Eric Mauk    Rahal Letterman Racing Team Ethanol

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (April 5, 2008) - You’d better start swimming/or you’ll sink like a stone/the times they are a’changin - Bob Dylan

The assimilation of Champ Car teams and drivers into the IndyCar Series raised the price of poker in today’s qualifying session for Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg but Rahal Letterman Racing and Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) were in on every hand.

The team marched through the first two qualifying rounds and into the Firestone Fast Six for the second consecutive road-course event, with Hunter-Reay eventually taking the sixth spot in tomorrow’s 26-car grid. The results of the three-tier session opened eyes throughout the paddock as standard St. Pete stalwarts Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan were joined in the fast six by former Champ Car upstarts Will Power and Justin Wilson as well as by Ryan Briscoe and Hunter-Reay.

“Today’s run was a good result for the Ethanol car, but we were disappointed not to be further up the grid,” Hunter-Reay lamented. “This field is really thick and there’s a lot of fast guys up front as well as behind us. I think the biggest thing tomorrow is that we have to keep our nose clean. That will be tough to do. It's our first street race of the season so everyone's going to have a false sense of talent going into the first corner. We'll see what happens."

Today’s qualifications were the first to be held with the new IndyCar knockout rules, where the 26 cars were split into two groups that ran for 20 minutes each, with the top-six drivers in each session moving on to a 15-minute second session. Of those 12 cars, the fastest half-dozen in that outing moved into the Firestone Fast Six, where another 10-minute session determined the polesitter.

Hunter-Reay turned his best lap of the day in the second session when he navigated the 1.8-mile course in 62.686 seconds, but was unable to match that speed in the third outing, posting a top time of 63.007 (102.845 mph).

“You can’t make a single mistake in this type of qualifying format with this kind of talent on the track,” Hunter-Reay said. “If you lock a wheel for an instant, it costs you time and three guys are going to get around you. I do like the format though. It gives you a much better representation of which cars are good on the weekend.”

Tomorrow’s 100-lap event gets underway at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Fans can see all the action live on ESPN, or can follow via timing and scoring on the official website of the IndyCar Series - www.indycar.com

By Dave Lewandowski    IndyCar.com

The St. Petersburg street circuit holds fond memories for Ryan Hunter-Reay. It's where he made his Indy-car racing debut in 2003.

Hunter-Reay finished 16^th (DNF-contact) for American Spirit Team Johannson in the lone St. Pete race under CART sanctioning. The IndyCar Series started competing on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn course in 2005 under Indy Racing League sanctioning.

Hunter-Reay returns for the first time – with Rahal Letterman Racing. He joined the team at mid-season last year and is coming off a seventh-place finish in the season opener on the Homestead-Miami Speedway oval.

"We're coming off a solid opening weekend in Miami and I know the entire team has really been looking forward to St. Pete," said Hunter-Reay, a Boca Raton, Fla., native. "Although the Miami race was my true hometown race, St. Pete is close and I have a lot of fan support there. I grew up racing karts in the area and love the Gulf side of Florida; it's the perfect setting for a street race. The inaugural St. Petersburg race was my first race in Champ Cars and I haven't been back since. I've really missed it.

"We made significant progress in pace at the end of last season and we are all hoping our top five Belle Isle qualifying will be an indicator of our pace at St. Pete this weekend. From a mile-and-a-half oval one weekend to a challenging street circuit is why I love IndyCar racing."

Three other drivers competing this weekend in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg joined Hunter-Reay in the 2003 lineup:

● Bruno Junqueira started seventh and finished third driving for Newman/Haas Racing. He'll be competing for Dale Coyne Racing.
● Oriol Servia started ninth and finished 12th driving for Patrick Racing. He'll be competing for KV Racing Technology.
● Darren Manning started 11 and finished 13th (DNF-mechanical) driving for Walker Racing. He'll be competing for A.J. Foyt Racing.

"I'm excited about going to St. Pete," said Servia, who finished 12^th in his IndyCar Series debut at Homestead-Miami Speedway to lead the eight drivers who are transitioning to the IndyCar Series from Champ Car. "I think there's a little bit too high expectations for the transition guys just because it's our kind of track. At the end of the day, we're still fighting these big teams that know this car for five years. We're still quite a bit behind. The lap times we did at (an Open Test at) Sebring, what we learned in the car was very promising. At least we know in a street race, when we go soft at the front what it means to a car. Still we're here kind of guessing a lot."