Most of the major auto racing organizations begin their seasons here in Florida. A few weeks ago, the IMSA sports car series kicked off their year with the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR followed up a couple of weeks later at the same venue with the Daytona 500. This past weekend, IndyCar started 2024 with the Firestone St. Pete Grand Prix on the streets of beautiful downtown St. Petersburg.
I spent last Friday at the track watching the teams prepare and practice for the race on Sunday. This year I was joined by my sister Sherry, who has several friends involved with IndyCar. She enjoyed getting to see some people that she hadn’t seen in a few years.
The start of each season in auto racing is like getting dealt a new hand of playing cards. The cards are rarely the same. So many race teams have different drivers, different sponsors and different color schemes. That’s why it’s good to walk through the garage area to get familiar with the new looks.
The weather was great the entire weekend with the only rain coming overnight on Saturday. The drivers had a beautiful day on Sunday for the race and it led to some great competition. In the end, one of our favorite drivers, Josef Newgarden drove a flawless race and won relatively easily. So 2024 is off to a great start and hopefully the schedule won’t change for 2025 and we’ll be back here next March to kick off another year. Stay tuned.
Here is a link for more information on the race weekend and the final results.
A few more pictures from the weekend are featured below. For a larger selection of photos, please visit the gallery listed.
