Baltimore IndyCar/ALMS Weekend

[terrydale]

The Labour Day Weekend will be a busy one that includes the MCO Race at Calabogie Motorsport Park and, for those who want to travel a bit, the IndyCar/ALMS Street Race at Baltimore.

Right now there are 32 entries for the 2 hour ALMS Race on Saturday afternoon. The continuation of the metal to metal battle between the Corvettes, BMW and Ferrari Teams will continue between the hard concrete walls of the Baltimore streets!!

I get back to Ottawa around noon so hopefully I'll get to see some of the action at CMP as well!!!

[terrydale]

The GT Class in the ALMS Race is going to be the best IMO. Ferrari, Viper, Lotus, Corvette, Porsche and BMW all mixed in with 6 Prototypes, 5 GTC Porsches and a slew of LMPC cars all running within the walls of a street race circuit!! Hang on!!!

[terrydale]

Typically, a street course looks as if there is absolutely no possible way that it will be done in time for the following morning's first on-track session. And this one is no exception!!

As of 5 PM tonight, many of the streets are still in use by rush hour traffic waiting to be closed off, tire barriers to be set into place, fences still to be built, rail tracks to be paved over, and so on.

Honestly, the whole city feels like Toronto used to many years ago for the Indy with restaurants set up with sidewalk patios, people everywhere smiling and trying to outdo one another making all these visitors to their city feel welcome.

I am certain that tomorrow will see the first session take place close to, if not, right on time. The paddocks are full and it is going to be sunny and uber hot. Bring it on!!!

[terrydale]

Well, the track was actually ready to go at 7:30 AM this morning but there were issues securing it from public access so the first USF2000 car on track was at 8:25 AM. Still way better than last year's first car on at mid afternoon!!

Great track, a bit bumpy but interesting.

Star Mazda on course now, Indy car to follow and the first ALMS session scheduled for 10:55 AM

Quite a few familiar Canadian faces here working as well

[terrydale]

They took away the chicane on the long straight this year but found out this morning that the crossing over the train tracks created a very long amount of 'hang time' in the air for the IndyCars. In fact, the Chevrolet engineers pulled their cars off early as they were getting huge over-revs.

The ALMS cars handled the bump much better and ran most of their session but there has been a 3 hour delay while they tried grinding it. F2000 and Star Mazda have both been out and the concensus is that there will have to be a chicane put back into place for the rest of the afternoon and the balance of the weekend.

Its still sunny, hot, there are tons of boats on the Inner Harbour, the crabcakes are awesome. Still a great place to be!

The differences between a permanent facility like Calabogie and a temprary street circuit that is essentially brand new every time its used.

[terrydale]

Put the chicane back in, removed the FIA curbing and just painted where it was, tuned up a couple of other areas and the track is up and running!

Every Series has had a shot at it this morning and it is all working out very well.

Setting up for the 2 hour ALMS race this afternoon at 4:40 PM. Had a bit of rain this morning but should be good for the rest of the day. 40% POP for tomorrow's IndyCar race though.

[terrydale]

Well, we got the race in just before the storm hit! Not a pretty one but it was what it was!

Leaving on a 6:30 AM flight in the morning. Support Race tomorrow!!!