Baltimore Grand Prix

[rounder]

FYI. Racing through the streets of downtown Baltimore at 150+.

In case anyone is interested and can make it, the Baltimore Grand Prix is this weekend. The streets are blocked off and the cars are fast. General admission tickets are about $40 and grandstand seats are about $150. I bought general admission.

On Saturday, the Indy car qualifying runs are at 12:00. There is also a Porsche GT3 race that afternoon. Later is the 4 hour American Le Mans Series race that afternoon.

The Indy car race is on Sunday. The races all score points toward the championship series.

I have gone for the past two years and the racing and sounds are insane.

[avalonracing]

Yup I've gone too. Take earplugs!
The course is on the streets that we drive everyday.
What's tough is that the barricades and grandstands are up and last night I was driving through town on the course and using every bit of self-control I had to not go into Indy Car mode in my 4Runner.

[rounder]

Going there is heavily recommended if you can make it,

Do not try riding the course on your bike while the race is going on. You will be squashed.

[oliver1850]

Several underdog winners this season, I'm hoping for more. Rahal is quick, but evidently stepped on his **** in qualifying. I'd like to see him, Wilson, or Newgarden win tomorrow.

[Bruce K]

BIG crash at the start of the ALMS yesterday.

Someone did something really dumb mid-pack.

Hopefully the Indy Car race is cleaner.

BK

[avalonracing]

Took an urban assault ride to the GP course this morning and there were already cars on the track. I mentioned ear protection in an earlier post. Holy Moly! I would like to reiterate that recommendation.

[rounder]

I went to the race yesterday. We walked around the paddock for the ALMS cars. Most of them had left for the pits, but we talked to a guy on the Falken tire Porsche team (the pretty green/blue car that you see in car ads). I asked him if they were going to win today (they had won their class for the past two years). He said ...yea, probably.

Anyway, the race started and there was a crash in the first 14 seconds, with the Falken car taken out. It took 45 mins to get things sorted out and restart the race. After that, the race ran without many problems. The cars and noise were incredible. My favorite part was watching them wind out down Pratt Street followed by breaking at the hairpin.

Watched the Indy car race today on NBC. The cars were fast but kept getting tangled up to the point that the race was tedious until 9 laps to go. Then they were racing with bumps and passes to the end. A Frenchman won it but do not know his name.

There was an initial 5-year contract for the race and this was year 3. Each year there were question marks whether the next race was run. I hope that it goes on for awhile. There is nothing else like it around here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsFvTzEAGmk

[grawk]

It's such a terrible course. I think they should have hired a wharf rat to work on the u-turn.

[avalonracing]

Cool clip of car almost flipping at 1:20 and some cool in car shots at 2:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8W8J1IiMik

[mistermo]

I'm originally from Indy and been an IndyCar fan nearly my whole life. I am stupified by their placement of that terrible chicane on that straight. Also, the course seems particularly tight and it was no surprise that there were so many pileups at the hairpin. I was a bit frustrated by the race as it developed, then totally pissed at it when they kept clogging up at the hairpin and tossing out the yellow. I'd just about written the race off when the last seven of nine laps were some of the best racing I'd ever seen. Once the attrition had taken it's toll, those guys started rockin' and drove spectacularly. It's a strange course for sure, but for those last sevenish laps, it was an excellent race to watch.

...just my thoughts

[wallymann]

I am stupified by their placement of that terrible chicane on that straight.

safety. there is a RR track crossing a little after the new chicane. before the chicane, they were getting airborne, and anyone that follows the sport knows that a sports prototype with aero bodywork does bad things when air gets *under* the bodywork at high speed. they were trying to avoid this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA

lemans now has several chicanes on the legendary mulsanne straight for the very same reason.

[avalonracing]

safety. there is a RR track crossing a little after the new chicane. before the chicane, they were getting airborne, and anyone that follows the sport knows that a sports prototype with aero bodywork does bad things when air gets *under* the bodywork at high speed. they were trying to avoid this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA

lemans now has several chicanes on the legendary mulsanne straight for the very same reason.

Still the wildest looking crash ever.

[oliver1850]

I was thinking of a Can Am moonshot attempt at Road Atlanta. Porsche 917 as I recall.

[Bruce K]

I witnessed first hand a back flip of a Can-Am car at Line Rock Park that tore the Driver's helmet off as the car slid along upside down.

Miraculously, the guy walked away after the car was lifted up enough for him to crawl out.

BK

[oliver1850]

Last time I was at Lime Rock, Milt Minter was driving Herb Adams's sidewinder CanAm car. Great concept: driver in one side pod, engine in the other, room for huge venturi down the middle:

http://www.racingsportscars.com/type/archive/Adams/Escort%20Can-Am.html

I talked to Milt about the car. He said it was basically good, just needed development - which it never got.

This kind of thing is what I miss about modern racing in all forms. The CanAm was always dominated by big teams (McLaren, Penske, Haas), but the home builts and one-offs made it so much fun. Occasionally one of them (Cicale's Ralt, the Frisbee) broke through and won.

[Bruce K]

Cicale was one of those backyard geniuses for sure

He applied his training intuitavely to auto racing at a time when a lot of the breakthrough design work was gut feeling and "It ought to work" ideas. I believe he finally ended up doing Indy Car engineering.

Jim Hall was another one with innovations that turned into cool cars. Cartoll Shelby was another.

In cycling, I guess Steve Hed would be one of those guys.

BK

[soulspinner]

More carnage than Ive seen in some time . That was a chicane?

[mike p]

I don't follow Indy car racing but I am a big F1 fan. At 2:05--2:40 there is an in cockpit shot where you can see the driver shifting what looks like a manual shifter on the right side of the cockpit. F1 had paddle shifters on the steering wheel back in the late 80's early 90's. Do Indy cars still have manual shifting or am I missing something?

Mike

QUOTE=avalonracing;1411601]Cool clip of car almost flipping at 1:20 and some cool in car shots at 2:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8W8J1IiMik[/QUOTE]

[firerescuefin]

I don't follow Indy car racing but I am a big F1 fan. At 2:05--2:40 there is an in cockpit shot where you can see the driver shifting what looks like a manual shifter on the right side of the cockpit. F1 had paddle shifters on the steering wheel back in the late 80's early 90's. Do Indy cars still have manual shifting or am I missing something?

Mike

QUOTE=avalonracing;1411601]Cool clip of car almost flipping at 1:20 and some cool in car shots at 2:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8W8J1IiMik[/QUOTE]

Those are Indy Lights (Feeder Series)

[mistermo]

safety. there is a RR track crossing a little after the new chicane. before the chicane, they were getting airborne, and anyone that follows the sport knows that a sports prototype with aero bodywork does bad things when air gets *under* the bodywork at high speed. they were trying to avoid this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3rxq7U1mA

lemans now has several chicanes on the legendary mulsanne straight for the very same reason.

Yes, I understand chicanes are placed along straights to slow things and ostensibly for safety reasons. But surely you'll agree with me that it was far too tight to be navigated properly and had the end result of lofting cars into the air. There's good chicanes and bad ones. This one seemed poorly designed. Indy cars crossing train tracks?

Remember F1's chicane fiasco of the '05 USGP where 14 cars (of 20) boycotted because they wouldn't install a chicane?

[mike p]

Ahhh, thank you.

Mike



Those are Indy Lights (Feeder Series)[/QUOTE]

[firerescuefin]

Remember F1's chicane fiasco of the '05 USGP where 14 cars (of 20) boycotted because they wouldn't install a chicane?

That was a tire deal...Michelin advised all of its teams it could not provide a safe tire given the setup (of the course) and temperatures. The only teams that took part were on Bridgestones. I wasn't there, but went for practice and qualifying and had some very angry friends that were there on Sunday.

[Bruce K]

For a street course Baltimore provides some good racing in most spots. The front straight with the (necessary) chicane is very Mickey Mouse and needs some redesign.

Turn 1 is horrific and provides most of the incidents/bottlenecks and needs to be totally re-thought.

I actually like the hairpin.

Back in the late 70's/early 80's, when I was racing, I used to love doing the trip up to Trois Rivieres, Quebec with my sprite to run the street course as it was one of the only ones around.

Well designed street courses are fun. Baltimore is close.

BK

[wallymann]

yeah, agree completely...the whole baltimore course is a major compromise...
most of the course is too narrow and rough to be navigated properly, chicane or not!

Yes, I understand chicanes are placed along straights to slow things and ostensibly for safety reasons. But surely you'll agree with me that it was far too tight to be navigated properly and had the end result of lofting cars into the air. There's good chicanes and bad ones. This one seemed poorly designed. Indy cars crossing train tracks?

Remember F1's chicane fiasco of the '05 USGP where 14 cars (of 20) boycotted because they wouldn't install a chicane?