Baltimore Grand Prix

IndyCar fans, here's some news that you may not want to hear. Due to scheduling conflicts, the Grand Prix of Baltimore is canceled for 2014 and 2015, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. While the future of the racing event has previously been jeopardized by financial disputes between the city and race organizers, this time finances were not the problem. In fact, totals for sponsorship dollars and the number of attendees both increased for the 2013 race, which was held over Labor Day weekend.

Good news, race fans: the Baltimore Grand Prix may be returning this year, after all.

Racing fans who enjoyed the spectacle of open-wheel single-seaters racing around Baltimore's Inner Harbor and past Camden Yards where the Orioles and the Ravens play may be disheartened to read of the latest developments. But take heart: it ain't over, they say, until the fat lady sings, and in this case she appears only to have taken a brief intermission.

Maybe racing would stand on its own merits in an ideal utopia, but in the real world it has to make a business case for itself. So while the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix may have been a success in the purest sense of the term – bringing IndyCar, ALMS and several other series to the city's harbor front – financial woes could relegate it to history even faster than it came about... or the race cars that made it the spectacle it was.

The very first Baltimore Grand Prix wrapped up this weekend with Will Power taking the top of the podium, but some of the most intense action of the event happened before the green flag ever dropped. During practice laps Sunday morning, Tony Kanaan lost all brakes in his car on the 180 mph front straight and wound up careening into and over Helio Castroneves before turn one. While we can imagine that being airborne in a race car is a terrifying experience, being run over by one can't be a walk i

The IZOD IndyCar series has released a computer-generated simulation of a quick lap around the Baltimore Grand Prix circuit. With a long back straight, drivers should be able to ratchet their machines up to a blistering 180 miles per hour before shedding all that speed for an abrupt right. With zero banking and all of the unpleasantries that come along with racing across uneven, bumpy public streets, the course should offer plenty of challenges for teams and their drivers. Turn three offers a 18

The American Le Mans Series calls itself "the global leader in green racing," and it's got over five years of working with the DOE, EPA and SAE to earn that title. Currently, there are eight manufacturers racing with the ALMS, all trying to "improve the breed" by increasing efficiency in a harsh environment before the technology hits the production line, as ALMS president and CEO Scott Atherton said at the DC Auto Show. The yellow Corvette pictured above, for example, was a test-bed for green te

The Indy Racing League is coming to Baltimore, and not just for the crab cakes and football. The Maryland city announced that it will be an official stop on the IRL schedule next year with a 2.4-mile loop that will snake through the heart of downtown and the inner harbor. The announcement means that around $7.8 million in state and federal funds will be used to repave the majority of the streets on the course. One road will also need to be widened in order to meet IRL regulations.

Racing fans looking for that Monaco or Long Beach-style harbor-front open-wheel racing experience on the East Coast of the United States will be pleased to learn that plans are under way to bring an IndyCar street race to Baltimore's picturesque Inner Harbor. The plan, still being assessed by local officials, would involve a four-day event at the end of the summer (book-ending the season started by the Indy 500) for at least five years starting in 2011.