Baltimore Grand Prix from 2011?

[jondownunder]

Couldn't find any discussion of it here, but just stumbled upon a story about a proposed street race in Baltimore from 2011:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...0,348301.story

Track layout:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...503899.graphic

[Jacques Rabbit]

It doesn't look like a horrible course, at least it isn't all right angle corners like we've seen on many street layouts. Not to **** on the parade, but, some of those figures appear to be a bit...well...off. 110,000 on raceday at St. Pete? Highly doubt it. $100,000,000? Equally doubtful. It would be nice to see the sport expand to new areas, and if the new car is more Champ Car-esque, as I would hope it will be, adding more right turns is something I don't mind (don't get me wrong, I like the driver's ovals, too, just not a big speedway guy).

Interesting to note they're also looking at another race by a sports stadium/field/complex for the future, a race around Gillette Stadium in Foxboro(optional ugh at the end of that), Massachusetts. That would be for 2012. Being in New England I do like the rumors of that and a return to Loudon, though racing in a parking lot doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Gillette has hosted some lower-level club racing stuff before.

[NAC]

Looks tight

[Tim Northcutt]

On other boards, people who live in Baltimore are saying that the roads that they have marked here for the proposed course are currently very rough even in a passenger car or an SUV, and a couple have suggested this could be the IRL's version of the San Jose race with all kinds of pavement, hairpins, Railroad tracks, etc. kinds of issues...

Knock it off with the street parades and run on a real road course instead....

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Interesting to note they're also looking at another race by a sports stadium/field/complex for the future, a race around Gillette Stadium in Foxboro(optional ugh at the end of that), Massachusetts. That would be for 2012. Being in New England I do like the rumors of that and a return to Loudon, though racing in a parking lot doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Gillette has hosted some lower-level club racing stuff before.

Isn't Foxboro pretty much in the middle of nowhere though? In that case it would just be like a permenant track but in a car park. However, a race in Boston is a logical idea.

One or two of those hairpins don't just look San Jose tight, they look Beijing tight. What is the turning circle one of the current Dallaras?

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

Isn't Foxboro pretty much in the middle of nowhere though? In that case it would just be like a permenant track but in a car park. However, a race in Boston is a logical idea.

Yeah, Foxboro is in the middle of nowhere, but with the new-ish Patriots Place that has been put in, there is a lot of stuff to do/lots of lodging, and you can get there by train from Boston with ease. I think attendance will be an issue, though, train isn't cheap and if there's a race at NHMS in Loudon, NH, most of the New England market will go there (oval racing is fairly popular here, I'm the lone fan of right turns here). And even the Loudon races weren't big draws when CART raced there in the early 90s.

I do agree, that you'd have a better chance in Boston, but since the city is just paved cow paths, it might be hard to find a place to race.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Tim Northcutt

On other boards, people who live in Baltimore are saying that the roads that they have marked here for the proposed course are currently very rough even in a passenger car or an SUV, and a couple have suggested this could be the IRL's version of the San Jose race with all kinds of pavement, hairpins, Railroad tracks, etc. kinds of issues...

Knock it off with the street parades and run on a real road course instead....

Yes kind of surprised to see those streets as the course. I know them well enough as I did an event there using the M&T stadium and that long Camden Yards building along the baseball field. Quite honestly a lot of the streets are crap and towards the M&T stadium it is a very rough neighborhood with crackheads and junkies everywhere. We had to hire 24hr security including during the event.

Interesting proposal but you'd need to do a lot of work on the infrastructure.

[theracegypsy]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Yes kind of surprised to see those streets as the course. I know them well enough as I did an event there using the M&T stadium and that long Camden Yards building along the baseball field. Quite honestly a lot of the streets are crap and towards the M&T stadium it is a very rough neighborhood with crackheads and junkies everywhere. We had to hire 24hr security including during the event.

Interesting proposal but you'd need to do a lot of work on the infrastructure.

Sounds like the last Champ car at Las Vegas then?

[/QUOTE]One or two of those hairpins don't just look San Jose tight, they look Beijing tight. What is the turning circle one of the current Dallaras? [/QUOTE]

Well they can't get round the runoff back door at turn 3 Toronto, so more than a three lane carrigeway for sure.

[EERO]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Yeah, Foxboro is in the middle of nowhere, but with the new-ish Patriots Place that has been put in, there is a lot of stuff to do/lots of lodging, and you can get there by train from Boston with ease. I think attendance will be an issue, though, train isn't cheap and if there's a race at NHMS in Loudon, NH, most of the New England market will go there (oval racing is fairly popular here, I'm the lone fan of right turns here). And even the Loudon races weren't big draws when CART raced there in the early 90s.

I do agree, that you'd have a better chance in Boston, but since the city is just paved cow paths, it might be hard to find a place to race.

Boston would also never go for it for NIMBY reasons and there would be no place to stage a race. execpt perhaps in the seaport district-a barren right angles wasteland.

Foxboro is in fact , NOT in the middle of nowhere, but about 25 miles south of Boston and 25 miles north of Providence. That is two Metropolitan Areas each with an Airport, nearby Amtrak Connections at Providence and Rte 128, lots of hotels and easy access to the Stadium area off Rtes. 95, The major east coast interstate, and 1 the old Post Road. As a locale for a race, it makes perfect sense; at 4 hours from New York, it is at the limit of a day trip putting the track within a day trip of about 1/4 of the total US population and easy reach of the rest.

I agree that a parking lot course is a dreadful idea, but let's denigrate the plan for it's real lack of merit and not false reasons.

[drdisque]

I give this race a 0% chance of ever happening.

There's no way they can come up with a proper sanction fee and the funding to build the course.

[Purist]

Tim, I think we both know there are NOT any "real road courses", aside from Watkins Glen, in the region that we'd care to see Indy Cars on.

Lime Rock, especially in the configuration they'd run it in, would be horrendous, and NONE of the other road courses north of Virginia or east of Ohio are up to standard.

And although Pocono has a decent course for a roval, I doubt a lot of you would go for that. Besides which, the FIA might want a chicane on the Long Pond straight if they used the long course (uses Oval Turns 2 and 1), which would rather defeat the purpose of the exercise (and then there's the safety issue of running oval turns in the "wrong" direction). As for running Pocono as an oval race, the head sheds at Indy might not be so keen on another 2.5-mile oval on the calendar.

[duke_toaster]

Pocono would pretty much need carpet bombing and redoing, as far as safety concerns go, it's supposedly extremely bumpy. Would the Dallaras take it? Doubt it.

[Purist]

Pocono has had a recent repave of the oval and so the surface is fine. And the bikes don't appear too bothered by the pavement on the infield sections either.