IndyCar Series makes pit stop in Baltimore Wedging a top-tier open-wheel motor race right in the middle of a major metropolitan area isn’t easy. But the hope is that the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix will be as attractive a spectacle as it was difficult to stage — and that it’ll only get easier in years to come.
“We know that any big move like this can be controversial and that’s why we’re driven to have a great event,” said IndyCar president Terry Angstadt. “We love being able to take our product right into an urban environment and have people sample it.”
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But IndyCar and local race organizers are just as nervous as the city of Baltimore with how its first-ever weekend of racing will unfold. It would suit incumbent Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, with a primary on Sept. 13, if her city shows signs of becoming the next Long Beach, Calif., where street-circuit races have taken place since 1975.
1 The IndyCar Series is the top-tier open-wheel racing series in the United States. The premier event on its schedule is the Indianapolis 500, but its races are split among oval tracks and road courses, the latter which can be permanent (Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala.) or temporary (Long Beach, Calif.; St. Petersburg, Fla.).
– Craig Stouffer
| Baltimore Grand Prix |
| When » Sunday, 2:45 p.m. |
| TV » Versus |
| Track » 2.1 miles, 12 turns |
| things to know |
| Five to watch |
| Dario Franchitti |
| No. 10, Target Chip Ganassi Racing |
| The 38-year-old Scottish driver of Italian descent has won the last two season titles, three of the last four and is once again the points leader with four races remaining. He’s also married to Ashley Judd. |
| Will Power |
| No. 12, Verizon Team Penske |
| Power, a 30-year-old from Australia, is second behind Franchitti in points but has five victories to Franchitti’s four this season. Four of those wins are on street or road courses, including last weekend at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. |
| Danica Patrick |
| No. 7, Andretti Autosport |
| She’s IndyCar’s biggest name, but street circuits aren’t her best stage. The 29-year-old’s best finish on a road course is seventh, and her best starting position is 17th. |
| Marco Andretti |
| No. 26, Andretti Autosport |
| The grandson of famed Mario Andretti and son of 1991 IndyCar champion Michael Andretti, 24-year-old Marco won at Iowa Speedway earlier this season for his first victory in 79 races since 2006. |
| Ana Beatriz |
| No. 24, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing |
| The 26-year-old Brazilian, in her first full IndyCar season, is the second-highest female in the standings (22nd overall) behind Patrick (12th). Her best finish was 11th at Toronto, a street circuit. |
“When you put it right downtown, I have a better appreciation today for what kind of move that was, and that’s a big deal. That’s not lost on us,” Angstadt said.
There’s a five-year contract with Baltimore, a crucial mid-Atlantic market where IndyCar hasn’t been since its last race at the Richmond International Speedway in 2009.
On the outside, chaos reigned in the days leading up to the race. Traffic was snarled, temporary grandstands reduced sidewalks to narrow tunnels, trees were removed and city-coordinated construction was everywhere, even pushing back the event’s first practice sessions Friday morning.
But it was impossible to tell in the paddocks deep inside the Baltimore Convention Center, where racing team 18-wheelers were spread throughout the exhibition hall and high-performance speed machines sat in all stages of repair under the watchful eyes of tool-wielding mechanics, who also had bikes and branded scooters to get themselves back and forth to the pits.
“It’s awesome because we have plenty of room,” said appropriately named Robbie Fast, spotter for driver Scott Dixon. “Everybody we’ve met here has been wonderful. It’s just that every new town that we go to, at the start of something like this, it’s going to have its growing pains.”
Once the racing is underway, the lack of a title sponsor and the promises of $70 million in direct economic impact should be drowned out by Danica Patrick hitting 150 miles per hour in front a backdrop of the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards. If nothing else, it will be hard to ignore.
“When it’s in the middle of the city like this, with all the tall buildings,” Fast said, “it really tends to lock in the sound.”
