Sean Malone
03-31-09, 02:46 PM
8 tickets, $120 a pop for reserved grandstand and paddock passes (they don’t let you in the pits at St Pete) for a total of $960 for a day of IndyCar Racing in the glamorous Jewel of the South city of St Petersburg FL. Quite a bargain for such a mainstream sporting event! To think that I may be able to catch a glimpse of Sports Illustrated swim suit model, Danika Patrick or even the dancing, tax evading international super star, Helio Castroneves, I am surprised they don’t charge twice of what they are.
This year the Indy Cars will be introducing more of the cutting edge high tech innovations that make IndyCars the premier racing series in North America. New, incredibly light weight, and high tech mufflers will sweeten the sound of these winged monsters. Hopefully people will be able to carry on conversations in the grandstands (last year they had to go behind the grandstands to talk during the race). Although I couldn’t find any mention of the mufflers on the St Pete Grand Prix website other than this;
Repeat visitors to the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will quickly notice one big change for 2009: a quieter, sweeter sounding Honda Indy V-8 engine.
Don’t worry; the normally aspirated, 650-horsepower powerplants are still loud, and still definitely sound like proper racing engines turning in excess of 10,000 rpm. But the ear-splitting (admittedly, sometimes painfully-so) roar of years gone by has been replaced by a more mellow note in 2009.
"We've replaced the former exhaust system on the engines with a completely new design. It gives them a much sweeter sound," said Roger Griffiths, Race Team Manager for Honda Performance Development, the official racing arm of American Honda.
"They sound like they did in the mid-90s, you know," said Griffiths. "It has that pretty whine."
Well, there you have it! All is good with that “pretty whine” we used to have. I'm guessing he meant the owners sound like they did in the mid - 90's and the typo 'pretty whine' meant Michael Andretti's 'petty whine'? Probably.
But the racing stars aren't all that the IndyCar series brings to the streets of St Pete (actually its more half of a small airport and some streets through a park), live music concerts entertain the music lover in all of us, with bands like…well, they don’t actually name the bands that play on their website and based on last year no one actually heard of them anyway, but rest assured, they are top notch entertainers worthy of the schedule title of ‘Pre Race Concert’.
With all of the corporate interest, such as Izod (although they aren't sponsoring a car. instead they are creating "synergies"), sponsoring the Indy Car series, you can really get a sense of the electric anticipation that me and the thousands of other sucke...I mean race fans are feeling in preparing for the St Pete Grand Prix.
If you’re not attending in person, don’t forget to watch the race on Versus channel. Yeah, I don’t get that channel either, but I’m going to the race!!!!! Woohoo!!!
This year the Indy Cars will be introducing more of the cutting edge high tech innovations that make IndyCars the premier racing series in North America. New, incredibly light weight, and high tech mufflers will sweeten the sound of these winged monsters. Hopefully people will be able to carry on conversations in the grandstands (last year they had to go behind the grandstands to talk during the race). Although I couldn’t find any mention of the mufflers on the St Pete Grand Prix website other than this;
Repeat visitors to the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will quickly notice one big change for 2009: a quieter, sweeter sounding Honda Indy V-8 engine.
Don’t worry; the normally aspirated, 650-horsepower powerplants are still loud, and still definitely sound like proper racing engines turning in excess of 10,000 rpm. But the ear-splitting (admittedly, sometimes painfully-so) roar of years gone by has been replaced by a more mellow note in 2009.
"We've replaced the former exhaust system on the engines with a completely new design. It gives them a much sweeter sound," said Roger Griffiths, Race Team Manager for Honda Performance Development, the official racing arm of American Honda.
"They sound like they did in the mid-90s, you know," said Griffiths. "It has that pretty whine."
Well, there you have it! All is good with that “pretty whine” we used to have. I'm guessing he meant the owners sound like they did in the mid - 90's and the typo 'pretty whine' meant Michael Andretti's 'petty whine'? Probably.
But the racing stars aren't all that the IndyCar series brings to the streets of St Pete (actually its more half of a small airport and some streets through a park), live music concerts entertain the music lover in all of us, with bands like…well, they don’t actually name the bands that play on their website and based on last year no one actually heard of them anyway, but rest assured, they are top notch entertainers worthy of the schedule title of ‘Pre Race Concert’.
With all of the corporate interest, such as Izod (although they aren't sponsoring a car. instead they are creating "synergies"), sponsoring the Indy Car series, you can really get a sense of the electric anticipation that me and the thousands of other sucke...I mean race fans are feeling in preparing for the St Pete Grand Prix.
If you’re not attending in person, don’t forget to watch the race on Versus channel. Yeah, I don’t get that channel either, but I’m going to the race!!!!! Woohoo!!!