Track activity delayed as Baltimore track continues to get worked on
One is starting to get the sense that we could get a lot more than we bargained for with this weekend’s Baltimore Grand Prix.
As pictures emerged yesterday of crews still creating the chicane near the MTA train tracks — which were also being paved yesterday as well — you couldn’t help but wonder what kind of race we’re going to have on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, Versus).
Then you realized that it’s not just the IZOD IndyCar Series stars that will have to contend with this, but also the American Le Mans Series, Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda and U.S. F2000 as well.
As Friday dawns, one of those Firestone Indy Lights competitors is worried. After going out to see the track, Anders Krohn had this to tweet earlier this morning:
“Just did a track recon with @stef_wilson and uhm… It’s nowhere near ready! Could turn out to be an interesting day!”
Yeah, that’s what we needed to hear…This, too, from E-Formula Car News’ Twitter account:
“Activities at Baltimore Grand Prix delayed upwards of 4 hours as track work continues.”
Anyway, today is expected to be a practice day for all series involved in this weekend’s events, with the ALMS also holding qualifying for their race on Saturday. Now, it appears that everybody may be going into the new course without as much track time as they’d prefer.
That said, we’ve had a street race in the not-too-distant past start out as a complete mess and turn out OK — the inaugural event at Sao Paulo, Brazil back in 2010. With that in mind, we can’t call the Baltimore Grand Prix a joke just yet. This cannot be considered a good start, though.
UPDATE: Newman-Haas racer James Hinchcliffe’s been kind enough to post the newly revised schedule for today at Baltimore. Keep in mind that all times are ET.
UPDATE No. 2: It took another 90 minutes, but we’re now getting word at 1:30 p.m. ET that cars are on the track. IndyCar will be on for practice later tonight.
