Firestone Grand Prix rolls back into St. Pete this weekend

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which brings several thousand people to the area, returns this weekend.

The temporary circuit is a 1.8-mile, 14-turn configuration using the streets circling several streets throughout Downtown St. Pete.

Last year’s event had a scaled-back audience due to COVID-19, but ahead of this year’s race, tourism leaders say things are bouncing back in the Sunshine State.

"The most important number there is, is the domestic number of 118 million visitors to Florida. That is the highest number of domestic tourism we’ve ever seen in the history of our tracking," Dana Young with Visit Florida Tourism said.

Kyle Kirkwood is from Jupiter, Florida and will also make his IndyCar debut this weekend. He says it will be nice to have family and fan support in familiar territory.

"The race here in St. Petersburg brings a very diverse crowd of people and tons of people always come out to it. I know the city of St. Petersburg loves it. We love it. It creates a great economy for the city and for us as race teams and drivers," Kirkwood explained.

Kirkwood and other drivers were in town Wednesday for the annual Kart 4 Kids Pro-Am Charity Challenge benefiting Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital.

"This is an amazing thing because it brings amateurs and people who are donors together with the professional drivers and it helps them to get more into the motorsports community. That money that is raised today impacts children in October and into December and all year round for the work that we do at All Children’s Hospital." Dr. Patrick Mularoni of All Children’s Hospital said.

Last year’s event raised $300,000 for the hospital. In total, more than $1 million has been raised since the event began.

The city of St. Petersburg will hold a flag-raising ceremony on Thursday morning to mark the official start of race weekend.