I like Baltimore, I'm from there, I was born and raised there. Spent the better part of 40 some years living there. But this Baltimore Grand Prix thing is a travesty. Temporary street courses are full of compromise with solid walls at the edge of the track. One must, as Steve Machett will say to many times during Monaco coverage, be "inch-perfect". I tried to watch the ALMS "race" from Baltimore. What a joke. Before the green flag flew there was much carnage. So much so the "race" had to be red flagged. A two hour race that ran a total of 41 laps on a circuit that has a high avg lap time pf 1:30 for a mid pack car. That is barely an hour of racing for a 2 hour race. Besides not getting much racing in during that time period, lots of expensive machinery was torn to bits. Luckily no one was hurt. It's time for this "race" to be moved. The starting calamity [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72rFXyYmUYE]Baltimore Pile Up 2013 - ALMS - Tequila Patron - ESPN - Sports Cars - Racing - YouTube[/ame]
The travesty is that ALMS will schedule a stupid street course in Baltimore yet take Mid-Ohio off the schedule.
Ya I agree it's a dumb concept. I for one don't go to an auto race in search of carnage, nor do I go to a team sporting event to watch amateur boxing.... I'm satisfied with my money's worth to see them run balls out, only to be interrupted with the normal mishaps that come with good competition and not from the likes of a venue not designed for auto racing. Driver safety must remain the focus for all! Maybe an old fashioned F1 boycott is what's needed to turn the tables.
Looks like they brought in safety equipment from all over. @1:02 you can see a safety truck from VIR in southern Virginia.
Here's the entire race broadcast. If you haven't seen it, here's a warning. Nearly 16 minutes of pre-race, then a few seconds of almost racing (the ruined start) followed by about an hour and 5 min under red and an hour of mostly racing that begins with a false start and wave-off. There have been some good ALMS races at Baltimore but it seems like they've always been rather crashy. No surprise though given it's almost impossible to arrange a good circuit on city streets. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqEEf719eJI]2013 Baltimore Race Broadcast - ALMS - Tequila Patron - ESPN - Sports Cars - Racing - USCR - YouTube[/ame]
Looked like a demo derby to me. I find it hard to believe the organizers build a rally yump in the middle of the main straight in the name of safety. Just !@#** nuts I tell ya! Maybe they thought they were hosting a global rally X race. :crazy:
Yeah......how many times did they get so balled up in turn 1 that the race pretty much stopped all on it's own? The answer is "too many" Bourdais had a pretty good race tho, didn't he? at least till somebody clipped him in turn 1 and spun him around. And poor Marco Andretti, got the lead at last only to drop 5 places in the last couple of laps due to worn tires and a banged up front wing. Yeah, third year they've run there, I hope it's the last.....
I usually say any race is a good race, but the Baltimore streets are not suited to those types of cars. Maybe the Continental Tires series or World Challenge. The war between Ganassi & Penske is really heating up. opcorn: