The Baltimore City Inner Harbor was filled with excitement and support last Wednesday! Scott Atherton (CEO of the ALMS), Mayor Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore Racing Development finally made the long awaited announcement that the American Le Mans Series will be participating in the Baltimore Grand Prix!! http://americanlemans.com/primary1.php?cat=news|15233
Mr. Atherton made it clear that he’s very excited about bringing his series to Baltimore for many reasons. Street races, for one, just make for a venue full of spectator thrills to which a road course just can’t compete. As a fan you’ll have an opportunity to see a world class race from just about every perspective. Mr. Atherton also pointed out the great success ALMS and IndyCar have experienced when working together, “this is an example of 1 + 1 equaling 3.” His point was that, comparable to the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix, when ALMS and Indy race at the same venue, they see a better turn out of fans than either series would see on its own. The reasoning is simple; more people show up if they know they’re going to see at least two feature events as opposed to one. And he’s right! This is one of the primary reasons the Long Beach Grand Prix is going on its 37th season.
I was also fortunate enough to be able to spend most of the day with Johnny O’Connell; GM/Corvette factory driver, ALMS superstar and 4 time 24 Hours of Le Mans Champion! It’s pretty ridiculous to imagine winning the 24 Hours once, but to do it 4 times….it doesn’t happen! He was awesome, very cool guy, real down to Earth. I gave him a tour of our in-progress street course. He said it looked great. I don’t know that he would have told me it looked boring even if he thought it did, but nonetheless, he sounded very optimistic about the whole thing. “As long as you can get the surface smooth, this will make for a great course.” He also noted, there’s, wide, safe passing areas, some high speed turns, fast straights and even a little elevation change. Not to mention the incredible downtown views! So everyone knows I’m a BMW fan but…I may have to cheer for Johnny at Petit Le Mans as well! You can definitely see more of the afternoon and the press conference video footage on our website.
So not too far from now will be the highlight of the 2010 American Le Mans Series; the Petit Le Mans! October 2nd at Road Atlanta will be the final race of the 2010 American Le Mans Series! The field will be packed with close to 50 cars including the diesel powered Audi and Peugeot LMP1 cars! In the GT class Team and Manufacturers Championships, first place is by no means wrapped up. Porsche has a hair of lead over BMW and Ferrari with Corvette Racing not far behind. They might as well all be tied at this point also considering that whoever wins at Petit Le Mans automatically gets the invite to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2011! Look for teams to pull out all the stops!
Jason
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Congratulations, Baltimore! I hope the best for your race. Now, as I wrote in April, I believe that you should try to attract the SCCA World Challenge and the IMSA GT3 Challenge, but not any Mazda-powered championships (Star Mazda, USF2000 and Prototype Lites), which currently visit New Jersey. Greetings from Uruguay!
I’m proud to say I was there for this incredible announcement, and also, proud to be a Baltimorean! This will put our city on the global map. I’m sure that all of BRD is proud too. Next Labor Day weekend will be a historic one. I’m sure the tickets will sell out quickly.