LIVE BLOG: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg

SATURDAY

11:51 PM — Just about ready to wrap things up for the day in St. Petersburg. We’ve posted summaries of the Mazda Road to Indy races (Pigot dominates, Franzoni wins close battle in Mazda Road to Indy day 1 at St. Petersburg) and an IndyCar qualifying summary (Sato earns Verizon P1 Award for Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg). We’ve also added the full qualifying results including notes to our Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg Event Summary.

I skimmed through the notes from IndyCar’s media department and found a couple of interesting tidbits: Carlos Huertas and Dale Coyne Racing were fined $1,000 for failing to have operating radio communication, and Simon Pagenaud and Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Racing were fined $1,000 because Simon ran the checkered flag at the end of morning practice. I hope IndyCar is going to get into the habit of reporting these types of things. They don’t matter much in the grand scheme, but serious fans love knowing about them.

It’s been a busy day and tomorrow will be even busier, so it’s time to pack up. I’ll be back bright and early from the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg!

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7:59 PM — I’m still here! But not for long. I spent the afternoon bouncing from being on the grid and on pit lane for the USF2000 race (won by Victor Franzoni after a great battle with RC Enerson), Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying (which ended with Takuma Sato on pole), and the Pro Mazda race (fairly well dominated by Spencer Pigot). The day just finished up with the Pro Mazda race pushing very close to sunset after all the schedule changes today. I’m going to pack up here before it gets too dark and head back to my hotel to finish up my evening’s work there. I’ll be posting some photos to Twitter and some race and qualifying reports before finishing this up later on.

I hope you’ll forgive me if I take a shower first, though. I’m covered in tire rubber and leftover filth from being sprayed by a full field of USF2000 cars driving a couple of feet past me on a soaking wet track. (It’s pretty awesome.)

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4:05 PM — Another change to the schedule after Pirelli World Challenge opted to cancel their race this afternoon. The track will be dried from 4:10 to 4:30; USF2000 will race from 4:40 to 5:10; IndyCar will qualify from 5:20 to 6:30; and Pro Mazda will race from 6:40 to 7:10. The IndyCar autograph session scheduled for this afternoon has been cancelled.