Another warning system source: indycar.com Thankfully, inclement weather isn't in the forecast for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Rain or shine, though, the sanctioning Indy Racing League has it covered. Now there are five systems to immediately warn IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series drivers about cautions on ovals and road/street courses. The sanctioning body has added high-intensity flashing LEDs to the rear of the cars (between the rear wing and attenuator), complementing yellow caution lights on racetracks, an in-car yellow light, yellow flag waved by the starter and audio from Race Control. The flashing lights also will be used on road/street courses when it's raining. "Safety at the IndyCar Series has always been important," Indy Racing League director of engineering Jeff Horton said. "It's not something that we talk a lot about, but it's something that's very important to us and we're by far on the leading edge of the amount of safety items we have on the race car. Adding this flashing light just increases it one level. It gives the drivers another indication that there's some issue on the racetrack and hopefully prevent problems." The system is identical on the IndyCar Series and Indy Pro Series cars. The aerodynamic housing is between the rear wing mounts. An antenna is mounted on the right sidepod of IndyCar Series cars and the roll hoop of Indy Pro Series cars. The system was used during the prime-time opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 24. "The Race Control transmitter, which talks to the radio, has complete control over the rain light so on an oval it will function as a caution light only," Horton said. "We have the ability to control the rain light and dash lights separately. Dash lights indicate the pits are open. So even though we're under a caution, when the dash light goes out it indicates the pits are open. To prevent the drivers from being annoyed during our night racing, we have the ability to separately control the rear rain light and the dash light. We can be under caution, leave the dash lights on and turn off the rear flashing lights so it doesn't bother the drivers behind because the light is very bright. "On a road course, should we come under a rain situation, Race Control has the ability to turn the light on solid, in which case under a full-course caution the rain light will flash during that caution. Once the caution has ended or Race Control turns off the flashing option, it will go back to solid."
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