Indy Street Racing Coming to Baltimore
High-speed Indy-style street racing is coming to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore (map) next August. The 3-day Baltimore Grand Prix event will include an Indy Racing League-sanctioned 140 lap race in open-wheeled race cars reaching speeds of up to 185 mph, and will take place along Pratt Street, near the National Aquarium (map) and close to Camden Yards (map), home of the Baltimore Orioles.
Additionally, the race weekend may include other car races, go-kart competitions, live music, family events and a car show.
The IndyCar Series cars are open-wheel, open-cockpit, single-seat racers that are also raced at IRL’s premiere annual race, the Indy 500 every Memorial Day weekend. A few of the better known IndyCar drivers include Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Graham Rahal and Dario Franchitti.
The cars use Honda 3.5-liter V-8 Honda engine costing $950,000 to lease per season, complete with traveling Honda techs. the car’s power plants are capable of reaching track 
speeds of 220 mph by producing 650+ horsepower, more than twice some of the hottest sports cars available for street driving.
The Baltimore Grand Prix is hoping to bring more than 100,00 visitors to the Inner Harbor area with the race weekend. The city has just over a year to make road improvements to get the 2.4-mile street circuit in shape for racing. The race is contracted to run for 5 years, each summer.
While tickets prices are not yet set, one-day passes are expected to range from $25 to $50; rather low compared with other Indy Car races. Both grandstand (best for race watching) and ground tickets (best for getting close to the cars and drivers) will go on sale later this year.
The Baltimore/DC region hasn’t seen street racing (at least a legal form of it) since 2002 when the National Grand Prix was held on the grounds and streets around Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (map) in Washington DC. The inaugural race was also the last race, due to complaints from area residents about excessive noise and low fan turnout and revenues. The 2002 National Grand Prix was the first major auto race to occur in the District in over 80 years.
Images – Flickr – Indy Miller Lite car, Danica Patrick
