By Steve Wittich

The 8:25 am alarm clock for the denizens of the hundreds of condos surrounding the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg street circuit was the sweet sound of 21 AER-prepared turbo-charged 2.0L four-cylinder engines.

The ambient temperature at the beginning of the session was 75F with high humidity. The track temperature was 80F.

The track was immediately busy, with drivers quickly dicing for position, including a three-wide run into Turn 4. Michael d’Orlando (Andretti Cape) had a lazy spin at the exit of Turn 1 while trying to get by a slower car. The 2022 USF2000 champion kept the engine running and continued.

Times continued to drop with Myles Rowe (HMD Motorsports w/ Force Indy), James Roe (Andretti Global), Caio Collet (HMD Motorsports), and finally, Friday’s quickest driver, Louis Foster (Andretti Global), topping the timing screens.

After 15 minutes of practice, Foster led the way, followed by Collet, Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports), Yuven Sundaramoorthy (Abel Motorsports), Jamie Chadwick (Andretti Global), Jack William Miller (Miller Vinatieri Motorsports), Salvador de Alba (Andretti Cape), Bryce Aron (Andretti Global), Reece Gold (HMD Motorsports) and Nolan Siegel (HMD Motorsports). These times were all set on scuffed Firestone Racing tires.

On Friday afternoon, Foster was the only driver under 66 seconds. At the halfway point of Saturday’s practice, the top five had laps in the 65-second range.

Once fresh Firestones went on, lap times started to fall. Roe, who had a transponder issue on Friday, briefly knocked his teammate out of the top spot.

With 15 minutes remaining in practice, Foster went to the back to the top timing screens as the first driver under 65 seconds, with a lap within a tenth of a second from the track record of 64.6491 set by David Malukas in 2021.

Turn 1 was a hot spot for issues, with Siegel, Gold, and Nolan Allaer (HMD Motorsports), among others, all going long at the end of the 3,677-foot-long runway 7/25 of the Albert Whitted Airport.

Drivers continued to push until the first red flag of the session flew with seven minutes remaining. Christian Bogle (HMD Motorsports) gave Miller room to get inside him in Turn 4, getting a little too deep and ending up in the tire barriers with left front suspension damage.

After super quick work by the AMR INDYCAR Safety Team, the green flag came out with four minutes remaining. Nineteen of the 21 drivers headed out on track in an effort to go quicker, and a number of drivers got closer to Foster’s quick time of 64.7916 seconds. Those getting closer included Collet and Abel, who ended up within two-tenths of a second of Foster as the only three drivers under 65 seconds.

Just as the checkered flag was about to fly, Martini-sponsored No. 11 of Allaer made contact with the concrete barriers in Turn 8 and Turn 9, sustaining damage to the left front and rear of the car.

After the session, Chadwick, who ended up fifth quickest, told Ryan Myrehn:

“It’s a very different feeling the second year in. I feel a lot more comfortable and a bit more settled at these style of tracks with the Andretti Global team. We’ve got a really quick car this weekend, but a big, big gap to P1, so a lot of work still to do. I think it’s going to close up in qualifying.”

The second quickest driver on Friday, d’Orlando, told Myrehn that they were having some mechanical issues that only allowed them to turn eight laps. The 21 drivers completed a total of 542 laps.

Grand Prix Of St. Petersburg Practice #1 Results.

RANK	CAR NO.	DRIVER	TEAM	FAST LAP	DIFFERENCE	TOTAL LAPS
1	26	Louis Foster	Andretti Global	1:04.7916	——	23
2	18	Caio Collet	HMD Motorsports	1:04.9188	0.1272	29
3	51	Jacob Abel	Abel Motorsports	1:04.9898	0.1982	27
4	14	Josh Pierson	HMD Motorsports	1:05.3076	0.5160	30
5	28	Jamie Chadwick	Andretti Global	1:05.4205	0.6289	26
6	39	Nolan Siegel	HMD Motorsports	1:05.4366	0.6450	28
7	29	James Roe	Andretti Global	1:05.4633	0.6717	24
8	23	Jonathan Browne	HMD Motorsports	1:05.5288	0.7372	30
9	40	Jack William Miller	Miller Vinatieri Motorsports	1:05.6542	0.8626	27
10	99	Myles Rowe	HMD Motorsports with Force Indy	1:05.7125	0.9209	26
11	27	Bryce Aron	Andretti Global	1:05.7185	0.9269	31
12	22	Yuven Sundaramoorthy	Abel Motorsports	1:05.7587	0.9671	28
13	17	Callum Hedge	HMD Motorsports	1:05.8300	1.0384	27
14	2	Salvador de Alba	Andretti Cape	1:05.8670	1.0754	26
15	10	Reece Gold	HMD Motorsports	1:05.9236	1.1320	29
16	3	Michael d’Orlando	Andretti Cape	1:06.4088	1.6172	8
17	7	Christian Bogle	HMD Motorsports	1:06.5842	1.7926	24
18	11	Nolan Allaer	HMD Motorsports	1:06.6365	1.8449	23
19	21	Josh Mason	Abel Motorsports	1:07.0619	2.2703	22
20	33	Niels Koolen	HMD Motorsports	1:07.1510	2.3594	27
21	76	Lindsay Brewer	Juncos Hollinger Racing	1:08.8179	4.0263	27

Qualifying for Sunday’s 45-lap race is scheduled to get the green flag at 1:05 pm.