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St. Pete
By A.J. Foyt
 As
many of you know, I am not a fan of street races but I have to admit
that the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is becoming one of the
IRL IndyCar Series top events in terms of atmosphere and attendance.
I still think the ovals provide fans the most exciting racing on
track but St Pete gives them some great entertainment value off
track. Based on the number of people wandering around the paddock,
that message is getting out.
I want to thank Mayor Rick Baker for presenting me with the first
annual Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg Legends of Racing award
which he did on Friday afternoon. I was flattered to receive this
honor along with the key to the city. The proclamation will be
displayed proudly with my other trophies at the race shop.
 We
enjoyed ourselves in St Pete more this time around too because we
had the support of a great sponsor in ABC Supply. The company's
signage was all around the event and they brought in over 200 guests
for race day. It means a lot to a race team to have that kind of
support cheering you on.
We came this year with a different chassis (Dallara vs last year's
Panoz), a different engine (Honda vs last year's Toyota) and a
different driver (Felipe Giaffone vs A.J. Foyt IV). Things went more
smoothly this year right from the start in the ABC Supply Number 14
which helped us finish ninth, our second top-10 of the season.
I don't know what it is about racing but when you get behind, it
seems everything works against you for the rest of the weekend which
is what happened last year. If anything could go wrong it did which
was really unfortunate for my grandson.
 Through
the grapevine I heard the comments of another rookie P.J. Chesson
(who made his Indy car street course debut) about driving an Indy
car here: He said something along the lines of: 'They might as well
have thrown me into the cockpit of a 747 and told me to land it. And
it was a plane full of people and if anyone got hurt, it'd be my
fault! Racing here is tough, really tough.' I'm sure my grandson
would have agreed.
Giaffone made his first ever visit to the track on Thursday when he
was able to give a few pace car rides which helped him become
familiar with the track's layout of 14 turns over 1.8 miles.
In practice on Friday we made a lot of changes to the ABC Supply car
as we tried to dial it in to Felipe's liking. Of course, he had to
dial himself in too because it was his first time ever driving an
Indy car on a street course, and the first time back racing on a
road course in an open wheel car in about five years. Now he did
have the chance to practice a week ago Tuesday on the road course in
Homestead along with the other IndyCar Series drivers which did help
a little bit.
On a street course which is bumpy and narrow, there is little margin
for error. The trick is to push the car to your limit (not
necessarily the car's limit) while keeping it out of the tire
barriers and concrete walls which line the narrow track. Felipe
managed to do that. After our first session, we made a lot of
changes which made us very late for our second practice of the day.
We only got three hot laps in but at least we knew we were headed in
the right direction.
On Saturday, Felipe qualified 16th quickest which was better than he
had practiced. I changed the gearing back to our original set-up for
the race and in the Sunday morning warm-up on full tanks, he was
13th quick and faster than he had qualified. The best thing about
these small improvements is that he went faster every time out which
meant our changes were for the better. I also believe as Felipe
became more familiar with the course, he was able to drive harder.
In the race, I told him to keep his nose clean and try to run as
hard as he could without taking unnecessary chances. He agreed. Of
course planning to do something and actually doing it are two
different things.
The car seemed slower at first because he did drop back a ways but
then as people dropped out either because of being too hard on the
equipment or accidents, the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara began moving
up the grid. I saw only one close call on a restart, not unusual in
street racing.
From the middle of the race on, he seemed to find his rhythm because
his laps times were faster and more consistent. He was able to stay
with the cars he was racing.
Felipe picked up two spots with 10 laps to go because we did a timed
fuel stop. If the yellow hadn't come out at the end, I think he
would have gotten another position because Sam Hornish was just
trying to nurse his car home. But who knows, we were happy to leave
with another top 10 result.
We head to Japan the day after Easter for our race at Twin Ring
Motegi, Honda's beautiful racing facility about two hours north of
Tokyo. The trip is long -- it takes a lot out of you -- but the fans
really seem to appreciate our Indy car race. They make the teams
feel welcome.
Tune in to see the race on Saturday, April 22nd at 12 noon on ESPN.
Hopefully my ABC Supply team will keep the momentum going with
another good finish. |
