Baltimore Grand Prix

Excellent, excellent, excellent time!  From arriving at the downtown street course among the sweet tune of thousands of horsepower worth of Indy cars flying by, to the closing victory ceremonies, the Long Beach Grand Prix was everything fans had hoped for.  I immediately fell in love with the downtown seen of Long Beach.  Naturally the weather was sunny and mid-70′s, couldn’t have been nicer.  But the fan base was incredible too, and the city seemed to embrace the event with the utmost passion.  The Grand Prix was the talk of the town and we were right in the mix.

The venue was filled with purpose and entertainment from 8am to 6pm or later, everyday.  We saw a little pro-celebrity race action, some drifting demonstrations, Speed World Challenge, the Road to Indy, IRL and of course… the ALMS.  American Le Mans Series (ALMS) – Prototype and sports car endurance racing for those seeking the highest levels of innovation and performance offered by closed-wheel race cars today in this country.

So we all agree the technology and ingenuity in this series is second to none.  We’ve also agreed that entry numbers in this series have not been as strong as they have in the past, or are as strong as those in Grand-Am.  Finally, and most importantly I believe, we’ve agreed that good, strong competition and down-to-the-wire finishes are what we really love to see.  With that in mind, how awesome was this race!…in every class!!  First off, there were 36 entries, that’s not too bad and our support can help improve that number.  Second…come on, the LMP class victory was decided in the final lap, by only 0.353 seconds!  It was the fourth closest finish in ALMS history…and, even though the LMP1 and LMP2 classes were combined into the LMP class for this race, it was the LMP2 car that won!!!  That’s edge-of-your-seat racing if there ever was.

As thrilling as the LMP and LMPC class racing was, I think a lot of us were still really excited to catch the GT class.  Again, there may have only been 21 entries between GT and GTC but they were a strong 21; all well organized and supported teams.  While I appreciate quantity, the quality has to be there…and it is. 

Admittedly I’m a little disappointed Tommy Milner in the #92 M3 wasn’t able to hang on to the lead and fell back to 3^rd as the end drew near, but…he ran a great race, it was a thrill to watch and a hell of fight.  The #45 Flying Lizard was spectacular in 1^st and, as anticipated, Corvette racing was much improved with their #3 car finishing second (btw..the new Corvette power plants, sound, or rather feel, absolutely ridiculous as they scream by).  The Risi F430 was able to take 4^th followed by the #90 M3.  If you’re a fan of tight competition, you couldn’t have asked for much more this weekend.  Oh…and the Jag XKRS, after a minor throttle hic-up on the grid, was able to take the checkered flag just behind the Ford GT so kudos! to them…Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Keep up the good work!

Jason

www.baltimoreracingdevelopment.com

Check out all the photos of the weekend on facebook

The second race on the 2010 ALMS schedule is this weekend in Long Beach, Ca.  Our Friday morning arrival should afford us the opportunity to catch most of the practice sessions and certainly we’ll make our way to the pits for the 5pm ALMS qualifying session.  ‘Qualifying’ is the pre-race driver session that determines each team’s starting position on the grid.  The better/faster qualifying time, the closer to the front of the grid you’ll start the race.  Many teams believe qualifying is the key to success on the Long Beach street course and most street courses for that matter; reason being tight corners, limited room for passing, very little room for error! 

The temporary 1.97 mile street course is considered relatively smooth with both a slow bottleneck hairpin and fast strait-away; translation - super slow to super fast!  This is also one of those courses where ‘traffic’ can become a hindrance or aid….and believe witty drivers will use it to their advantage.   The fact that Long Beach is the shortest race of the season (100 minutes), with only a single pit stop anticipated, makes recovery from error extremely difficult.  Teams must be on their game before the race even begins.   I expect drivers will take full advantage of the morning practice session and manage their cars on edge in qualifying.

As of 4/8 the entry list contains 12 GT cars, 9 GTC cars, 7 LMP and 7 LMPC cars totaling 35 cars which is one of the largest fields for any event at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach!  I’ll be track-side, Saturday, 4:30pm west coast time when the green flag falls and my opinion hasn’t changed much; I’m expecting the E92 M3’s to do well, top three in class, with the track familiarity Joey Hand brings to the table.  I also think the Corvette’s will rebound nicely from Sebring and hope to see Jaguar put up a better, if not longer, fight.  We hope to see some of the best, most competitive driving of the season in this race! 

Would anyone like to make an arguement for another team?

Jason

www.baltimoreracingdevelopment.com

Twitter – BaltmoreGP

The second race in the 2010 American Le Mans Series will be at Long Beach, Ca.  This 2 mile street course flows right along the ocean’s edge between Ocean BLVD and Shoreline Drive.   Anticipated by many to be one of the premier venues of the 2010 schedule, Long Beach will be filled with a huge fan base, sunny ocean views and a spectacular track configuration! 

Only two weeks away, teams are preparing for the trek out west.  I mentioned before that I’m looking forward to seeing Corvette Racing make a much improved performance from Sebring.  We think they’ve got a great team, great new couple of cars and yet-to-be-proven power-plants.  This race, being only 1h 40m, might be just the ticket for them to get back on track.  However, you can’t discount ‘home court advantage.’  Familiarity with anything plays a big role in success.  In this situation, track affinity for the Sacramento, Ca native Joey Hand, might be the difference.  After taking 3^rd at Sebring (in GT2) in the number 90 Rahal/Letterman M3, this might be his best chance yet for a victory at Long Beach which has thus far eluded the young driver.  Without discounting the Risi Comp F430 or the Flying Lizard 911’s, I like BMW’s chances.  Let’s also hope to see a little more of the Jag XKRS at Long Beach.  It’s always tough making a debut and…well…there’s really only one direction to go from Sebring!      

On a separate note, we didn’t see him in St Pete’s but look forward to catching Patrick Dempsey of “Grey’s Anatomy” at Long Beach.  He’ll be driving a Tri-Point Motorsports prepared Mazda3 in the World Challenge race; one of the other series along with Indy that’ll be racing at the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix.  This may be the most star-studded venue of the season and certainly one of the most picturesque. 

ALMS on Saturday and IRL on Sunday April 16-18!  BRD will be attending the Long Beach GP as well [St Pete's], especially because of the distinct similarities the proposed Baltimore Grand Prix will have with it.  Next weekend though, we’ll catch a little more Grand-Am and IRL action at Barber Motorsports Park for the Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, 4/9 – 4/11.

http://www.barbermotorsports.com/

http://www.gplb.com/index.html

www.baltimoreracingdevelopment.com   

Jason