“I didn’t have fond memories of St. Petersburg after the 2005 race, but I definitely made up for it in 2006, ” said Castroneves. “In 2005, I was so excited at the prospect of the first IndyCar Series road race that I crashed on the 14th lap. I used that disappointment as motivation for last year’s event. I was determined to make it to the final laps of the race and make it worth it. It turned out to be a great day. We had some issues on pit road, but we bounced back and made it to victory circle. It felt fantastic. ”
The Team expects the 2007 race to bring new challenges as a result of a new Honda engine package, which will give the cars additional power in the lower gears, requiring a modified car set-up. Nonetheless, the drivers are optimistic heading into this weekend’s race as a result of the spring road course test at Daytona, which found both drivers consistently among the leaders.
“St. Petersburg is one of my favorite races on the schedule because the track is a lot of fun and the race weekend has a great atmosphere, ” said Castroneves. “The fans love this race, and it’s always great to go to places where there is strong fan support. The circuit is very challenging because of the long straightaways and the tight turns. This makes the car difficult to set up because you want to have as little downforce as possible on the straightaways, yet enough to get you through the corners quickly. Plus, the new engine package gives us more low-end power, which will also pose some engineering challenges. Obviously, I have great memories from last year’s win and hope to remain at the top come race day. ”
After a dream season in 2006, which saw Hornish Jr. capture both the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series Championship, he has his sights set on a new target.
“One of my goals heading into this season is to win on a road course, and of all of the road/street courses that we run on in the IndyCar Series, St. Petersburg is the one that seems to suit my driving style the best, ” said Hornish Jr. “We should have had a top-five finish here in 2005 (Hornish Jr. ’s day ended early when he was hit from behind by the #2 car of Tomas Enge), and had we not had brake problems at the end of the race here last year, we feel we would have finished in the top three.
The consensus is that this circuit is the one road/street course where we’ll have the best opportunity to win or be in the top three. The main thing for us is to concentrate on improving where we finished last year, and I think that the road-course experience I’ve gained in spring testing and at the Daytona 24 will allow us to do just that and hopefully bring home a solid result. ”
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