Road Trip Stops In St. Petersburg For Day at Races
Bill Griffith catches the St. Petersburg Grand Prix, the opening event on this year’s Indy Car calendar.
We decided to visit St. Pete-Clearwater to check out the St. Petersburg Grand Prix—an Indy Car race over the city’s streets—and also to locate an unusual car museum that’s in the area.
Meanwhile, friends of my wife prepared a must-see list that could have been written by the Chamber of Commerce: View the Chihuly Collection by renowned glassblowing artist Dale Chihuly, hit the Sundial luxury shopping district, check out the restaurants along Beach Drive, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Sunken Gardens, and more than 35 miles of pristine beaches up through Clearwater.
In our travels, we learned that St. Pete no longer qualifies as “the land of the living dead’’ as Hall of Fame baseball writer Peter Gammons wrote for the Globe back in the 1970s, generating a fierce backlash from the city fathers.
“Well, we’re not God’s waiting room any more, either,’’ says Vibeke Sansone, director of sales and marketing for the Vinoy Renaissance Resort & Golf Club, which is adjacent to the city’s harbor, across the street from miles of waterfront parkland.
Sansone tells how the Vinoy, a grand hotel from the 1920s, was abandoned to termites and the homeless in the 1970s, then was restored to its past grandeur in the 1990s, coinciding with the city’s renaissance.
“It’s the same with the residents,’’ she says. “This is a much younger city now. The whole downtown area has come back to life, catering to the young and chic.’’
So what does all this have to do with an auto column? Glad you asked. We were on a road trip as part of test-driving a Lexus LX 570. That’s a big and capable machine. It was right at home stopping at the upscale Vinoy. However, sometimes the stops along the way take precedence over the vehicle. After all, that’s why we Americans hit the road.
Goal No. 1 remained to catch the St. Petersburg Grand Prix, the opening event on this year’s Indy Car calendar and an example of major civic cooperation.
But as much as I wanted to see some race action, I also was interested to see how the city accommodates a major auto event that uses public roadways, thinking of Boston’s quest for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Pretty well, it turns out.
“We’ve had years to get this down pat,’’ says Leroy Bridges of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater. “But the Olympics? It will take an amazing amount of organizing to conduct dozens of events on this scale at the same time. It’ll be interesting to see if Boston can do it.
“Over the years, the city has embraced this race with a lot of cooperation,’’ he says. “I imagine it’s much like the Boston Marathon in your area.’’
In fact, the auto race shuts down some of the city’s roads for a longer time than the Marathon, which closes the Hopkinton-to-Boston route for less than a full day.
The auto race requires much of the course to be lined with jersey barriers topped with solid chain-link fencing, temporary bridges over the track, large grandstands, and limited access points for the public. Overall, it’s takes two weeks to set up, conduct the event, and restore normalcy.
Access for fans is limited to two or three gates, and people only can cross the street…er, track…at predetermined times to get to the infield and grandstands.
Next, we headed for the auto museum.
The museum presents the private collection of the Cerf family, local engineers and entrepreneurs. The family collects cars from the 1920s and 1930s, each of which has been chosen based on the engineering achievements that made it an important part of the evolution of the automobile. Hate to say “To be Continued,’’ but we promise a discussion of the museum in a coming column.
Etc.
Audi of America honored 91 US dealerships with its “Magna Society’’ Awards. Among the 91, a dozen were deemed “Elite Magna Society,’’ including Chambers’ Audi of Burlington franchise … We were following a Pinellas County sheriff’s cruiser on Rte. 19 in Clearwater, Florida. Because only the foolhardy pass a police vehicle that’s doing the speed limit, we had time to read the message on the rear license plate frame: “Smile. Be happy I’m not following YOU.’’
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