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."