Seen in St. Pete

Oriol Servia (L) and Bruno Junqueira

Ran into Oriol Servia and Bruno Junqueira in the IndyCar paddock Friday morning. Both are still hoping to put a deal together for 2009. Oriol is talking to his former team KV Racing and is hoping to put a deal together at least for the Indy 500. "I am not giving up," Servia told AR1.com. "I know money is tight for everyone out there and I am still knocking on doors. I am proud of my performance in Champ Car and IndyCar, it meant a lot to me to know I am capable of winning races for a team. I am working on a couple of sponsors from Spain, one being the TV channel that broadcasts the IndyCar races in Spain. They have shown some interest."…….Bruno Junqueira thought he was going to be back with Dale Coyne Racing but in the end it did not happen, but he is still hopeful……Speaking of Dale Coyne Racing, Justin Wilson was 3rd in opening practice, and said, "I would love to have Bruno as a teammate. Together we could do some good things together. Our new engineer, Bill Pappas, knows where we are behind compared to the big teams, it just takes money to do the development. On the street circuits it is more about mechanical grip and we are right there, but on the high speed tracks the big teams have spent a lot of money on aerodynamic development and we cannot compete with them because aero is so important on the faster ovals and road courses." We asked Wilson how it was to be an underdog again and he responded, "It's nice being the underdog, I'm just happy to be out here. The pressure I put on myself is the same regardless."…..Alex Tagliani told us that they brought the same car to St. Pete as they used for Surfers Paradise, but the setups are different, so they still have work to do…….Bumped into Richard Philippe who is back in the USA from the Euro F3 series. He said it is much more cutthroat in Europe and the lap times are very tight. On a given weekend 21 cars could win the race. "It taught me a lot about life and the politics of racing. I am happy to be back here in the USA and the Indy Lights Series My goal is to win the Sidelights title and then move up to IndyCars." His brother Nelson Philippe is still trying to get his race career restarted……..With Homestead-Miami Speedway hosting several season finale races in a short 6-week timeframe, including Grand-Am, IndyCar, NASCAR Trucks, Nationwide and Sprint Cup, look for some package deals for fans. No one has tried to do what they are doing and they hope they can turn a negative into a positive. Kids will be free and tickets will start at $30 for the IndyCar/Grand-Am weekend. Mark C. reporting from St. Pete