After a winter of talking, US open-wheel racing is finally poised for action as the newly unified IndyCar Series takes to the track at Homestead-Miami Speedway, under lights, on Saturday night.

The race, while always a part of the 2008 IndyCar schedule, took on greater significance when Kevin Kalkhoven and Tony George sat down in the same circuit's press office on 27 February to announce - or rather confirm - that the IRL would absorb twelve-year rival Champ Car. With just one major open-wheel series, featuring the best teams and drivers from both sides, the category can now take the first steps on a long hard road to matching NASCAR's popularity, instead of taking lumps out of each other in a mutually-destructive war.

Before race fans get too excited, however, Homestead - and much the season - is expected to be a case of 'them and us' as the teams with several years' IndyCar experience should have the upper hand over those that have had to cram their pre-season preparation into three-and-a-bit weeks and two two-day test sessions laid on especially for the CCWS converts.

The season kicks off without the reigning champion and Indianapolis 500 winner, following Dario Franchitti's defection to NASCAR, and has also lost two-time champion Sam Hornish Jr the same way, but IndyCar retains a blend of veterans, young talent and, following the merger, unknowns as it embarks on a 20-race tour.

Even without Franchitti, however, Andretti Green Racing remains a formidable force, the series most successful team continuing with a four-car effort involving 2004 champion Tony Kanaan, media darling Danica Patrick, son-of-the-boss Marco Andretti and Indy Pro Series graduate Hideki Mutoh.

"There's only one goal in racing - it's to win," Kanaan comments, "We go through the pre-season and we're always asked the same questions, and we always give the same answers because we're here to win. We're here to win the championship, we're here to win Indianapolis, we're here to win as many races as we can...."

Patrick finished a career-best seventh overall last year and recorded a career-best race finish of second at Belle Isle, but the pressure remains to prove that she is as much race winner as pin-up - a task that may have been made tougher with the addition of the Champ Car refugees.

"This is the most excited I've been going into a season, and the most comfortable I've felt," she insists, "This year, I feel like excitement is sort of maybe number one to nervousness - where normally, every other year, I was more nervous than anything. I really feel like I'm becoming some sort of an old person in racing. This is my fourth year, so I'm going into this one instead of some of the others saying 'look, if I want a shot at winning championships, you've got to get out of the box fast'."

Andretti claims to be on a title mission this season, his third, while Mutoh has shown promise in testing but remains unproven at this level.