St. Petersburg
HONDA GRAND PRIX

ST. Petersburg Road Course

Race Report: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg


ST. PETERSBURG, FL April 5, 2009—Vitor Meira described the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as a “survivor’s race.” He survived to finish ninth despite an accident which resulted in having the nose and front wing assembly replaced on the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda.


“It was a survivor’s race,” said Meira. “I almost went out when [Alex] Tagliani blocked me. We had to replace the nose which put us to the rear. It is so hard to recover from that on these street courses where it is so difficult to pass. I had the pace and was able to run with people but once you’re behind, it is really hard to catch up. I feel we had a little luck just to finish today.”


Ryan Briscoe won the race which was slowed by five full-course caution periods. Following Briscoe across the line were Ryan Hunter-Reay, Justin Wilson, Dario Franchitti , Tony Kanaan, Will Power, pole winner Graham Rahal, Darren Manning, Meira and Tagliani.


The weekend started with Meira running in the top 10 in practice on Friday and Saturday morning. A problem with gaining traction became magnified in qualifying under the hot, greasy track conditions which resulted in Meira’s 17th place qualifying run.


There was a miscommunication between the engineers and the driver which delayed sorting out the traction problem until the post-qualifying debriefing session. The car was changed for race day. The morning warm-up proved that the change worked. Meira did spin towards the end of the session, blaming himself for braking too late; he tagged the wall lightly knocking the end fence askew on the rear wing. The ABC Supply crew replaced the rear wing for the race.


For this season, Firestone Tire Company has introduced a new concept to the IndyCar Series by supplying two different compounds of race tires for the street and road courses. The normal compound race tire is black-rimmed while the softer compound tire (which is faster but less durable) is red-rimmed. At St. Pete, each team received six sets of black-rimmed tires and three sets of red-rimmed tires, with the provision that at least one set of reds had to be reserved for the race. Teams could choose to start on either reds or blacks, and the majority of teams chose to start on the reds, including Meira.


In the race, Meira advanced to 12th by lap 21 but he pitted the next lap under green to switch to the normal compound tire, saying that the softer tires had really lost their grip. He dropped back to 17th and was challenging Alex Tagliani for position on lap 30 when Tagliani blocked Meira, clipping Meira’s front wing. Tagliani was forced into a run-off area and Meira continued albeit about three seconds off his pace. A lap later there was a full course yellow for an accident involving Danica Patrick and Raphael Matos.


The ABC Supply crew changed the No. 14’s front wing and nose assembly after changing tires and Meira dropped back to 15th spot, nearly the last car on the lead lap. As different fuel strategies cycled through Meira ran as high as sixth (briefly) before pitting on lap 69 for his final stop. He emerged in 14th and had climbed to 12th when a four car accident on lap 87 claimed Dan Wheldon, Hideki Mutoh, Andretti and Robert Doornbos.


Meira was in eighth place when the race restarted on lap 93 but Manning nipped him going into the first turn as Meira had a problem with the rear brakes locking up entering that turn on the restarts and the first couple laps following the restarts. Once the brakes heated up (and lost some of their stopping power), the brakes worked fine.


“The car kept locking the rear brakes on the restarts which made it hard for Vitor to get into turn one as deep as he needed to—that’s where the couple cars that did pass him were able to get by,” said team owner A.J. Foyt. “We’ll make some changes for Long Beach so he doesn’t have that problem again. Overall though, I think Vitor and the team did a good job for the first race of the year. I’m glad that we rolled out of there in one piece.”


The next race on the schedule is the Long Beach Grand Prix which will be the first time that Meira will have seen the 11-turn, 1.96-mile course on the streets of Long Beach, CA. It will be televised on Versus Sunday, April 19th, starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.
 

Vitor Meira Will Start 17th in Honda Grand Prix


ST. PETERSBURG, FL April 4, 2009--Vitor Meira will start 17th in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Sunday afternoon.


“It’s not what we expected," said Meira after his run in the first qualifying session. "We took a gamble and it didn’t work. Everyone is disappointed because our expectations were much higher. I still believe we can have a good car for the race tomorrow and having a good race will change everybody’s spirits."


Meira was 10th quickest in the early morning warm-up and the ABC Supply team made some changes to the car to compensate for the hotter, greasier track conditions during the qualifying session. However, the changes didn't prove to be enough as Meira struggled for traction leading onto the longest straightaway. The result was that they weren't able to advance into the Fast Twelve.


Qualifying at St. Pete consisted of two groups of 11 cars running 20 minutes each with the fastest six from each group advancing to the next session which is labeled the Fast Twelve. The top six qualifiers from that 15-minute session then advance to the Firestone Fast Six for a 10-minute session. The field is set according to the position held in the group in which you qualify. Each time a car advances to the next group, its previous lap times are erased. Meira was ninth in the first group so he started on the inside of row nine. Marco Andretti will start alongside Meira.


Defending race winner Graham Rahal won the pole with Justin Wilson lining up alongside him. Others rounding out the top six were: Tony Kanaan, Ryan Briscoe, Dario Franchitti and Will Power.


There will be a final warm-up tomorrow morning. The race will start at 2:45 p.m. with the race coverage on Versus beginning at 2:00 p.m.

Vitor Meira is Ninth after First Day of Practice


ST. PETERSBURG, FL April 3--When the first day of practice for the opening round of the 2009 IndyCar Series ended this afternoon, Vitor Meira was ninth fastest with a speed of 100.991 mph around the 1.8 mile, 14-turn street course.


Throughout the two practice sessions, Meira was up and down the speed charts running as high as second and as low as 12th as the team fine-tuned the set up on the ABC Supply No. 14.


"Overall I’m really happy," said Meira. "There were a lot of expectations leading up to today and I think our winter has paid off. It’s still the first day of practice but I think there is more in the car. I’m still very encouraged."


An incident in the afternoon practice caused everyone to hold their breath. Meira was knocked into the outside wall on pitlane by Dan Wheldon who was trying to avoid hitting Hideki Mutoh who was exiting his pit stall. Mutoh struck Wheldon's right rear wheel and was penalized by officials for avoidable contact.


"I don’t know whose fault it was but I know it wasn’t mine," said Meira. "I was in the high speed pit lane and Wheldon was in the transition lane. I know he saw me but then he turned into me so quick. I heard afterwards that there was another car involved and he did it to avoid hitting the other car. I didn’t see the other car but that would explain a lot. It didn’t hurt my car too much--it knocked out the toes [on the suspension] a bit--but everything else seemed fine.”


Meira will practice again in the morning for a half hour before the qualifying session begins at 10:50 a.m. for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. A highlights show from qualifying will be shown on Versus at 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Notes & Quotes: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg
Vitor Meira: No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda/Firestone
 

· Meira on St. Pete being the first race of the season: “The first race of the season is more important in that you find out where you are relative to everyone else. You see what you have to focus on—where your strengths and weaknesses are. There are a lot of expectations built up during the off season so everyone is more anxious and that usually means there are a lot of crashes in the first race. Historically there are a lot of crashes at the street races and now that a street race is the first race of the season—that will make it even more likely that there will be lots of crashes. The part of the track that has a lot of crashes is also the place where you can make or lose a lot of time—the first complex of second gear corners around Turn 5. What I like about St Pete is that it isn’t as tight as most street courses---it has a little flow—not like Detroit where you’re always braking and having very tight turns.”



· Meira on Strategy: “Our strategy is going to depend on how we do in practice—where we are at…we’ll either do the best we can or go for it [if car is really good]. I think having all this testing has helped us and I’m really confident. Our strategy is to finish because finishing this race means it will be a top 10.”



· Meira on street courses: “Street races are harder on the cars’ gearboxes because of the bumps and more shifting—there are a lot of second gear corners. You can do things as a driver like not use as much rear brake because when you do, you’re locking the rear wheels which makes it harder on the downshift. And you have to be careful on upshifting too but in the end, it’s all a balance between gaining speed or losing time. If you do things like shift earlier and not right on the edge then you lose time and speed.



· A successful weekend? “Maybe I’m being too realistic but a very successful weekend would be a top 5 finish and a successful weekend would be a solid top 10—not one where you lucked into it. Everybody is really pumped and one of the best things we have going for us at St. Pete is Adam [Schaechter, new chief engineer] whose orientation has been street and road courses so that experience will really help.”



· Meira on his record at St. Pete: “I’m not sure why but I never had good qualifying sessions there but I always had a good car in the race. I have to get better at qualifying because it is so hard to pass there. Last year I was pretty close to Darren [Manning] throughout the race because we had the same fuel strategy and if I hadn’t crashed with Perera, I would have finished fifth or sixth.” He was credited with 19th. In 2007, Meira, running fifth, had a gearbox failure on lap 38—he went straight into the barrier at Turn 4. They repaired the car but he placed 16th. The first two years he started 12th and finished fifth.



ABC Supply returns for its fifth year as primary sponsor of A.J. Foyt’s No. 14 with GAF-ELK signing on for another year on the car’s engine cover.


ABC Supply roofing customer Armstrong Homes, of Ocala, FL, won the ‘Your Name Here’ contest for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The company name will be atop the sidepods of the No. 14 ABC Supply Dallara/Honda. Scott Armstrong will receive selected merchandise, race tickets, hospitality and garage passes, plus a Meet and Greet with Vitor Meira. The “Your Name Here” promotion selected winners by random drawing from a pool of entries sent in by ABC Supply customers earlier this year.


· The Honda Indy Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the 100-lap race around the 14-turn closed circuit on the streets of St. Petersburg, FL, will be televised live April 5th, Sunday afternoon starting at 2:00pm eastern time on Versus (VS).