St. Pete Grand Prix

Honda Grand Prix

I can check one more thing off the bucket list. I went to my first Grand Prix race. For the past 11 years, St. Petersburg has hosted the IZOD Indy Car race. For about a month in downtown streets are slowly shut down and converted into the raceway.

Map of Race Track

The track consists of a combination of the runway at the Albert Whitted airfield and the downtown streets. During the race, downtown is packed with visitors from all over the world. Restaurants are packed and hotels sold out. But, guess what? Cream Puff is a five minute walk to the race. Perfect! I missed it last year due to the whole job thing. I’m not sure if we will be in St. Pete next year. So, I made sure I was there this year. Having never been to a race, I wasn’t sure what to expect. To sum it up, it was a marvelous day!

1^st James Hinchcliffe

2^nd Helio Castroneves

3^rd Marco Andretti

I got to see James Hichcliff have his first Indy Car win. He recently replaced Danica Patrick in the GoDaddy car. He managed to take and hold the lead on lap 85 and kept it for the 110 lap race. Poor Will Power’s streak of bad luck continued with a bizarre wreck under a caution flag when his car was run over. Check out this video:

It was a good day for Chevrolet. The cars placing 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th were all Chevy’s.

Messy Mark

I enjoyed a turkey leg for lunch. This was another first for me. Not that I’ve never had turkey but, I have never ordered a turkey leg at an event. They look like such fun to eat. It was yummy and messy. My friend Steve snapped this picture as he was laughing at me. When Cindy saw this picture she asked me if the napkins were an extra charge.

Where the money you spend at Target goes

Target had a huge showing. They obviously pump a bunch of money into the sport. Check out their set up. It’s no wonder that they can’t beat Wal-Mart’s prices 🙂

Here’s some pictures of the race (click a pic to start a slide show):