Anybody going to the IRL race in St. Pete?

[KTJeffries]

I dont need to go to the race, I'll be driving go-karts at tampa bay grand prix with the drivers of the red bull sponsored cars and the kids in the red bull drivers search...that's enough IRL for me.

[BucketBoy]

I just read that Champ Car is doing similar giveaways for Long Beach.
You can just walk into a bank and get free Friday tickets, or find them on coke bottles, etc. I wouldn't complain about getting something free - but how do they expect to make money when they just give stuff away? Whatever happened to discount coupons??

Edit: upon further research, the majority of Long Beach Champ Car promos are for free admission on Friday. The majority of promos for St. Pete's are for race day tickets.

[racinaddict]

I've been an Andretti fan since Mario won Sebring. I'm taking my stepson to his first race so I sprung for upper level grandstand seats. Grandstand 10 in between turn 1 and 2. I'll be routing for the Andretti-Green team as well as following 3rd generation Marco's progress in the Infinity Pro series. I'm also following the beautiful rookie, Danica Patrick. I think she is a great role model for girls.

[Chris24]

Hi ,

I have been to the IRL finale at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003 and loved it. Kenny Brack's crash scared the life out of me and everyone who saw it. We all thought he was dead and then after about 45 moinutes, they annouced that he was ok. Well as ok as he could be after that accident.

It was a great weekend, but then it did have the World of Outlaws and the Craftsman Truck Series sharing the same bill that weekend. I then went to Petit Le Mans the following weekend before flying home to England.

Not sure how they will be on a street circuit though.

I have a favour to ask of anyone who is fortunate enough to be attending the St Petersburg race this weekend.  My dad and i collect the race driver promo cards that the teams give out at the races, so if you see any , please could you pick some up for me if possible. I am particulary interested in Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti, Darren Manning, Sam Hornish, Tomas Enge, Tomas Scheckter and Danica Patrick cards.

Any autographed cards would be a real bonus. I will pay for any postage costs to send them to me.

Thanks and enjoy the race, i will make do with watching it on the TV.

[KTJeffries]

You're a day late Chris. I rode go-karts with Eddie Cheever, Patrick Carpantier, and whatever his name is Connor last night, could have gotten you some stuff no problem.  :?

[BucketBoy]

Well?
Who went and what were your thoughts?
How was the SWC races?
How were the stands (I know the pit straight stands were decent, but what about the rest?). Were most people there on paid-for tickets, or from the freebies?

Whatever the situation, IRL fans are patting themselves on the back for a good weekend. They think they proved a point.

But the main point proven this weekend was that TEN YEARS has been wasted!

Imagine if the IRL had never existed (or remained true to the original Vision) - how many fans would have been at St. Pete's yesterday if it existed as a CART event?
Likely 150,000+

Instead, the weekend total was <50,000.

.. Better than CART's pathetic 2003 effort (they were expecting 100,000 but got half that), and more than Indy Car's first 2 races of the 2005 season combined.. but still a pathetic number in the big scheme of things.

It's a building point, but cloning only serves to split the fanbase further, and now the original oval-favouring IRL fans have offiicially been snubbed, this can only be good for one series:
NASCAR.

[Kings_Suck]

It was a beautiful day and a good race.  The stands were packed and the food and beer vendors were slammed during the break before the start of the race.  I don't know how they'd handle many more spectators.  General admission isn't all that great--you can get very close to the track, but you're limited to viewing only a short section of the course, and have to look through two fences, which ruins photo ops for me.

I got a great seat at the top of the last stand on the pit straight by swapping ticket stubs with a friend that had one paid seat.  I'll probably buy a grandstand seat next year.  Very few people I know got freebies.  I was planning on paying the $25 extra to get in the paddock, but was warned that it wasn't worth it.  Borrowed a ticket for a walk through, and the advice was right; the IRL crews were breaking down their tranporters and tents before the race started.  Best view in the paddock was after the race for the tech inspection, and anybody could get in then.

So I got in for Saturday and Sunday for $60 (total), and spent twice that on lousy beer.  For what is billed as the US Monaco, the alcohol selection should be more upscale than 2 Miller products.

I made an iron-on for the back of a SF "Start your Party" shirt that said: "FTG--who needs another NASCAR?" and wore it Saturday.  I think most people there were clueless on the open-wheel politics.  Yesterday there was a banner plane flying "Bring Back CART" at the start of the race, and later "The IRL Sucks--FTG".  I didn't see the second banner until the plane was dropping it at the end of the flight, so didn't get a photo.

[Chris24]

I enjoyed what i saw on the TV. Good street racing compared to some i have seen in recent years.

Loved the result the best with my man Wheldon coming in first place.

St Petersburg looked a real nice place too, much more scenic than Long Beach. I have been to St Petes once, but as i was only 9 years old, the only thing I can remember about it was spending the day on the beach by a pier, and my sister found an injured sea gull with only 1 leg !

[SACK-U]

my sister found an injured sea gull with only 1 leg !

Oooh those taste the best!

[Chris24]

Hey Sack U, that looks like a pretty boring race going on at the left hand side of your post. A field of cars entirely made up of Flying Lizzard Porsches !

[SACK-U]

Kinda like watching the 12 hour race... nothin but Audis

[racinaddict]

Grand stand # 10 is THE place to be for racing action at the St. Pete GP! They come flat out on the long front straight and brake hard into turn # 1 almost right at you, then nail it into turn #2, lots of overtaking going on. You lose sight after that, so just watch the Jumbo Tron screen to see what happens the rest of the lap. Pit out empties into turn 2 also. You MUST have ear plugs. Speed GT, Touring and the Infinite Pro Series pits are right behind grand stand # 10. I saw Mario and Marco Andretti, Arie and Arie Lyendike jr., Unser. Derick Bell, Max Papis, Andy Pilgram as well as  other drivers/teams. Toyota had an IRL and an F1 car on display. I only went Sunday, saw 4 (sprint) races, dropped about $250.00 (2 people), got home about 8:00 pm and loved it!!!
I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday!