of
which makes staying in the groove critical to staying off the walls.
On the other hand, the road courses have run-off areas and usually
the track itself is wider, smoother and allows for more side by side
racing.
It's just a shame that the road courses couldn't have come first on
the IRL schedule but what can you do? A.J. IV had to deal with the
hand he was dealt and he did it the best he knew how.
As bad as our day was, it was just the opposite for Andretti-Green
Racing as they swept the top four positions with Dan Wheldon
winning. As sweet as that was, I'll bet team owner Michael Andretti
enjoyed more his son Marco's victory in his first ever Infiniti Pro
Series race earlier that same day.
As much as you may win yourself, there's nothing to compare to the
feeling of seeing your son (or grandson) in victory circle for the
first time! Congratulations to both of them.
We will spend the next couple weeks getting our cars ready for the
race in Japan and for the Indy 500. The way the schedule plays out,
our team will go straight to Indy from Japan to finish up prep on
the 500 cars. In the meantime, you can catch our race on Saturday,
April 30 starting at 12 noon Eastern time. It is tape-delayed so you
can probably get the results sooner by checking out www.indycar.com. |
