One of the exciting characteristics of the American Le Mans Series is the type of courses the races take place on. Of the nine scheduled races in the 2010 ALMS season, eight will be held on road courses and only one will be a street race. A road course is a purpose-built race track comprised of a series of bends and turns – left, right, U or otherwise, linked by straight-aways in a continuous circuit. Street races, similar to road courses, differentiate in that instead of taking place on a dedicated race track, they take place on daily driven streets that have been temporarily “roped off” to create a race track – think F1 Grand Prix of Monaco, F1 Telefόnica Grand Prix of Europe or the IRL Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg…all street races.
The eight road courses of the 2010 ALMS are at Sebring Raceway in Florida, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California, Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Road America in Wisconsin, Mosport International Raceway in Ontario and Road Atlanta in Georgia. The only street race on the 2010 schedule is the Long Beach Grand Prix in California. So…it seems the ALMS could really benefit from an additional street race in the mid-Atlantic region…enter Baltimore Racing Development (BRD).
Expert race course engineer Martyn Thake and BRD have created a world class street venue right through downtown Baltimore! The race would primarily utilize Pratt, Light, Conway and Russell streets. The 2.44 mile clockwise course has been designed with 12 strategic turns, technical chicanes, +180mph high speed straight-aways and impressive elevation changes. One of the most attractive and key elements of this course is its competitive nature. In other words, some courses though fast and furious, offer little to zero passing opportunity which means cars tend to finish in the order they began – not so exciting. A primary and successful goal in designing the Baltimore course was to keep the race competitive by providing plenty of passing opportunity areas for drivers. All of which will make for an aggressive though challenging street course that will appeal to both team and spectator.
American Le Mans Series, GT and Prototype race cars, +180mph, flying down Pratt?….yeah, count me in.
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Horf,
I’m a huge F1 supporter; just finished watching the Grand Prix in Catalunya infact, where Mark Weber won his first race of the season.
That might be a little tough.
To play host to ALMS and IRL will be tough. To try to throw F1 in the mix also would be near impossible, at least in the same weekend. I don’t think there would be enough time. Do you know if it’s ever been done before?
That would be incredible though and is certainly worth looking into.
If this all works out, BRD should try to get an F1 race as well. F1 management is looking for a US race. If the Baltimore circuit produces good racing why not get F1. This could make a 4 race “new world” part of the F1 season; Montreal, Baltimore, a race in Mexico (also new) and Brazil.
Brian,
To answer your question about a permanent track, well, the business model of BRD is not to design and build a permanent race track but rather a permanent Grand Prix. The non-permanent race track is just one part of the Grand Prix weekend! Now, I’m a race fan so I would be supportive of the building of a track in the area you mentioned just because it would be that much closer than the closest track to us now. However, that’s a completely different idea from the kind of excitement and thrills a once-a-year street race brings.
…but, …if you build it…they will come!
Has anyone ever investigated the feasibilty of building a great perminate track at any of the large tracks of industrial lands in south baltimore? I think the large track of land right of Boston street inside the beltway would work ( google it ). close to the CBD and yet not many residents to annoy, Close to an exit to 95 north and south. Not to mention if the track is perminate, you can host many events.
Thanks Dean. We feel like we are very close. Jay
Lauren: Jason’s blogs about the ALMS should not be taken to infer that BRD is losing interest in bringing the IRL to Baltimore. We would like to co-feature another strong series on Saturday of race weekend and the proximity of Baltimore to a significant number of car clubs makes the ALMS very attractive to us. Thanks for your interest. Jay
ALMS? Should we infer that interest is waning by the IRL now that ALMS is being mentioned or are we talking two separate events now? Also, many are praying that Labor Day weekend is not the weekend being proposed as that would cause a big conflict within our region of the SCCA which holds a Labor Day Double race every year also which, for us, is our biggest money maker of the year. Having a Grand Prix that same weekend would be a problem for the workforce of our race and yours as we share that same pool of race officials. I would really like to see racing come to Baltimore. I think it would be great….! Just not that weekend
I’ll be there. BG, Gulfport, FL.
In response to gravy….Wouldn’t you agree that it would be more convenient and easier for a larger number of spectators to attend the event being held in the city as opposed to having to drive a half hour or so out of the city?
Additionally, I don’t think the idea is to create a 24 hour endurance race through the city, though I agree, that would be cool. I think more practically, we’re hoping for a 2 to 3 hour race similar to most on the 2010 ALMS schedule.
And the bottom line is…street races are just COOL!
Why not hold the race somewhere rural-ish and have a proper Le Mans style endurance event? Even better make it a night race. There are likely several possible places 20-30 miles north of Baltimore this could be accomplished. This would be more of a challenge to plan and market but the magnitude and novelty of such an event would be worth it.
One problem is the course crosses the light rail tracks, I beleive twice. This was a huge problem in the failed San Jose race.
Jay – great to see this blog up an all the news. Looks like you are making great progress.
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