2011 IndyCar Rd.14--Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore

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2011 IndyCar Rd.14--Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore

Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:35 am

With four rounds remaining in the 2011 season, drivers & teams head to the Mid-Atlantic Region and Charm City for this weekend's inaugural running of the Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore.........


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Race 15 of 18

Race - Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix

Location - Streets of Baltimore, Maryland

Date - Sunday, September 4th

Time & TV Schedule - Pre-Race Show-Sunday, September 4th -2:00PM Eastern - Green Flag - 2:45PM Eastern - Versus

Course Type - 2.4 Mile Street Course

Distance - 75 Laps / 180 Miles

Practice Sessions -
Friday, September 2nd - 12:05PM -1:20PM Eastern & 4:10-5:10PM Eastern
Saturday, September 3rd -9:05AM -10:05AM Eastern
Sunday, September 4th -Warm Up Session - 8:35AM -9:05AM Eastern

Qualifications - Saturday, September 3rd - 12:10PM -1:20PM Eastern
Last edited by mlittle on Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:35 am

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TrackMap, Indy Grand Prix of Baltimore
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Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:35 am

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Friday Activities Delayed....Shades of San Jose 2005?

Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:40 am

Remember when ChampCar first raced in San Jose.....remember the railroad tracks that were on the pit-straight........guess what?



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UPDATE: As of 1 p.m. ET, cars had yet to take to the track.

---With the 12-turn, 2.4-mile Baltimore Grand Prix street circuit still under construction, the start of activities will be delayed at least four hours, according to INDYCAR VP of Competition Brian Barnhart. "I don't expect us to get started until 12 p.m. (ET)," he told SPEED.com while inspecting the track Friday morning.

Cement barriers and fencing were still being positioned as of 9 a.m. ET, while the temporary chicanes added to the front straight, poured on Thursday, have dried a received a coat of paint.

The controversial chicanes were added to slow cars just ahead of the railroad tracks that run across the front straight.

"If they'd poured concrete to fill the tracks," Barnhart continued, "we wouldn't need the chicanes."

Even with the open-wheels and sports cars slowed by the chicanes, most teams expect cars from all series to get airborne over the railroad tracks in a similar fashion to what teams experienced at the former San Jose and Las Vegas street circuits.

UPDATE: The second revised schedule for the day is as follows, and sees INDYCAR shift to a single, 90-minute session.

12:00-12:30 USF2000
12:35-1:05 Star Mazda 30 min
1:20-2:35 ALMS 75 min
2:50-3:35 Indy Lights 45 min
4:00-5:30 IndyCar 90 min
5:50-7:00 ALMS Qual 70 min
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Power Leads Delayed Baltimore Practice

Post by mlittle » Sat Sep 03, 2011 4:17 pm

---After a 5.5-hour delay, activities at the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix got under way on Friday, and when the 75-minute practice session was over road and street course specialist Will Power held the top time. Power's lap of 1:22.137 was just 0.0783 ahead of Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti.

“The Verizon car was pretty fast today and it was great to see so many fans here on the first day, even with the delayed schedule,” said Power. “They did a really good job creating the circuit. It takes a lot of commitment, and there are several technical bits. It’s bumpy, and I think it will be a great race. It is very tricky in certain places, but that is typical of a street course. I think if they didn’t have the chicane we would have more passing there, but overall I like the course. It is challenging with a lot of corners and the technical requirements.”

Helio Castroneves continued his impressive end-of-season march by running third with a lap of 1:22.284. Coming off of a Team Penske 1-2-3, Castroneves was encouraged by the pace shown by the Myron Bouslog-led operation on Friday. "This is a really good starting point for us in the Shell V-Power Pennzoil Ultra car,” said Castroneves. “I like the layout of the circuit. It's very cool and very challenging. Some of the surface is so smooth and other parts are pretty rough, but every street course has its challenges, especially the first year. We certainly have a few things to work on with the 3 car, but we're going in a good direction."

Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay held the fast lap for most of the time, but Power and Franchitti jumped ahead just prior to the checkered flag waving. "It was a tough practice session to get a rhythm on because it was interrupted so much by yellows," he said. "But we're fourth right now and I think we have a pretty good starting point for the DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop car. Hopefully tomorrow we'll make the usual steps that we do on street courses and keep moving forward."

Hunter-Reay's Andretti teammate Mike Conway followed in fifth, with Ganassi's Graham Rahal in sixth, KV Racing's Takuma Sato in seventh, Newman/Haas Racing' James Hinchcliffe in eighth, KV's Tony Kanaan in ninth and Dale Coyne Racing's Sebastien Bourdais in 10th.

Conway, who has one street course win this year, was encouraged by his car's handling on the bumpy track. "The track is pretty cool," he said. "It's very tight and twisty and you have to be careful through some sectors. It's hard to get the car dialed in but all in all the Buffalo Wild Wings car has been pretty good today. We'll keep working on the car and dial it in for qualifying tomorrow."

As the top rookie on Friday, Hinchcliffe explained how he cracked the top 10 and what he and the team have planned for Saturday. “This is a fun, challenging little track," he said. "It definitely feels a lot tighter in a 650 horsepower car than it did on a bicycle so you really appreciate just how tight and tricky some of these sectors are. At the end of the day, they have done a good job with the track. The front is really bumpy but the rest of the track is quote smooth and pretty nice. It’s a good layout with some technical parts. It’s really tricky and difficult to get one full lap together will all your best sectors so qualifying is going to be a serious test. The car ran well and the setup, off the transporter, is pretty good so we’ll keep tweaking at it a little bit, look at some video and data and I’m sure I will improve a bit and the car will improve a bit too. We will just take it one session at a time.”

Two contenders crashed during the session, with Ganassi's Scott Dixon clouting the Turn 4 wall after turning just three laps, and Penske's Ryan Briscoe, who made it 11 laps before making contact at the fast Turn 5 complex.

After his session-endingcrash, Dixon shared his thoughts of the track. "The track is very cool," he said. "A bit bumpy in places and the chicane is pretty tight. Turn one will be good under braking so there will be some good opportunities for passing maybe in turns two and three. Unfortunately I locked up under braking and got into the wall early in the session. Not the way we wanted to start but the Target team will bounce back."

Like Dixon, Briscoe rued the lost track time. "It's a shame because we were really feeling good in the Guidepoint Systems car before we hit the wall," he said. "I was a little worried about that corner (turn 5) and maybe I jinxed myself because I said something the lap before. It's kind of a dangerous corner - very fast - and I got in a little hot and the right front wheels clipped the tire barrier and that was it; we hit the wall. We were really fast out there and it's a fun track. It's busy out there but a lot of fun. It's going to be an interesting race, for sure."

Despite the extensive delay, Baltimore race fans filled the 12-turn, 2.4-mile circuit on Friday. With overwhelming support from the crowd, four open-wheel series and the American Le Mans Series entertained the ticket buyers until almost 7 p.m.

With 90,000 pre-sold tickets, and even with a slight stumble to start the proceedings, the Baltimore Grand Prix appears to be off and running.
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Power On Point In Charm City.......

Post by mlittle » Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:03 am

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---BALTIMORE -- Graham Rahal was the provisional pole sitter for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the Firestone Fast Six. That was too much time left in the qualifying session for Will Power.

Power, who was 0.0081 of a second behind in second at the time, recorded the quickest lap of 1 minute, 20.2447 seconds on his fifth and final lap of the 10-minute session to earn his seventh PEAK Performance Pole Award of the season and 23rd of his Indy car career (tying Johnny Rutherford on the all-time list).

"The final run was absolutely everything I had in me and it was exhausting," said Power, who is 25 points behind championship front-runner Dario Franchitti entering the 75-lap race. "I think that securing the pole position is an advantage here because you don’t have to worry about trying to pass, and since it is a street circuit there can be a lot of yellows. We are going to try to lead as many laps as we can and gain the points we need for the championship. We have to keep chipping away at it."

Still, Rahal will make his highest start of the season in the No. 38 Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing car and highest since Milwaukee in June 2009. "I had a good run going and my team told me where Will Power was on the tracker and they thought he would jump ahead of us," said Rahal, who had a best lap of 1:20.3238. "I let the tires cool off and tried to take a lap to get it back where we wanted it. I went into the chicane and came out and it wasn’t that pretty. I lost some time there, but overall it was a good performance for the Service Central team. The competition in this series right now is so tough. You know someone out there is going to close the gap."

Ryan Briscoe and Franchitti will share Row 2, while Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay will be on the third row. It was Bourdais' and Dale Coyne Racing's first visit to the Firestone Fast Six this season. "I was getting pretty close to being the fastest car there, (but) we just don’t have the consistency and the knowledge to make it all the time, session after session," said Bourdais, who has four consecutive top-10 finishes on road/street courses including sixth place in three. "We have a pretty sweet little team together. I’m just really happy we got to be here this season … it’s kind of all coming together and better late than never."

The top six were separated by 0.7648 of a second on the 2-mile, 12-turn course.

Helio Castroneves and Mike Conway will be on Row 4, with E.J. Viso (second consecutive ninth place) and Scott Dixon occupying the fifth row.
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Baltimore Rewind.....

Post by mlittle » Fri Sep 09, 2011 5:30 pm

(from SU 4 Sept. 2011)


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Speed Channel: Baltimore 2011 Rewind

--Speed's Marshall Pruett offers up an excellent rewind of the Baltimore Grand Prix..........
(1)Best Lap of 2011: A Look At Will Power's Pole-Winning Lap From Saturday Qualifying
(2)The B-Team Beats The Regulars......A Look At Ganassi-Snake Racing's performance over Target/Ganassi Racing's performance
(3)A Well-Behaved Street Race?
(4)Championship Preview & Thoughts From Bawlmer
(5)A Look At The IndyCar Engine Situation For 2012
(6)Motegi Preview
(7)Random Thoughts
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