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A quick glimpse through the ABC broadcast of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Highlights on Tampa Racing


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfWKwqEgveo

Published on Mar 13, 2017

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St Pete Gran Prix The full race on Tampa Racing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkQ9-7dda1U

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Saturday SPGP Live Stream on Tampa Racing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJKtqt7kqL0
by IndyCar

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Stadium Super Trucks SPGP on Tampa Racing
Stadium SUPER Trucks Race 1 from the 2017 St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
Faster trucks at the back



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixL3sLSKHIk

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Stadium Super Trucks SPGP on Tampa Racing
Stadium SUPER Trucks Race 2 from the 2017 St. Petersburg Grand Prix.
Faster trucks at the back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyk24-oOYZU

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Indy Car Colton Herta Winner St Pete Gran Prix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJHwtZevB2s

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MILLER: Why Colton Herta's special

Tuesday, 14 March 2017


By Robin Miller / Images by MRTI, IMS Photo When he was nine years old, Colton Herta flipped his go-kart so violently it lacerated one of his kidneys. As Bryan and Janette Herta were rushing their son to the hospital, he asked his dad: "Do you think we'll be back in time for the second heat?"
Hearing that story made me instantly think: That kid's got the right attitude.
Watching 16-year-old Colton Herta's performance this weekend at St. Petersburg inspired another thought: He's also got the right stuff.
In what has to be one of the most impressive debuts in any professional racing series, Herta finished second and first in the Indy Lights doubleheader. He'd never seen the track before and had two test days in his Dallara/Mazda at Homestead, Florida. Yet he methodically marched from fifth to second on Saturday and then led all 45 laps on Sunday to give George Michael Steinbrenner IV a rousing introduction to car ownership.
And sure, it's only the first weekend of a long season, but for a kid who is barely old enough to drive a passenger car he's not supposed to be this advanced. This mature. This collected.
And this quick.
"I didn't drive my first car until I was 18 and it's just amazing," said Michael Andretti, he of 42 IndyCar victories who partners with Steinbrenner and also co-owns Alexander Rossi's car with Bryan Herta. "Colton is so mature and I think I was more impressed with him on Saturday when he made those decisive passes.
"Today it was almost like he was toying with them, and I've never seen anything like that at 16."
The Herta family made a tough decision a few years ago when their 14-year-old was offered a ride in the British Formula 4 championship. He'd have to live in England without his mom and dad. He jumped at the opportunity and finished third in that series with four wins and three poles. Last year it was the same on-your-own scenario for the Euroformula Open series, which resulted in four wins and five poles.

All that testing and racing and fending for himself helped Colton on and off the track, and it's impossible to put a price on what it was worth.
"No, actually I can put a price on it," Bryan says with a laugh. "But it was worth every penny. It was amazing training and an amazing learning experience and I'll never be able to thank Trevor Carlin enough for taking care of Colton and letting him stay at his place. I couldn't imagine doing that at 14 or 15, but Colton ate it up.
"I never drove a car until I was 18 at the Skip Barber School and here he is at 16 already winning a race in the stepping-stone to the Indianapolis 500. I'm just so proud of him."
The 2017 Lights lineup is full of young talent with Neil Alberico, Nico Jamin, Kyle Kaiser, Pato O'Ward, Aaron Telitz and Santi Urrita all gunning for that $1 million prize and entrée into IndyCar in 2018.
And it almost seems unthinkable that a 16-year-old driver and 20-year-old owner could be moving up that fast.
"I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves so I'm just thinking about our next race at Barber, but I've been a Colton Herta fan since I first saw him in a Barber Dodge race in 2012," said young Streinbrenner, whose father and New York Yankees part-owner/co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner was in attendance in Florida.
"But it was a great start for our new team."
When Bryan drove for Bobby Rahal and David Letterman, the "Late Night" host passed out buttons at the press conference that read: "Hertamania, Catch It."
And while Herta was a good racer, with four wins and 10 poles in his CART/IRL career, he didn't seem to have that edge, that chutzpah, that cool his son does.
"I don't like bragging about Colton but I knew he was good," said the elder Herta, who is calling Marco Andretti's races this season and already has the third-generation driver moving in the right direction. "And he's so strong up here (pointing to his head)."
Nowadays, no matter if it's a first-timer or veteran, winning a race usually results in Alex Zanardi doughnuts, wild fist-pumping, spraying Coke or Pepsi on your crew or tearing up.
After becoming the youngest Lights winner ever in its 31-year history, Little Hertamania showed why he's looking like a very special breed. He took the checkered flag, stopped in the pits and gave his crew the thumbs up.
Why the subdued celebration? Because he expected to win.

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THANKS TODD
Former Newman/Haas Racing teammates Craig Hampson and Todd Phillips have been reunited at Dale Coyne Racing, and after their win at St. Petersburg with fellow NHR graduate Sebastien Bourdais, a great tale of Star Wars-themed celebration emerged.
"So Todd is a bit of a Star Wars geek," Hampson said of Phillips, who serves as chief mechanic on the No. 18 Honda. "Years ago, he spent his winter break building one of those huge Lego Star Destroyers. In early January he texted me a funny photo from a bar marquee that said 'LightSaber Night Has Been Cancelled – Thanks A Lot Todd!'
"I texted back asking him what he had done to cause its cancellation, but also sent a photo of my daughter's plastic Disney lightsaber – as if I had been all ready to attend LightSaber Night with him. He expressed jealousy over the fact we actually had a lightsaber in house, so I texted back promising him that if he worked hard over the winter and we managed to win a race ... I'd buy him a lightsaber."
Bourdais had barely crossed the finish line before Hampson was reminded of his promise.
"I guess he remembered the texts, because the first thing he said to me after winning the St. Pete race and clearing tech inspection was ...."You owe me a lightsaber!" So I'm a man of my word. But do you know how hard it is to get a decent lightsaber? The handle is also engraved to commemorate Seb's last to first win."
At the pace they're going this year, the veteran engineer could be buying a lot of lightsabers for his chief wrench.
"I think it's super important to recognize how valuable a chief mechanic like Todd is to having a successful program," Hampson said. "He wears a lot of hats here because our manpower and headcount is so low. He works a lot of hours – very hard. Sebastien and I are very lucky to have both him and the great group of mechanics at DCR."



























NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS

Brake cooling problems were the big topic of interest at the end of the first day of running at St. Petersburg. With new carbon fiber discs and pads supplied by Performance Friction Corporation sending huge heat spikes into the carryover brake calipers supplied by Brembo, the mismatched package became a nightmare to keep within an optimal temperature range.
New cooling allowances made by IndyCar helped teams to funnel more air to the brake package, and in the weeks since St. Pete, knowledge gained from the event – along with more tweaking and tuning conducted at road course tests – have made brake temperatures a non-issue so far in Long Beach.
"The combination of St. Pete and some test days is we understand the brakes much better," Andretti Autosport general manager Rob Edwards told RACER. "The problem was everyone had some test sets to work with before St. Pete, but nobody really had material to work with until we tested at Sebring right before the race. IndyCar has been good about letting us make changes where they're needed and I don't foresee it being much of an issue now."
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports technical director Nick Snyder echoed the sentiment of his Honda stablemate.
"We understand it better now and make a lot more changes to caliper ducting," he said. "We're trying to look after the rotor and caliper at the same time, and previously, we had plenty of [cooling] capacity, so now we're close to the limit and it's about dividing up how much goes to where to keep everything under control."
Most of the cooling problems at St. Pete hit the Honda teams harder than the Chevy camp. Although the Bowtie teams are in a better place with cooling, defending series champion Simon Pagenaud says the combo PFC/Brembo package still requires a lot of attention during the early portion of the season.
"We're good [on temperatures], but every first session to takes a while to learn the temperature we need to run, and the driving style with them is very different," he said. "It's something new and we just need to get it sorted."