ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – It took Scott Dixon only one weekend of racing to erase some of the sting of losing the 2007 IRL IndyCar Series championship a half-lap from the end of the season.

The New Zealander, who won the 2003 series title as a rookie, opened the new unified era of American open-wheel racing by winning both the pole and the race last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

That definitely made the memory of running out of fuel while leading the final lap at Chicagoland Speedway, and thereby losing the title to race winner Dario Franchitti by 13 points, a little less burdensome.

After his showing in Homestead, Dixon has repeatedly been asked if he is now the favorite to win the 2008 championship.

He has gotten pretty good at hedging his answer.

“Finishing second, with Dario leaving, you’d sort of think that I’m a contender,” Dixon said. “I think every year there’s a crop of five, six or seven of us that have a great shot at it. And I think you saw all of us racing at the top.

It did appear to be a case of the usual suspects running up front at Homestead, with Tony Kanaan in the lead when he crashed into a lapped car late in the race and Marco Andretti, Dan Wheldon and Helio Castroneves all on the lead lap at the finish.

But Dixon does have history on his side.

Drivers who have won the Homestead opener have gone on to win the series championship four times in eight years, including Dixon.

Add to that the fact that Dixon has consistency on his side, having finished first or second in 11 of 18 races since the start of last season. And, although he was only ninth fastest here on Friday, Dixon has finished second at St. Pete each of the past two years.

“It’s going to be a tough championship,” he said. “I think Homestead definitely helps. It puts you off to a great start. It’s a tough place to race; not a place I’ve done particularly well since it changed to the banked oval (in 2004). I loved it when it was a flat circuit or a flat track.

“For … 2008, that was exactly what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out of the blocks fast and hard. I don’t think we had a car that was enjoyable to drive throughout the race. But we had to fight on. That’s how we got to win championships.”

The competition will be tougher this season with the addition of nine teams from the rival Champ Car World Series, which was merged into the IRL last month. That was evident in practice Friday, with four transition drivers among the top 10.

Most of those drivers were overmatched at Homestead, where several of them drove their first race on an oval and all of them had to deal with cars that were new to them and with little testing.

But St. Petersburg is a different story, with all of the newcomers well-versed in turning both left and right.

Justin Wilson, a two-time Champ Car series runner-up in his first season with eight-time CART/Champ Car champion Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, led the morning practice and wound up fourth for the day.

That was somewhat surprising considering he has managed only 15 laps in a team test on the road course at Sebring earlier this week because of rain.

“I definitely feel more comfortable and more at home on this circuit, compared to last weekend, just because this is what we’ve been doing for the last couple of years,” Wilson said. “The oval was great fun. We’ve got work to do to try and get the car more a little more efficient and a little bit quicker. But that’s just a matter of time, whereas this is what we’re used to and some things have translated, so that is what’s helping us get up to speed quicker.”

Asked the biggest difference between the cars he drove in Champ Car and the IRL’s Dallaras, the Englishman said, “From a driver’s point of view the biggest difference is, obviously, not having the turbo. The Champ Car has a little bit more power, a little bit more downforce but, ultimately, the scaling is about the same. So it’s been quite easy to adapt to this car and get used to it.”

Helio Castroneves, winner of the last two races at St. Petersburg, led the way Friday with a fast lap of 1 minute, 3.307 seconds, an average of 102.359 mph. Close behind were Kanaan at 1:03.368 (102.260), rookie Hideki Mutoh at 1:03.449 (102.129), Wilson at 1:03.521 (102.014) and former Champ Car driver Will Power at 1:03.598 (101.890).

Other transition drivers in the top 10 were rookie Franck Perera in sixth and Oriol Servia 10th.

AP-ES-04-04-08 1749EDT