Track Walk: St. Petersburg 2016

IndyCar Returns This Weekend

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season opens from St. Petersburg, Florida for the 13th Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Scott Dixon is the defending champion after winning the 2014 title on tiebreaker over Juan Pablo Montoya. Dixon won the season finale last year and he looks to win on the streets of St. Petersburg for the first time in his career. Montoya is the defending winner at St. Petersburg and the Colombian could become the second driver to win in consecutive years on the streets of St. Petersburg. Fifteen drivers entered for the 2016 season open have won IndyCar races and nine of those drivers were race winners in 2015.

For those in the United States and Canada, do not forget Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday and to set your clocks forward by one-hour.

Coverage
Time: Coverage begins at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday March 13th. Green flag at 12:52 p.m. ET.
TV Channel: ABC.

Announcers: Allen Bestwick, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever in the booth with Rick DeBruhl, Dr. Jerry Punch and Jon Beekhius working the pit lane.

IndyCar Weekend Schedule
Friday:
First Practice- 10:50 a.m. ET (75-minute session).
Second Practice- 3:40 p.m. ET (75-minute session).
Saturday: 
Third Practice- 11:55 a.m. ET (45-minute session).
Qualifying- 3:40 p.m. ET.
Sunday:
Warm-Up- 9:00 a.m. ET (30-miunte session).
Race- 12:52 p.m. ET (110 laps)

Has Balance Been Restored? 
The first season of aero kits was scarred by the consistent disparity between the Chevrolet and Honda entries. While Honda did win six races, including two of the three 500-mile races, the manufacture was shut out for pole positions and had one front row start the entry season. Honda was allowed to make a few aero kit upgrades during the offseason in name of competitive balance.

Will those upgrades be enough for Hondas to compete with Chevrolets not just for pole positions but on street circuits? Honda won one of five street circuit races in 2015 and that was the rain-shortened Belle Isle 1 where Andretti Autosport drivers Carlos Muñoz and Marco Andretti managed their tires the best and switched to wets at the right time.

During the preseason test at Phoenix, barely anything separated the Hondas and Chevrolets but the Chevrolets still came out on top in the test with the four fastest times and eight of the top ten. While the Honda entries did not have the 2016 engine performance upgrades at the Phoenix test, the question is how much are those upgrades worth? Marco Andretti was the fastest Honda at Phoenix and was 0.0616 seconds behind the top time set by Hélio Castroneves. Will those upgrades give Andretti and the other Hondas teams that tenth of a second that could make or break the season for Honda?

Debutants and Returnees
Three drivers are set to make their IndyCar debuts at St. Petersburg while another has been around but retains rookie status and another returns after spending most of 2015 racing abroad.

Alexander Rossi comes to IndyCar after finishing second in the 2015 GP2 Series championship to ART Grand Prix and McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne and Rossi made five Formula One starts with Manor Marussia. Rossi won three GP2 races last year driving for Racing Engineering.  Rossi will drive the #98 Andretti-Herta Autosport Honda after Bryan Herta Autosport formed a partnership with Andretti Autosport for the 2016 season.

Defending Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot will make his IndyCar debut this weekend in the #16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. St. Petersburg is one of three races Pigot earned by winning the Indy Lights championship. He will attempt to run the two Indianapolis races this May. Pigot has five victories in ten Road to Indy series starts at St. Petersburg and his worst finish in St. Petersburg is fourth.

Max Chilton joins Pigot as the drivers making the climb to IndyCar from Indy Lights. Chilton started 13 of 16 Indy Lights races last year. His car failed to start prior to the Freedom 100 and he missed the two Toronto races because of Le Mans duty with the Nissan LMP1 program. Chilton won at Iowa last year and he finished fifth in the championship despite missing three races. He finished retired from race one last year at St. Petersburg after an accident with Félix Serrallés but recovered in race two to finish fourth.

Conor Daly is the fourth rookie on the grid and the Noblesville, Indiana-native will run his first full-season of IndyCar in 2016 after making five starts over the course of two seasons. Daly made his debut in the 2013 Indianapolis 500, where he finished 22nd driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. After a year in GP2, Daly's next IndyCar start would be Long Beach last year when he substituted for an injured Rocky Moran, Jr. He qualified for last year's Indianapolis 500 but failed to take the green flag after a fuel leak on the pace laps. Daly would make three more starts in 2015 substituting for the injured James Hinchcliffe. He best finished was sixth in the second Belle Isle race.

Mikhail Aleshin returns to IndyCar full-time in 2016 after spending most of 2015 driving in the European Le Mans Series for SMP Racing. Aleshin had three podiums in five ELMS starts and he made his Le Mans debut where he finished 13th in the LMP2 class, 33rd overall. Aleshin did make a surprising return to IndyCar for last season's finale at Sonoma driving for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. He finished tenth. The Russian missed two tests this offseason due to visa issues but those have been resolved and he will be in the car for St. Petersburg.

Road to Indy
The three Road to Indy series also open their 2016 seasons from St. Petersburg. A total of 52 cars are entered across the three series.

The Indy Lights grid has ballooned to 16 drivers. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports brings back Floridian RC Enerson and Coloradan Scott Anderson while promoting Pro Mazda champion Santiago Urrutia and hiring André Negrão.

Carlin brings back Ed Jones, who swept the St. Petersburg races last year on his Indy Lights debut and has promoted Neil Alberico from Pro Mazda. Félix Serrallés moves over to Carlin after running for Belardi Auto Racing in 2015.

Andretti Autosport has expanded its Indy Lights operation to three cars. Dean Stoneman comes across the Atlantic after running in Formula Renault 3.5, GP2 and GP3 the last few seasons. The team retains Shelby Blackstock from 2015 and Dalton Kellett has been promoted from Pro Mazda.

Juncos Racing retains Kyle Kaiser while Canadian Zachary Claman DeMelo replaces outgoing champion Spencer Pigot. Belardi Auto Racing hired defending Formula Three champion Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach, who sat out in 2015. Team Pelfrey will run two cars for Juan Piedrahita and Scott Hargrove, who is only confirmed for the St. Petersburg round.

A dozen cars are entered in Pro Mazda with two of those being National class entries.

Garett Grist finished third last year in the championship and returns with Juncos Racing as does Will Owen. Australian Jake Parsons and Argentine Nicolás Dapero join Grist and Owen at Juncos Racing.

Cape Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing has promoted the top two finishers from the 2015 U.S. F2000 championship: Nico Jamin and Jake Eidson. Jamin won ten of 16 races, including the final six races and had 15 podiums while Eidson won four races and stood on the podium 14 times.

Team Pelfrey has entered three cars for St. Petersburg. Weiron Tan moves to Team Pelfrey as Andretti Autosport will not field cars in Pro Mazda this season. Aaron Telitz finished third in the 2015 U.S. F2000 championship and will move up to Pro Mazda with Team Pelfrey. Telitz won a race and had 11 podiums last year. Pato O'Ward returns with Team Pelfrey after finishing sixth in Pro Mazda last year with three podiums. O'Ward is only confirmed for St. Petersburg and Barber.

Mexican Jorge Cevallos will run for JDC Motorsports while the two National class entries are Jay Horak and Bobby Eberle.

The U.S. F2000 entry list has two-dozen cars on it for St. Petersburg and only two are National class entries.

Anthony Martin finished fourth last year and is the top returning driver. Martin will move to Cape Motorsports w/WTR and his teammates will be Nikita Lastochkin and Parker Thompson, two other drivers returning for another season.

Pabst Racing Servies has three entries with defending Australian Formula 4 champion Jordan Lloyd leading the way with Garth Rickards and Yufeng Luo returning for a second season in U.S. F2000.

Four cars belong to Team Pelfrey. Americans Robert Megennis and TJ Fischer are joined by Briton Jordan Cane and New Zealander James Munro. Cane is 14 years old and won four of 11 SCCA F1600 starts in 2015. Munro recently finished seventh in the Toyota Racing Series earlier this year.

John Cummiskey racing will have Ayla Årgen and Lucas Kohl as its two drivers. Austin McCusker and Sam Chastian will drive for Chastian Motorsports and Chastian is one of three teams will all-American line-ups. RJB Motorsports will have Michai Stephens and Clint McMahan. JDC MotorSports will have Tazio Ottis and National entry Robery Allaer.

Afterburner Autosport will have Brazilian Felipe Ortiz and Team USA Scholarship winner Dakota Dickerson. ArmsUp Motorsports will have Max Hanratty and bring back Victor Franzoni, who won a race last season. Australian Luke Gabin returns after finishing sixth last year. Gabin will drive for JAY Motorsports. The second National class entry is Eric Filgueiras, who will drive for Spencer Racing.

Both U.S. F2000 races will take place on Saturday. Race one will be at 8:40 a.m. ET and race two will go green at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Pro Mazda race one is scheduled for 10:50 a.m. ET on Saturday with race two set for 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Indy Lights will race at 12:55 p.m. ET on Saturday and 9:45 a.m. ET on Sunday.

Pirelli World Challenge
A week after the season opener from Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas the Pirelli World Challenge returns to St. Petersburg for the second round of its 2016 season.

Cadillac's Johnny O'Connell enters fresh off a victory at Circuit of the Americas and is the GT championship leader. Patrick Long won race one in Austin but an accident at the start of race two after contact with the Nissan's James Davison has the EFFORT Racing Porsche team scrambling to make sure Long does not miss the St. Petersburg races. Davison had finished fourth in race one but a penalty for the contact with Long relegated him to 13th in race two.

Michael Cooper and Jon Fogarty are coming off podiums in their debut weekends in the GT class. Cooper finished third in race one and was second in a Cadillac 1-2 in race two and Fogarty finished third in his first race in the #99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing McLaren. Nissan's Bryan Heitkotter finished second in race one at Austin but a puncture ruined his race two. K-PAX Racing Racing McLaren's Álvaro Parente and Bentley Team Absolute's Andrew Palmer were both in position for podiums in Austin but time penalties knocked them down to eight and tenth respectively in race two. Parente's teammate Colin Thompson had a respectable GT class debut with a ninth and fourth while the third K-PAX driver Austin Cindric struggled with an 11th and 14th on the weekend. CRP Racing Audi driver Kyle Marcelli finished fifth in race two.

A total of twenty GT cars are entered for St. Petersburg. EFFORT Racing's Michael Lewis is entered, as is the Acuras for Peter Cunningham and Ryan Eversley. Duncan Ende will return with TRG-Aston Martin. Andrew Davis finished seventh in race two for Calvert Dynamics Porsche and he is entered for St. Petersburg, as is Adderly Fong in the second Bentley Team Absolute entry. Only three GT-A entries for St. Petersburg: Jorge de la Torre in the #4 TRG-Aston Martin and Martin Fuentes, who swept the GT-A races at Austin in the #07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. DIME Racing Mercedes driver Frankie Montecalvo struggled in his first weekend in the GT class with his best finish being 11th and he will be a GT-A entry.

Four GT Cup cars are entered for St. Petersburg with Austin winners Alec Udell and Sloan Urry returning. Preston Calvert and Corey Fergus are the other two entries.

Fifteen cars are entered in the GTS class. Lawson Aschenbach finished first and second in the two Austin races while Brett Sandberg won in KTM's debut weekend. Ford's Nate Stacey finished second and fourth at Austin while Lotus driver Scott Doolittle finished fourth and third. Ginetta scored a podium in its debut weekend thanks to Parker Chase's third in race one. Chase would finish fifth in race two. Chase will be the lone Ginetta at St. Petersburg.

Aschenbach's Blackdog Speed Shop teammate Tony Gaples looks to rebound after a tough Austin weekend, where Gaples best finish was ninth. The #09 TRG-Aston Martin will be split once again by Derek DeBoer and Jason Alexandridis. DeBoer finished fifth in race one at Austin while Alexandridis finished 12th in race two. Maserati's Jeff Courtney finished in the top ten in both Austin races. Mark Klenin will return with his Maserati for St. Petersburg while Charles Espenlaub will get behind of the wheel of the #93 RT Motorsports, LLC Maserati, which Ron Ballard drove at Austin.

Lotus driver Kevin Marshall finished seventh in race two after a 14th in race one. Jack Roush, Jr. struggled at Austin, retiring in race one and finishing five laps down in 15th in race two. The Mantella Autosport KTMs will return for St. Petersburg. Anthony Mantella finished ninth in race one but was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct and was excluded from participating in race two. Martin Barkey finished 12th in race one and retired in race two. The addition to the GTS grid is the #73 Compass360 Racing Audi with five-time PWC champion Pierre Kleinubing set to drive.

GTS race one will be Friday at 12:20 p.m. ET with race two Saturday at 5:10 p.m. ET.

The first GT race from St. Petersburg will be at 9:35 a.m. ET on Saturday and race two will run after the IndyCar race at 3:15 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Fast Facts
This will be the first IndyCar race to take place on March 13th.

Marco Andretti will turn 29 years old on race day. He could become the tenth driver to win on his birthday. Here are the previous nine:

Dario Resta: August 19, 1916. Turned thirty-four years old and won at Chicago's Speedway Park.
Joe Boyer: May 30, 1924. Turned thirty-five years old and won the Indianapolis 500, splitting the ride with L.L. Corum.
Lou Moore: September 12, 1931. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Syracuse.
Tony Bettenhausen: September 12, 1953. Turned thirty-seven years old and won at Syracuse.
Al Unser: May 29, 1971. Turned thirty-two years old and won the Indianapolis 500.
Nigel Mansell: August 8, 1993. Turned forty years old and won at New Hampshire.
Sam Hornish, Jr.: July 2, 2006. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Kansas Speedway.
Scott Dixon: July 22, 2007. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Mid-Ohio.
Dan Wheldon: June 22, 2008. Turned thirty years old and won at Iowa.

Team Penske has won seven of 12 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Hélio Castroneves has the most St. Petersburg victories with three and Will Power has won twice.

Since 2012, Chevrolet is unbeaten on the streets of St. Petersburg.

Last year, Will Power set the track record in qualifying with a lap of 1:00.6509.

Chevrolet has won the last 20 pole positions in IndyCar. The last Honda pole position was Simon Pagenaud at Houston 1 in 2014.

The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg winner gone on to win the championship four times. Those four were Paul Tracy in 2003, Dan Wheldon in 2005, Dario Franchitti in 2011 and Will Power in 2014.

The average starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is 4.1667.

Juan Pablo Montoya became the fourth St. Petersburg winner to start fourth on the grid last year. No position has produced more winners at St. Petersburg. The other three winners to start fourth were Ryan Briscoe in 2009, James Hinchcliffe in 2013 and Will Power in 2014.

The pole sitter has won at St. Petersburg twice (Castroneves 2007 and Power 2010).

Twice the winner has started 2nd (Paul Tracy 2003 and Dario Franchitti 2011).

Twice the winner has started 5th (Castroneves 2006 and 2012)

The worst starting position for a St. Petersburg winner is ninth (Wheldon 2005 and Graham Rahal 2008).

An American driver has not won the season opener since Sam Hornish, Jr. won at Homestead in 2004.

The fewest amount of lead changes in a St. Petersburg race was two in 2003. The most lead changes was ten in 2010. The average amount of lead changes is 6.1667 and the median amount is 6.5.

The average amount of caution periods at St. Petersburg is 4.667 for an average of 20.0833 laps with the median being 21 laps.

The fewest amount of cautions in a St. Petersburg race is two for ten laps. Seven cautions is the most to occur at St. Petersburg and that happened in 2009. The most caution laps was 29 laps during six caution periods in 2008 and four caution periods in 2013.

Seven St. Petersburg races have featured twenty caution laps or more.

Possible Milestones:
A victory for Scott Dixon would make him the first driver to win a race in twelve consecutive seasons.

Hélio Castroneves needs to lead 48 laps to reach the 5,500 laps led milestone.

Tony Kanaan needs to lead 41 laps to reach the 4,000 laps led milestone.

Will Power needs to lead 70 laps to reach the 3,000 laps led milestone.

Sébastien Bourdais needs to lead 67 laps to reach the 2,500 laps led milestone.

Ryan Briscoe needs to lead 58 laps to reach the 1,500 laps led milestone.

Marco Andretti needs to lead 10 laps to reach the 1,000 laps led milestone.

Takuma Sato needs to lead 64 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone

James Hinchcliffe needs to lead 76 laps to reach the 500 laps led milestone.

Predictions
Team Penske's St. Petersburg dominance will continue and Simon Pagenaud silences the critics with his first victory for the team. Chevrolet will hold a firm grasp on this race with at least four of the top six finishers and Chevrolets will sweep the front row in qualifying. A rookie will finish in the top ten. At least two top ten finishers start outside the top fifteen. There will be at least five caution periods during this race and one incident will feature a Ganassi driver. The driver who scores the bonus points for most laps led will lead at least 65 laps. Sleeper: Spencer Pigot. 

Musings From the Weekend: My How the Rhetoric Changes

NASCAR was in Las Vegas. The Pirelli World Challenge season opened this weekend in Austin and two familiar faces were victorious. A manufacture won on its debut weekend. There was a surprise winner in V8 Supercars as rain spoiled the opening party in Adelaide. Daytona Bike Week began with Supercross under the lights. World Rally was in North America and South of the Border in Mexico. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.

My How the Rhetoric Changes
Up until about 15 minutes ago, no one referred to Formula One or IndyCar as "open-cockpit racing." As if the reason why people tune in is because a driver's head is expose for the entire world to see and for all the debris to target. But with Ferrari having run a few laps with a halo all of a sudden the rhetoric has changed.

Drivers all of a sudden don't want to see "open-cockpit racing" disappearing from the face of the earth in the same vain as dinosaurs. The problem is "open-cockpit racing" has never existed. People have created that moniker. "Open-wheel racing" exists the same way. "Open-wheel racing" was never meant to exist. The first automobiles just happened to be built without fenders and that was raced and continued to be raced and then fenders started popping up on automobiles and some race cars added them and some did not.

When people defend "open-cockpit racing" or "open-wheel racing," they are defending labels that exist on accident and those labels have no meaning. The early pioneers in motorsports didn't start racing with the premise that all cockpits must be open and all wheels must be exposed. They raced what they had at the time and as time has progressed we have mistaken the innocence of competition as some type of canon law from up above.

And the Formula One and IndyCar paddocks are no different than NASCAR. NASCAR loves rhetoric more than a preacher and they change it so frequent that they paper is permanently grey. Ever since Daytona you hear Larry McReynolds talk about how all the grass needs to be paved over at all race tracks because of the damage that is caused when a car's splitter digs in. It's the grass's fault. Let's not put any onus on NASCAR for adding the splitter and causing the cars to be suction cupped to the ground, it's all on the grass because the grass has learned to throw uppercuts when a car invades its territory.

The worst part of all these changes in rhetoric is people of equal clout to the McReynoldses of the world don't question them. They let the changes go unchallenged. An alternative is never brought up. He screams pave over the grass and everyone follows and no one bigger or equal in voice challenges with the retort of removing the splitters and raising the ride height of the cars. Even worse is "driver safety" gets added and then it becomes heresy to challenge it even though there is more than one way to improve driver safety.

People need to be more critical when they hear this rhetoric and media, whether it be television networks, newspapers or magazines should not hire a staff completely of like minded people who allow these changes in rhetoric to fly by unchallenged. More than one voice should be at the table and disagreement isn't bad. Just make sure it can be shown in a professional manner.

Winners From the Weekend
Patrick Long and Johnny O'Connell split the opening weekend of the Pirelli World Challenge GT season at Circuit of the Americas.

In GTS, Lawson Aschenbach won race one and Brett Sandberg scored KTM its first victory.

Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR Cup race from Las Vegas.

Holden swept the opening weekend of the V8 Supercars season from Adelaide with Jamie Whincup and James Courtney winning the Saturday races. Nick Percat scored his first V8SC victory since being Garth Tander's co-driver and winning the 2011 Bathurst 1000 in a rain-shortened Sunday race.

Jari-Matti Latvala won Rally Mexico, his first WRC victory of 2016.

Eli Tomac scored his first victory of 2016 by defeating Ryan Dungey at Daytona.

Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Grand National Series race at Las Vegas.

Coming Up This Weekend
IndyCar season begins at St. Petersburg.
The three Road to Indy series and Pirelli World Challenge will also be at St. Petersburg.
Formula E makes its debut in Mexico City.
AMA Supercross heads to Toronto.
NASCAR heads to Phoenix.
World Superbikes runs its second round of 2016 from Buriram, Thailand.

2016 Pirelli World Challenge Preview

The 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season begins this weekend from Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The series returns with 27 GT cars, seven GT Cup entries and 19 entries in GTS.

Johnny O'Connell has won four consecutive PWC GT championships and he will be attempting to surpass Randy Pobst as the all-time leader in PWC championship should he score his fifth consecutive in the #3 Cadillac. O'Connell will have a new teammate in 2016 as defending GTS champion Michael Cooper has been promoted from Blackdog Speed Shop. Cooper will drive the #8 Cadillac, replacing veteran Andy Pilgrim.

While a Cadillac driver won the title, Porsche won the manufactures' championship and despite EFFORT Racing losing Ryan Dalziel, the team has employed Patrick Long to drive the #31 Porsche with Michael Lewis returning to drive the #41 Porsche. Other Porsches entered in GT are the #14 GMG Racing Porsche of James Sofronas and Brent Holden, the #76 Calvert Dynamics Porsche for Andrew Davis and there are two Porsches that have GTA designation for amateur drivers. Michael Schein will drive the #16 Wright Motorsports Porsche and Joseph Toussaint will be in the #90 Autometrics Motorsports.

Four McLarens are entered and three belong to the K-PAX Racing. Kevin Éstre and Robert Thorne are out while Álvaro Parente, defending GT Cup champion Colin Thompson and Austin Cindric are in for the team. Cindric will drive the #6, Parente will be in the #9 and Thompson will drive the #13. The fourth McLaren is the #99 Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing entry for Jon Fogarty.

Nissan retains its two drivers from 2015. James Davison will continue in the #33 Nissan and Bryan Heitkotter will be in the #05 Nissan. Davison finished fourth last year in the championship after winning two races and finishing runner-up on six occasions.

Team Absolute has replaced Dyson Racing as the Bentley team in PWC. Team Absolute will run two cars with Andrew Palmer returning to PWC after a season in Blancpain Endurance Series to drive the #87 Bentley and Adderly Fong joining the series in the #88 Bentley.

Peter Cunningham and Ryan Eversley will return to drive the #42 and #43 Acuras respectively. Kyle Marcelli joined CRP Racing to drive the #2 Audi, replacing Mike Skeen. Defending GTA Frank Montecalvo has been promoted to GT and will drive the #66 DIME Racing Mercedes.

TRG has entered the #67 Aston Martin for Duncan Ende and the #4 Aston Martin for GTA driver Jorge de la Torre. Two more Audis are entered in GTA. Drew Regitz will drive the #19 Stephen Cameron Racing Audi and Walt Bowlin and Larry Pegram are entered for the #23 M1 GT Racing Audi. Michael Mills will run the #46 Mills Racing BMW in GTA. Black Swan Racing's Tim Pappas returns in GTA with the #54 Dodge Viper. The only Ferrari entered for the Austin round is the #07 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari for Martin Fuentes. Fuentes is entered in GTA.

Three of the top five finishers from GT Cup in 2015 return for 2016. Sloan Urry finished runner-up to Thompson last year and will drive the #20 TruSpeed Autosport Porsche. Alec Udell finished fourth in the 2015 championship and will be the #17 GMG Racing Porsche. Preston Calvert finished fifth last year in his rookie season and he returns in the #77 Calvert Dynamics Porsche.

The other four GT Cup entries are the #18 WPD/Moorespeed Porsche for Will Hardeman, the #91 Wright Motorsports Porsche for Anthony Imperato, the #00 Motorsports Promotions Porsche for Corey Fergus and the #08 GMG Racing Porsche for Alex Welch.

GTS is a smorgasbord of interesting machinery.

Lawson Aschenbach returns to Blackdog Speed Shop after a year in Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The three-time PWC class champion Aschenbach will drive the #10 Camaro and Tony Gaples will be his teammate in the #11 Camaro.

Four KTM X-Bow GT4s are entered this season in GTS. Anthony Mantella will drive the #8 Mantella Autosport Inc. KTM. Martin Barkley will drive the #80 KTM for Mantella. ANSA Motorsports has entered two KTMs. Dore Chaponick, Jr. will drive the #12 KTM and Brett Sandberg will drive the #13 KTM.

Two Ginetta GT4s are entered, both for Performance Motorsports Group. Parker Chase will drive the #19 Ginetta and Nick Esayian will be in the #34 Ginetta. The other interesting new addition to the GTS grid are two SIN R1 GT4s, which will be run by Racers Edge Motorsports. Patrick Byrne is entered in the #45 SIN and Bob Michaelian and Conner Kearby are entered for the #54 SIN.

While there are the exotic KTMs, Ginettas and SINs, two Ford Mustangs are entered by Roush Performance Road Racing. Nate Stacy is entered in the #14 Ford and Jack Roush, Jr. is entered in the #60 Ford. TRG has two Aston Martins entered in GTS. Max Riddle will drive the #07 Aston Martin and Derek DeBoer and Jason Alexandridis are entered for the #09 Aston Martin.

Three Maseratis are entered by three different teams. Mark Klenin will drive the #62 Klenin Performance Racing Maserati. Ron Ballard will be behind the wheel of the #93 RT Motorsports, LLC Maserati. Jeff Courtney will pilot the #99 JCR Motorsports Maserati. Kevin Marshall is entered in the #44 VSA Motorsports Lotus. The other Lotus is entered for Austin's own Scott Dollahite and Bill Dollahite. The Dollahites are entered for the #46 SDR Motorsports Lotus.

This is the third time PWC will run at Circuit of the Americas. The four GT races have been won by four different manufactures. Johnny O'Connell and James Sofronas split the races in 2013 for Cadillac and Audi. Last year, Ferrari's Olivier Beretta and McLaren's Kevin Éstre split the weekend that featured a dry race on Saturday and a very wet race on Sunday. In GTS, Blackdog Speed Shop has won three of the four races that have taken place at COTA. Lawson Aschenbach and Andy Lee swept the 2013 races while Michael Cooper won race two last year. TRG-Aston Martin's Kris Wilson won race one last year in GTS.

GT race #1 will be at 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday with GTS race #1 following at 5:15 p.m. ET. On Sunday, GTS race #2 will take place at noon ET with the final GT race scheduled for 3:15 p.m. ET.

The Halo Rule

Get ready for change boys and girls because the visual of race cars is changing before your very eyes.

At Thursday's Formula One test from Barcelona, Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen ran an installation lap with the halo device attached to his SF16-H. 

Change is here. It's not in the living room with its feet on the coffee table but it just rang the doorbell and your significant other is about to open the door and welcomed change into the house and offer it something to drink. 

People don't like change. It's natural to not like change. If someone doesn't like change it doesn't mean they are ignorant or irrational or Neanderthal. It means they are human. Change takes time to get use to and instead of kicking people into the deep end, people should slowly be exposed to change. That is how the halo should be introduced into motorsports, especially Formula One and IndyCar. 

While the accidents of Jules Bianchi and Justin Wilson are fresh in the minds of many, the exposure of a driver's head isn't something that must be addressed immediately. Those were freak accidents and not an epidemic that is taking the lives of a dozen drivers every year but it is still a potential risk that should be addressed and improved on. 

The Formula One paddock is split over the halo and I am sure the IndyCar paddock is split just the same. Some are struggling with the proposed change and others are open to and willing to embrace it. Eventually the halo will have to be race tested and I propose that be sooner rather than later. It won't happen in Formula One but IndyCar should be begging to be the Guinea pig.

IndyCar has nothing to lose. If anything, it would gain so much from having the halo. First off, there is the capitalistic aspect. It appears the #20 Chevrolet of Ed Carpenter Racing will not be a full-time entrant as a road/street course driver has yet to be found and St. Petersburg is only a week away. To keep an entry on the IndyCar grid full-time, here is what the series should do: 

IndyCar should give Ed Carpenter Racing a Leader Circle spot. The series should then go to the FIA and say they are willing to run the halo on one car for the entry 2016 season and has put $1.25 million (the rumored amount for a 2016 Leader Circle entry) behind the effort but would need the FIA and the Formula One teams to match what IndyCar was putting behind the effort. IndyCar would allow the FIA to watch the car and work with the team throughout the season as the halo was tested. 

It would be a win-win as $1.25 million is chump change if it were split amongst the Formula One teams. Each team would pay a little bit to get a critical piece tested and it would be more affordable for the Formula One teams than going to an airstrip and straight-line testing the halo or heading to Silverstone or Barcelona during the season to test it. IndyCar wins as it would get another full-time and both sides would benefit as Ed Carpenter, one of the most if not the most experienced oval driver would get to provide insight on it on ovals. The funding provided from the Leader Circle program and the FIA/Formula One teams could go toward making sure a qualified driver would be behind the wheel on road and street courses. I first thought Oriol Servià would be a perfect option as he is experienced and wouldn't have to worry about giving feedback while trying to learn the circuits. However, if the FIA and Formula One teams would rather have a driver they were more familiar with, such as Jean-Éric Vergne, Pedro de la Rosa, Nick Heidfeld or Sébastien Buemi, then that could also be another option. 

Having the halo on the #20 Chevrolet would get fans use to seeing it without shoving it down their throats. It would allow for it to grow on people and get use to seeing it on track. I would hope by the end of the season, let's say by Pocono, a second halo could be attached to a car and there could be two halos on track for the final three races. At the end of the season, both series would have loads of information to go on and improvements could be made together. 

For 2017, the halo could be slowly integrated to more teams and possibly slowly integrated into Formula One. For IndyCar, by the start of 2017 it could be a rule that each multi-car team must have at least one entry with a halo. All of a sudden, there would be seven halos on the grid. Maybe for Formula One it could be one car per team runs a halo. By 2018, perhaps people will be accustomed to it to the point that a full grid of them would not be a bigger deal. 

As for now, IndyCar should be on the phone with the FIA and try to get one on the grid for St. Petersburg. It would be something people would tune in to see. It would put IndyCar in the international motorsports headlines, which IndyCar rarely gets for something positive and it would put IndyCar in a position to be the first to exploit the potential commercial benefits of halos. 

The current design has its flaws most notably openings that could allow debris to still hit a driver's head. The middle bar doesn't look good at all and while Räikkönen said visibility wasn't that different, why not get rid of the obstruction now before a driver blames the halo on why he couldn't avoid hitting another car. I was wondering why couldn't a windscreen be put in to protect the driver's head from debris coming in at eye level and to remove the solid bar. Windscreens aren't revolutionary. From LMP1 cars to stock cars to GT cars, they all have windscreen. Why couldn't what would resemble a giant visor be the next step for the halo and why couldn't that step be made sooner rather than later? 

Especially if you're IndyCar, think of the potential commercial relationships that could be made, especially if IndyCar could be the series that turns the halo into the visor. Safelite would be a natural partner and even better, Safelite is based in Graham Rahal's backyard of Columbus, Ohio. 

Business potential aside, the halo is at the door and instead of fighting it and kicking and screaming we must give it a chance. At the same time, Formula One and IndyCar should slowly get people use to it. IndyCar should grab the ball on this one and make sure it is on the grid immediately. There are too many positives for IndyCar to standby and watch Formula One bicker about the halo concept. The FIA and Formula One teams should want IndyCar to be the Guinea pig. I am sure they will pitch in because it would be more affordable than the teams having to do their own research and development. 

The first Indianapolis 500 featured arguably the first rearview mirror and that car was the winning Marmon Wasp of Ray Harroun. Imagine if the 100th Indianapolis 500 winner featured a halo. The storylines would be like nothing IndyCar has seen in a long time. A halo car will win the Indianapolis 500 soon. Why not have it at least be a possibility this May?

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Chip Ganassi Racing

Another year, another Team Penske collapse, another Ganassi title. That was 2015. From day one it appeared Penske was going to dominate but no one dominated. Penske couldn't seal the deal. The door was open and Scott Dixon ripped the door off its hinges in the season finale while the Penskes couldn't keep from running into one another. Ganassi enters 2016 looking for its seventh title since reunification.

2015 Chip Ganassi Racing Review:
Wins: 3 (Long Beach, Texas, Sonoma)
Poles: 2 (Indianapolis 500, Mid-Ohio)
Final Championship Positions: 1st (Scott Dixon), 3rd (Will Power), 8th (Tony Kanaan), 12th (Charlie Kimball), 20th (Sage Karam), 25th (Sebastián Saavedra).

2016 Drivers:

Scott Dixon
The New Zealanders may have scored his fourth title but even he admits he didn't have a dominant 2015 season. After failing to score a top ten in the first two races, Dixon bounced back to win his first Grand Prix of Long Beach and that led a string five consecutive top ten finishes. A win a Texas was the highlight of a consistent summer. He put himself in a position to be in contention come the season finale and drove a phenomenal race while the rest of the championship contenders faltered.

Numbers to Remember: 
11- Consecutive seasons with a victory for Dixon. He is tied with Bobby Unser, Emerson Fittipaldi and Hélio Castroneves for the record. One victory in 2016 would give him the record.

4- Victories behind Michael Andretti for third all-time in IndyCar victories. He is also one victory for fourth all-time but that seems like a given.

369- Laps from 5,000 career laps led. Only five other drivers have reached that milestone (Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Michael Andretti, Al Unser and Castroneves)

Predictions/Goals:
Scott Dixon will set the record for most consecutive seasons with a victory. Dixon has finished in the top three of the championship the last nine seasons. He has finished in the top four of the championship the last ten seasons. It doesn't appear that streak will be coming to an end in 2016. Expect another two-three victories this season for Dixon. If he does want a fifth championship, he is going to need to score more than four podiums.

Tony Kanaan
In his second season with Chip Ganassi Racing, Kanaan showed he was still a force but fell short on victory. While he was beat straight up at Texas and Fontana, a mechanical issue ended a promising run at Iowa and two accidents at Indianapolis and Pocono. While Kanaan surprisingly struggled on ovals, he had a very good season on road and street circuits, picking up four top fives seven top tens from ten races. Those four top fives were the most for Kanaan on road and street circuits since 2011.

Numbers to Remember: 
41- Kanaan is 41 years old.

249- Consecutive starts for Kanaan dating back to Portland 2001. He has made 310 total starts in his career.

15- Consecutive seasons with a podium.

Predictions/Goals:
I think this will be Kanaan's final full season in IndyCar. We will see him continue at Indianapolis for the next five years or so but I think Kanaan will struggle in 2016 and he will see the writing on the wall. He will regress on road and street circuits but you can't rely on the five ovals for bolstering a season. Kanaan will get a couple top fives but he will finish on the outside the top ten in the championship.

Charlie Kimball
In his fifth season, Kimball put up some good results but the neutral results cancelled out his impressive runs. After his best finished was 12th from the first four races, Kimball scored a fifth and a third in the two Indianapolis races. He would only score two top tens in the nine races after the Indianapolis 500 but would finish third in the season finale at Sonoma.

Numbers to Remember: 
6- Career podiums. Ironically, Kimball has two on ovals, two on road courses and two on street courses.

5- Consecutive seasons with a finish outside the top twenty before the Indianapolis 500.

1- Season with double digit lead lap finishes. He had 12 in 2013. The last two seasons he has had nine lead lap finishes.

Predictions/Goals:
Kimball will have a typical season once again. He has never been great in qualifying and I don't see that changing. I think Kimball will score a few top fives and a handful of top tens but he will finish fourth among the four Ganassi drivers. He will be in the top fifteen of the championship.

Max Chilton
The former Marussia F1 driver will make his IndyCar debut for Chip Ganassi Racing. Chilton ran 13 of 16 Indy Lights races last year. A mechanical failure prior to the Freedom 100 kept him from making his first racing laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval while he missed the Toronto round due to commitments with Nissan at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Chilton won his first Indy Lights race at Iowa and ended the season with four podiums, three pole positions and a fastest lap in the final five races.

Numbers to Remember: 
115- Starts in GP2, GP2 Asia, Formula One and Indy Lights since he made his first GP2 start in 2010.

13- Retirements in those 115 starts.

6- Podiums in 13 Indy Lights starts.

Predictions/Goals:
I see Max Chilton as the favorite for Rookie of the Year. I think he will be the second best Ganassi driver in the championship. He will get at least one podium but could get more. Perhaps more importantly, Chilton will bring the car home in one piece more times than not. He will have his struggles to get up to speed but I think by Indianapolis, he will be fine and he will get at least two top tens on ovals.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Ed Carpenter Racing

When Ed Carpenter Racing and Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing merged prior to the 2015 season, it appeared to be a marriage that would benefit all parties and it did. The two teams combined and it saw Josef Newgarden have a breakout season, winning two races and fighting for the championship into the season finale. However, life is a bitch and oil prices have fallen through floor and Wink Hartman had to pull out of the team and Sarah Fisher followed. Now the team is back to Ed Carpenter Racing and money is tight. Will this team be able to repeat its 2015 performance and can this team keep two cars on the grid?

2015 CFH Racing Review:
Wins: 2 (Barber, Toronto)
Poles: 1 (Milwaukee)
Final Championship Positions: 7th (Josef Newgarden), 21st (Luca Filippi), 27th (Ed Carpenter), 31st (J.R. Hildebrand).

2016 Drivers:

Josef Newgarden
The Tennessean had the season we had all been waiting for in 2015. He won two races and could have won another three. Newgarden also scored his first career pole position and first career top ten in the Indianapolis 500 in 2015. He took on the big boys and ended up being one of six championship eligible drivers at the Sonoma season finale only to have a poor pit stop end his hopes of playing stunner. While Newgarden had a great season, there were plenty of occasions where his race ended in the barriers.

Numbers to Remember: 
345- Laps led by Newgarden in 2015, more than any other driver.

10.0- Average finish on ovals in 2015.

14.76- Average finish in his 17 oval starts prior to the 2015 season.

Predictions/Goals:
Newgarden will take a step back from 2015 but still have a few good results. I think he will win a race and more specifically win on an oval. He needs to finish more races and not get in as many accidents as he did in 2015. I expect him to be in that scrum for 7th to 14th in the championship but more likely ending up in the top ten than ending up on the outside of the top ten.

Ed Carpenter
With only six races lined up for Carpenter, it is already difficult for him to get good finish, as his opportunities are limited. His first three races ended in retirements, two because of accidents and one because of a mechanical failure. One of those accidents occurred in the Indianapolis 500 and that was after he suffered an accident in qualifying. He would rebound for back-to-back top tens at Milwaukee and Iowa but an engine failure at Pocono ended his season 44 laps early.

Numbers to Remember: 
12.19- Career average finish on short tracks.

5- Consecutive top tens on short tracks.

3- Career top tens in 12 Indianapolis 500 starts. He also has three 11th-place finishes in the Indianapolis 500.

Predictions/Goals:
One goal is to make sure the #20 Chevrolet runs all 16 races. Things do not appear to be promising for the car and the talk is the car might not be at St. Petersburg. Losing the #20 for the road/street course races would be a terrible loss for IndyCar. Hopefully ECR can find a partner for Ed Carpenter. While it appears Luca Filippi is moving on to Dale Coyne Racing, there are plenty of drivers on the outside (J.R. Hildebrand, Gabby Chaves, Tristan Vautier, Jack Harvey) who could be a great partner for Carpenter. As for Carpenter himself, I think he will get at least three top tens and at least one top five but I think victory will just be out of his grasp.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.

2016 Verizon IndyCar Team-By-Team Preview: Dale Coyne Racing

What? It's March 1st; it's just under a fortnight until the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season opener from St. Petersburg and we are already previewing Dale Coyne Racing? How could that be? There must be some mistake? Nope. Mr. Seesaw himself appears to have all his ducks in a row after rotating through drivers like underwear in 2015. Does Coyne have a 1-2 punch that could take the team from cellar dweller to contender? While both of Coyne's drivers enter with IndyCar experience, neither has run a full season and while yet to be confirmed, one has never run an oval. Can this team stun IndyCar with its underrated talent?

2015 Dale Coyne Racing Review
Wins: 0
Best Finish: 4th (Belle Isle 2)
Poles: 0
Best Start: 11th (Belle Isle 1)
Final Championship Positions: 22nd (Tristan Vautier), 26th (Rodolfo González), 29th (Pippa Mann), 34th (Francesco Dracone), 36th (Carlos Huertas), 38th (James Davison).

2016 Drivers:

Conor Daly
After years of winning in the North American and European ladder systems and playing the role of substitute while dabbling in sports cars, the Irish-American will finally get his chance at IndyCar full-time. Daly enters with five IndyCar starts under his belt and has had a few positive outings. While a fire kept him from taking the green flag in last year's Indianapolis 500, Daly scored a top ten while substituting for James Hinchcliffe at Belle Isle and he stayed out of harms way at Toronto.

Numbers to Remember: 
3- Lead lap finishes in Daly's IndyCar career.

5- Daly has been running at the finish of all five of his IndyCar starts (Note: Daly did not take the green flag in last year's Indianapolis 500, therefore, he did not start the race).

18.78- Average finish for Dale Coyne Racing entries in 2015.

Predictions/Goals: 
While Daly has been held in high regard for the past few years, rookies typically do not light the world on fire in IndyCar and Daly's work isn't cut out for him this year as at least Max Chilton and Alexander Rossi will also be competing for Rookie of the Year honors and Spencer Pigot could also add his name to that list. Since reunification, three of eight Rookie of the Years have finished in the top ten of the championship and one of those include Simon Pagenaud, who was considered a rookie in 2012 despite having run a full-season of Champ Car in 2007. Had Pagenaud not been considered a rookie, the next best rookie was Josef Newgarden in 23rd. Daly will get a handful of top tens but will somewhere around fifteenth in the championship.

Luca Filippi
The Italian drove for Dale Coyne Racing at the Phoenix test and while Filippi hasn't been confirmed in the #19 Honda, it would be a massive kick to the crotch if he wasn't in the car at least for St. Petersburg. Filippi has made at least one IndyCar start each of the last three seasons. In 2013, he run a few races for Bryan Herta Autosport after the team released Alex Tagliani and in 2014, Filippi ran the Houston and Toronto doubleheaders for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Last year, Filippi was the road/street course driver in the #20 Chevrolet for CFH Racing and he scored a second place at Toronto to give the team a 1-2 finish. Filippi had double the amount of top ten finishes (4) to Mike Conway's top ten total in 2014 when the Brit was the #20's road/street course driver.

Numbers to Remember: 
5- Five Italians have previously raced for Dale Coyne Racing (Guido Daccò, Fulvio Ballabio, Alessandro Zampedri, Mauro Baldi and Francesco Dracone). A sixth (Andrea Montermini), qualified for Surfers Paradise with Dale Coyne Racing in 1994 but withdrew from the race after an accident in qualifying.

13.9- Filippi's average finish in 2015 after making ten starts with CFH Racing.

5,265- Amount of days between the last IndyCar victory for an Italian and St. Petersburg. The last Italian victory was Max Papis at Laguna Seca on October 14, 2001.

Predictions/Goals: 
Filippi has never ran an oval event but he has adapted to IndyCar well. This team is hard to predict. Not every team and driver can win a race and not every team and driver can finish in the top ten of the championship. I think Dale Coyne Racing will make a big step forward if this is the driver line-up for the full season but even with these two drivers, it is hard to imagine either cracking the top ten in the championship. I see Filippi getting a top five or two and having a handful of top tens. I think he will edge Daly in the final championship standings but he might not even crack the top fifteen. Both drivers are talented and if neither cracks the top fifteen of the championship it just proves the level of depth of the IndyCar grid.

The 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series seasons commences with Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 13th. ABC's coverage of the race will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET.