Overheard in St. Petersburg – Friday
03/26/10 On a perfect day to go racing in the beautiful west coast Florida town on St. Petersburg, the general feeling in the paddock is one of optimism, optimism that the series has hit bottom and starting to rebound. While last year most cars on the grid got Tony George charity money, this year there is none of that yet the car count is up and the sponsorship level has definitely increased, that's pretty easy to see just looking around……..We hear that Andretti Autosports might have a deal together by the end of the weekend that will see Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 37 IZOD car for the remainder of the season, rather than just the 5 races he was originally contracted to do……on a related note we spotted Mike Kelly of the Phillips-Van Heusen Corp., who brought major sponsor — Izod — into the sport, and who also sponsors Hunter-Reay. Is he here to sign a deal with Michael Andretti to lock in Hunter-Reay for the rest of the year?………We hear that ALMS will be back next year at this event. The reason why they are not here this year is because this event fell just one week after the grueling 12 Hours of Sebring and ALMS was afraid their teams would not be able to turn the cars around in time…..Did you know that the Brazilian race promoters were prepared to repave the entire bumpy concrete main straight the night before the race but the IRL decided to go with grinding because the asphalt may not have cured in time…….We hear that Dario Franchitti has a 1992 Ferrari F40 that his father drives around back in Scotland…….Spotted Adam Carroll here still trying to put an IndyCar deal together……We hear that Honda still hopes that IndyCar goes with a V6 engine configuration rather than an inline 4. The reasons we hear are safety – in rear-first wall impacts the wider V6 speeds the load through engine bulkhead and the drivers back over a wider area than a straight six. The shorter V6 also allows more flexibility with wheelbase lengths and that something can be put in the middle of a V6 layout such as a supercharger or some form of hybrid engine component……We had a chance to chat with IndyCar newcomer Bertrand Baguette. Conquest Racing made a surprising move recently, announcing it had signed Baguette to field their second car for the team in the 2010 Izod IndyCar series. He will run 15 races. Last year he dominated the tough World Series by Renault series in Europe with 5 wins in the 600 kg, 500 HP machines. He hopes to get at least one day of testing before his debut at Barber Motorsports Park……..Rumor has it that some of the chassis manufacturers are thinking the IRL has missed the boat to have the new car designed, tested and mass produced by December, 2011 for the 2012 season. It all depends whether the criteria for the car gets changed significantly. We also hear that most of the chassis manufacturers think the engine should be a stressed member, unlike the Delta Wing design that makes the engine unstressed, meaning the chassis will flex more…..Rumor has it that Derrick Walker is trying to put an IndyCar deal together, after returning to Indy Lights this weekend with Jonathan Summerton…….ABC/ESPN let their hot pit reporter Jamie Little break out from her NASCAR duties long enough to do pit reporting this weekend in St. Pete. She will be joined by veteran Rick DeBruhl……Andretti Autosport announced the signing of 15-year old American Zach Veach to run in the USF2000 Series, which is one of the ladder series on the road to Indy. He then went out and turned the fastest practice lap in the field of 13 at 1m14.675s ahead of Raphael Abbate…..Simona de Silvestro was as high as 3rd fastest in the afternoon session and everyone is saying she is the real deal……The Newman Haas Lanigan team still will not comment on the rumors that Graham Rahal will be back with the team soon, but we hear they definitely like the idea of running an American……The Friday crowd looked better than recent years and we hear new St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster is really behind the event and is working hard to ensure it grows…….Keep your eye on a new off-road event called the Mexican 1000, to be run April 28th to May 2nd, which will feature old Baja cars driven by Baja legends Parnelli Jones, Bob Gordon, father of NASCAR driver Robby Gordon – a Baja series champ affectionately known as "Baja Bob," Rod Hall and a host of others…..And speaking of Robby Gordon, we hear he might run the Indianapolis 500 this year on the same day as the Charlotte 600 NASCAR race. "I've got a commitment, but just because you have a commitment from people doesn't mean it's going to happen," Gordon said. Mark Cipolloni reporting from St. Petersburg, Florida.