2023 St. Petersburg Indy Gran Prix

Report and Images by Mark Roden of MRA Racing Images

Friday 03 March 2023 Practice

I attended this year’s race weekend with two long-time friends, one of which is a fellow photographer.  Our goal this year was to get some new work from vantage points we hadn’t previously used.  Unfortunately, the view from our seats in the Turn 10 grandstands  was not what we thought it would be. 

Very heavily blocked by fencing with large cables, it was a miracle that we were able to get anything at all.  Luckily, during practice on Friday there were just enough empty seats at the top left end that we were able to slide over and catch a limited but useful view. 

Once we made it through the gate, we headed for turn 1 / Grandstand 10 and started our day there during the SRO GT class practice and qualifying sessions.  I wanted to get up against the fence and shoot through it, but there were plenty of “guards” ready to convince me otherwise. 

So, I sat low and as close as I could get, which was still at least 15 feet, or a little under 4 meters.  It actually worked fairly well; the fence disappeared for the most part, leaving only a slight ghost pattern.  The wires are thicker than regular chain link, so it is difficult to get rid of all of it if you’re not right against it.



I highly recommend catching the undercard at St Pete.  The GTs are not as fast as an IndyCar, but they are just as fun to watch.  The cars are very attractive, especially the Mercedes AMGs

During the short break after GT qualifying, we walked over to turn 10 to check out our race day seats.  On the walk over, we had the chance to see a few of the Indy cars being taken from the paddock area toward pit lane.  The paddock was open to the public except on race day, so we had the chance to snap a few inside. 

It is a good thing we did that on Friday, because we didn’t go at all Saturday, and Sunday was just packed. From our purchased seats we would have had exactly squat in the way of photo work. 

The USF PRO2000 cars came on a little after 1PM.  This is an open-wheeled class, and the first step on the “road to Indy” driver development program based on the Formula Ford formula “F2000” for race car design.  I really had no idea who to watch first, so I tried to get as many shots as possible to make sure that I got at least some of the top drivers in the series. 

Some names to watch for: Simon Sikes (#22 Pabst Racing), Lochie Hughes (#8 Jay Howard Driver Development), Evagoras Papasavvas (#6 Jay Howard Driver Development) and Nikita Johnson (#17 VRD Racing).

Next on the slate was Indy NXT (formerly called Indy Lights) with a practice session.  The NXT series is the primary support for the Indycar series, which pulls the top drivers to test and compete in the Indianapolis 500 and possibly other races.  It is a grooming system for young drivers hoping to one day pilot a full-time Indycar seat. 

Some drivers to pay attention to in this series include Daniel Frost (#68 HMD Motorsports), winner of this year’s NXT St Pete GP, Nolan Siegel (#39 HMD Motorsports), and Jacob Abel (#51 Abel Motorsports).  Frost took the lead after a restart late in the race, powering his way to a second win in the series.  All 3 drivers had a turn leading the race; Abel leading early, taking over on lap 8, and then giving it up on lap 35 after sliding wide in turn one, allowing Siegel to take the reins. 

A bit after 3PM the Indycar series took to the track for their first practice of the weekend.  It was just over an hour long and 15 minutes late getting started, and as it turned out, this was the only camera time we had with them before the race on Sunday.

Will Power was the first to the green flag for practice, followed by Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon and Scott McLaughlin.  Dixon, who was hitting a fast lap time of 1:01.61 seconds at 105.17 mph, was ½ second and about 1 mph slower than last year’s fast lap for first practice, set by Romain Grosjean.

Before the Indycars began, we moved as close as we could to the top left corner of the grandstands.  This gave us the absolute best (and only decent) vantage point from anywhere in the area.  It was still difficult to catch them close to the rumble strip without any fence, but in some cases, the fences actually added a bit of context.  After all, it IS a road course.  So, a bit of obstruction here and there might well be OK. 

First practice of the weekend proved to be a choppy affair for more than a few drivers.  Both Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard of Rahal Letterman Lanigan hit the wall during practice, reducing their track time.  Rahal made the comment that he couldn’t hit his brakes; that it would lock up and shut down the engine.  He also said that there was a lack of grip with the track surface.

Other drivers either hit the wall, spun, or locked up their brakes, causing several red flags.  Among the unfortunate were Benjamin Pedersen, who hit the wall after locking up; Simon Pagenaud, spinning into the runoff from turn 4; and Josef Newgarden, who drifted into the wall causing some damage.

For those who kept it clean, the times kept getting better as the session wore on.  At one point each of Kyle Kirkwood, Felix Rosenqvist, and Alex Palou held the fastest lap temporarily, until Scott Dixon sealed it with the hot lap of the session.  Amid all that carnage, along with a sizeable chunk of concrete coming loose as well, it’s a wonder they got any laps off at all.

Sunday 5 March 2023 Race Day

On race day we started the day in our in Turn 10 seats.  The big screen was a major plus as we could see all the action on the track.  The bad thing about these seats was that we could not see the cars very well once they made the turn and screamed down toward the next one; they were 75% blocked by the retainer wall in front.  Wall and fence together prevented any meaningful photography.  I managed some cell phone video, but that was it.  I didn’t fire a single shot with the Canon, in fact it never even came out of the bag.

On lap 53 we decided to move.  Earlier, when we walked up the ramp to enter the stands, we received a sticker, but the stickers were not being distributed in any organized color arrangement that we noticed. 

We knew there was a good chance that the stickers in the other grandstands were being handled in a similar way, and so we figured that so long as we had a sticker--regardless of the color--we could get into any grandstand. 

We were correct and were able to slide into some empty seats between map position “A” and “B” to catch the second half of the race. Click the map for a photographic guide to the St. Petersburg Indy Gran Prix temporary street circuit

At this point in the race, several cars were out, some from the carnage in the beginning of the race, and others from attrition.  With about 35 or so laps to go, we settled in and started snapping.

The weather was a little nicer on race day; a bit warm but not as hot as prior years.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to get good pit shots from the stands.  It’s one of the few times that I will allow a lot of clutter into my frame. 

I really do enjoy the panning at St Pete.  The banners change over the years, but they are always colorful and interesting, which makes for a nice blurry background behind a crisp Indycar.

There was a point near the end of the race, a moment between O’Ward and Ericcson.  O’Ward was coming off the last turn on to the straight and slowed, even seemed to swerve a bit.  Ericcson flew past him and it was obvious something strange had happened.  Later it was explained as a “plenum event”.  That’s racing, good luck for the other guy.

The race consisted of 100 laps and was won by Marcus Ericsson



Next up for Indycar: the 375 at Texas Motor Speedway.  Report coming soon…

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