KEY POINTS:
St Petersburg, Florida is experiencing a Kiwi invasion this weekend for the second round of the IndyCar series. Not only will Scott Dixon be chasing his second win on his favoured circuit, a road course, he'll be joined by three other Kiwis; Marc Williams, Mitch Cunningham and his brother Wade.
Although Williams and the Cunninghams will not be racing in the main game, they'll be fighting it out in the feeder series, the Indy Lights. The 2003 World Karting champion and 2005 Lights champion Wade Cunningham will not actually be driving, as his role is to mentor and help his brother Mitch get a head start.
Williams will have just as much help, as he's now part of Dixon's Target Chip Ganassi Racing team.
"It's unreal, it's a dream deal," said Williams. "They're such a professional team and it's an honour to run with them ... It's looking to be a great deal and a great year and I can't wait to get started."
Like Dixon and Cunningham, 19-year-old Williams started in karts and made an early move to the Formula First category before racing in the Australian Formula 3 championship in 2005.
Williams ran a limited programme in the series last year with Michael Crawford Racing. He came to Ganassi's attention after an impressive test and achieving two top 10 finishes; one at Milwaukee and the other in Iowa.
Williams will be running in an Integra Motorsports Dallara as part of the Chip Ganassi Racing Team's driver development programme and the partnership includes TCGR technical support.
"The cars are powered by a 450 horsepower 3.5-litre V8," said Williams. "They're heavier, wider and bulkier than a Toyota Racing series car but a little bit smaller than an Indycar. There's not much difference in speed to the Indycar as we can get up to 300km/h around somewhere like Indianapolis."
On the weekend there will be a race within a race. Hometown pride will come into play, as Williams and Cunningham will be battling it out to see who will take honour of being the first Kiwi home.
"Mitch obviously has the support of his brother," said Williams. "But there'll be a bit of friendly rivalry there for sure. Scott's [Dixon] been a great help watching some of races last year and having a chat later. You could sort of say he's my teammate now."
Integra's team manager is Dave McMillan, who has previously worked with Marco Andretti and Jeff Simmons.
