The circuit is very different, but the favorite remains the same as the IndyCar Series heads to the streets of St. Petersburg for the second race of the 2007 championship on Sunday afternoon.

“I would say Dan (Wheldon),” answered Helio Castroneves when asked to pick a favorite to win on this weekend. “After the first practice, or at least the only practice we had at Daytona (on the road course), he seemed to be very comfortable. That might be a challenge.”

Wheldon crushed the competition on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval, scoring maximum points (53), and running away from the competition by over 6 seconds. He now returns to his adopted hometown where he won in 2005.

One of just two street circuits on the IndyCar Series schedule (the other is Belle Isle in Detroit), the St. Pete layout has parts that are both beautiful and challenging. The main straightaway spends most of the year as an airport runway and the long run down to turn one is one of the best passing zones on the course.

After that, the course winds its way in fairly typical street course fashion with a set of group of slow 90 degree turns (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) that eventually dumps the cars onto Bayshore Drive. Basically the backstretch, Bayshore takes the drivers passed a yacht filled marina, through the “kink” and down to turn 10, another 90 degree left, but a good passing zone.

The final spot where drivers have tried to pass in the past is turn 13. This long and wide hairpin has seen numerous collisions in the past as drivers hustle to get through the corner and onto the front straightaway.

“St. Pete, because it's a street course...you will definitely have to be thinking to take care of your tires, especially towards the end of the stint,” said Castroneves, who outran Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan to win in 2006.

New for St. Petersurburg in 2007 will be 100% ethanol fuel and 3.5 (up from 3.0) liter engines, all designed to produce the same peak horsepower, but more mid range torque. With the removal of traction control (after the 2005 season), this could result in more difficult to drive cars, but better passing opportunities.

Said Castroneves, “With the test that we had in Daytona (on the road course), I felt that the car was spinning the wheels a little bit more, and making a little bit more challenge.”

The first challenge of the weekend will actually come from just qualifying. The first practice session will put all of the cars on the track, with the subsequent session being broken into groups based on the practice speeds.

And those speeds will be important as the fastest driver in practice will choose whether to run through single car/single lap qualifying either “heads up” or “inverted” – the fastest driver going out last to qualify.

The top 6 from single car qualifying will then get a 10 minute “European” style session to try and better their times. The results from this will set the first three rows for the race.

The IndyCar Series is joined at St. Pete this year by the American LeMans Series sportscars, and the IndyPro Series who will run a pair of races this weekend.

Practice for the Grand Prix of St. Pete gets under way on Friday at 10:40am (ET).

St. Pete - IndyCar Series Schedule:

Friday, March 30
Practice 1 10:40 a.m. - 12:40 p.m.
Practice 2 4:25 - 5:30 p.m.

Saturday March 31
Practice 3 8:55 - 10 a.m.
Qualifying 12:45 - 2:15 p.m.

Sunday April 1
Final Practice 10:15 - 10:45 a.m.
Race 2:30 p.m.

ORS / CAPSIS International