Comments on: Baltimore Preview

By: Savage Henry

Savage Henry — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 15:48:47 +0000

I was there for the day on Friday. I was encouraged by the crowd. There were a lot of people there for a Friday – I expect them to have a great crowd for the weekend.

The practice schedule was delayed and compressed. USF2000 was supposed to start at 8 AM but nobody got onto the track until around 1:30. Once the cars got onto the track there was a crash in every session (and 3 in the Indycar session). The track is fairly wide in the good passing zones – Turns 1, 3, and 4 but other parts seem to be really narrow.

The one thing that concerns me is that they put a chicane at the beginning of the main straight. It is the strangest thing and I think that it could kill any chances for passing into Turn 1 because any advantage that a trailing car could get through Turn 12 will be lost in the chicane. I guess they decided they needed something to slow the cars down on the main straight.

There are very few grandstands and nothing I could see with visibility to the pits. We tried to make our way back there but I finally gave up (the wife and kids were getting sick of me walking them into dead ends). I lot of people love to see the pit action so I think its a mistake not to have a grandstand there. However, I think that there are a lot of trees back there any perhaps nowhere to put a grandstand.

By: Mike silver

Mike silver — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:34:17 +0000

Thanks for not picking TK this week, but I wish you would have picked Power.

By: Brian McKay

Brian McKay — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:07:51 +0000

I think that it’ll be a wreck-fest. But if I were well-heeled, not a poor social worker & graduate student, I’d jet up there or drive from north Florida.

By: Brian McKay in Florida

Brian McKay in Florida — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:05:40 +0000

‘Twil be a festival of carbon fiber, and legions of fans will cry ‘why this’ and ‘why that.’
‘Why didn’t they foresee this,’ and ‘why didn’t they fix that,’ and ‘the drivers had complained about this,’ and …
it’ll be a crashfest and an embarrassment to a sport which’d like to attract new fans and earn money.

By: madtad1

madtad1 — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:53:54 +0000

Per my unofficial sources, VIP is completely sold out and Grandstand is better than 95% sold out. The location is awesome with mostly minor details affecting fan attendence.

1. Road closings are a pain, but they have a lot of shuttles and public transit options.

2. Insufficient entrences to the infield: only 5 bridges with many of them located a long walk from infield attractions. St Pete has much better access and makes a good example for Baltimore to emulate.

3. Inadequate signage directing people to attractions.

4. There appear to be no grandstands by the pits, at least on my track map. I will walk over later to see, but that would appear to be an oversight. On the other hand, people would not be able to see much else from there, so maybe that’s why.

On the good side, they have lots of people in vests to help orient people and give out info; and this is on Friday! From my short walk there has to be at least 20k people walking around. Also, the security, not only at the track but also for blocks around it, is excellent.

Is it true John Waters is the starter?

By: redcar

redcar — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:16:47 +0000

things are looking interesting. chris estrada says the track isn’t done and they’re already 4 hrs. behind. traffic jams, flying manhole covers, railroad tracks, different kinds of rubber, a buys and now compressed schedule, beer gardens and Labor Day weekend drinkers–this could be a whole new brand of “oh, the humanity.” I’m excited.

By: Tom G.

Tom G. — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:20:18 +0000

I’m gonna cross my fingers and hope for the best. A great race and 100,000 people packing the streets.

By: JohnMc

JohnMc — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:04:45 +0000

I hope that it is successful and that the good folks in Baltimore enjoy it immensly as do the viewers at home. As for my pick, I am still picking Ganassi to win and I have Dario in first and Scott Dixon finishing in the top 5.

By: redcar

redcar — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:44:06 +0000

So the Baltimorians are pissed off about traffic–like they need another reason to hate anything “Indy.”

Great locale though and I like the track, looks sorta racy (and sorta “wreck-y.”) If I was independently wealthy, I’d be on a plane to Baltimore for the weekend–something I never thought I’d say. Looking forward to this one, just got a feeling it’s going to be an interesting weekend. As opposed to last weekend which still makes me z-z-z-z-z