Track building starts for St. Pete Grand Prix | News

St. Petersburg, Florida -- Workers will start putting in place Friday the four miles of concrete barriers that outline the course for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

The barriers and fencing will start going up, and eventually roads near the Dali Museum will have limited access, but most of the work for the next month will not obstruct traffic.

March 17th -- a month from Friday -- is the day to remember. That's when most of the streets involved in the race will start being blocked off, including First Street South.

Click here for specific details on street closures and the track construction schedule.

The 2012 St. Pete Grand Prix weekend is March 23rd through 25th.

It's amazing how the storylines of this race all weave together.

This will be the first IndyCar race since the on-track death of Dan Wheldon, who lived right down the road from the site of the grand prix.

It will also be the debut race for a new style of IndyCar, designed to be safer, more competitive, and more fun to watch. 

Wheldon had been testing this new style of car -- helping to work out the kinks and improve its safety features -- just weeks before he died driving one of the older-model cars that the series used last season.

The new car is designed to be safer, but because of the way Wheldon was killed during the 2011 Las Vegas race, experts say he probably would not have survived the crash even if he had been driving the new car.

The maker of this new car style has named it in his honor; it's called the DW12 -- DW for Dan Wheldon.

Race organizers have not been specific about how they will honor Wheldon at this year's event.

But the race's director has told 10 News there are several ways planned to remember Dan Wheldon during the race weekend.

The race itself should be a lot of fun to watch. Drivers enjoy this waterfront track, and the new car is designed with better controls and a sharper competitive edge.