Image by Michael Levitt/LAT
St Pete to close admission; race in jeopardy
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman announced Thursday morning that no general admission tickets will be sold for Sunday's NTT IndyCar season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, and it appears the annual street race could be in jeopardy.
After IndyCar owner Roger Penske told RACER on Wednesday night that the Firestone Grand Prix was still a go, pending any directives from government or health officials, Kriseman walked into a morning press reception and delivered the news that GAs were off the table.
https://twitter.com/Kriseman/status/1238101538670772224?s=20
And, according to a source for RACER, Mayor Kriseman will hold a press conference in early afternoon to address the fate of the race.
Earlier Thursday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the March 22 NASCAR race at Homestead-Miami Speedway has been postponed.
Penske seemed optimistic, even in the face of the NBA suspending its season and NCAA basketball tournament banning fans from its games.
"We're monitoring every single move and so many things going on, and we met with the mayor again today and continue to coordinate with health department as well," Penske said. "We take this one day at a time and do everything to make a prudent decision. We had 25,000 people at Amelia Island last weekend with no problems. DisneyWorld is still open, there's a big golf tourney in Florida this weekend and there's no reason to make any change in St. Pete unless we're instructed by the government and/or health department."
Robin Miller
Robin Miller flunked out of Ball State after two quarters, but got a job stooging for Jim Hurtubise at the 1968 Indianapolis 500 when Herk's was the last roadster to ever make the race. He got hired at The Indianapolis Star a month later and talked his way into the sports department, where he began covering USAC and IndyCar racing. He got fired at The Star for being anti-Tony George, but ESPN hired him to write and do RPM2Nite. Then he went to SPEED and worked on WIND TUNNEL and SPEED REPORT. He started at RACER when SPEED folded, and went on to write for RACER.com and RACER magazine while also working for NBCSN on IndyCar telecasts.
Read Robin Miller's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.