Wilson, Tagliani make St. Pete weekend strides - MotorSportsTalk

Series veterans Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani helped spur their teams forward after challenging practice and qualifying sessions to score top-10 finishes in IndyCar’s season opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The combination of Honda’s relative lack of pace, although the top 22 in practice were barely covered by more than one second, and setup issues meant Wilson (13th) and Tagliani (17th) were further down the grid than they may have liked.

A mix of good strategy and avoiding trouble helped move them up the order to ninth and 10th by the finish. Wilson could have ended higher in Dale Coyne’s No. 19 before EJ Viso made a late-race pass. Tagliani’s race was largely uneventful but a positive for his BHA/Barracuda Racing effort, which a year ago raced at St. Petersburg with Lotus engines and has had only one preseason test this year.

“We had a pretty good race,” said Wilson. “The Sonny’s Bar-B-Q Honda team called some good strategy and we managed to keep picking our way up there and making improvements. It was frustrating to lose a couple of spots right at the end – I seemed to get knocked around a little bit and be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s good to get a top 10, but we want to be up there challenging for the win, so we’ll focus on what we can do better next time and try to make a step forward at Barber.”

Wilson’s DCR teammate Ana Beatriz retired with mechanical issues after a frustrating weekend back for the first time since last year’s Indianapolis 500.

In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.

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