Baltimore Indy Car Grand Prix

[Brian Minkin]

The Platz

There will be a Porscheplatz tent (40'X40') and Porsche-only parking corral. This Porsche owner opportunity provides experiences not possible with normal road race attendance. Activities for the registered Porscheplatz participant include personalized Meet & Greet with Porsche race drivers and race team personalities and special presentations by factory VIPs. In addition, supervised Parade Laps of the track will be available to registered Porsches. Registration for Parade laps will be at the hospitality tent for credentialed Porscheplatz participants only. Other special features include a Long Distance Aw ard, raffle drawings for a hot pit pass escorted tour, special Porsche related prizes, refreshments, and the opportunity to watch all the track action on a large screen closed circuit television.

The Porscheplatz is sponsored by Porsche AG and Porsche Cars North America with the cooperation of the International Motorsports Association (IMSA) and the American Le Mans Series. The Porscheplatz is managed by Porsche Club of America volunteers, but all Porsche owners are welcome.

Below is the info for making Corral and ticket purchases:

The pricing is discounted as a package
There are only 200 Corral parking spots
The Corral and PorschePlatz is open to all Porsche owners
Access to the Platz is with PCA membership card,
or insurance or registration card for your Porsche
Suggest you reserve early

Use promo code: PPLATZ (caps only)

Use this link: http://www17.ticketingcentral.com/V2/Off...84907DB524

This link will direct you to purchasing tickets to the PorschePlatz at the BGP, with four car corral options.

Fri/Sat with corral parking space - $150
Fri/Sat without corral parking space - $110
Fri/Sat/Sun with corral parking space - $250
Fri/Sat/Sun without corral parking space - $200
The above prices do not include BGP processing fees, ranging from 7-12% of ticket package.


All above ticket packages include General Admission, Paddock Pass, and Unreserved Seating in Grandstand 20 at Turn 10.

[JoeP]

If anyone wants to get the juices flowing, here are a few pictures from the MidOhio race, three weeks ago:

   http://s1128.photobucket.com/albums/m489/Nexteps/

It is tough to beat the mix of cars at an ALMS/IndyCar weekend.

[Mark Fox]

8:15 pm thurs evening. Just got the report from my friend with Dyson. He calls it a cluster. Would be expected for the first year. Grid lock in the streets. Nothing is moving. Cops pissed do to the mess. Limited lite rail service. No where to park. Just put three chicanes in late today. He's guessing they last less than the first practice session. Looking for mouth guards for the drivers as the course drives over the train tracks, which are 2" above the road. If going be prepared. Alternative is live stream from espn3.com:

[Mark Fox]

Hard to find a better back drop than the Inner Harbour. Just gorgeous. Hopefully the venue will continue to be scheduled in the future. Word is as street circuts go, it's fairly smooth. The brake zones 1-4 are very bumpy, but the cars should be dialed in by race time. The lay out of the track flows very well compared to most street courses. However some of the turn in points are one line only. I am expecting some considerable carnage at these points at race time. Mr. Long is getting testy as he ages and his out dated RSR struggle to be competitive. LOL watching him give a love tap to Milner in the vette for balking his flyer, then 500 yards down the track finds Mello driving at 25% speed on line and Long really tags him, causing Melo's Ferrari to be towed in.
Hope all in attendance are having a great time.

[Jimbeau]

Just wanted to say for anyone who didn't go, this was a fantastic event and well worth the trip, not to mention the hard work Tom Z, Brian, Terry and others put into making the Porsche Platz/Corral a success.

Thanks to Brian and Tom the Porsches were the first out on Saturday morning's "parade laps" and all I could say was "wow!".  What a challenging course!!! 

There were some obvious growing pains for the BGP event planners but all in all for their first time I thought it was pretty well done.

On Saturday, the wrong Porsche won, but the Falken guys deserved it as they have been getting steadily better throughout the year and the Lizards just can't seem to get a break.  The Corvettes fought from the back and gave the crowd some excitement as "Mags" moved from the back to 4th in 22 laps.  Oh and there were a few LMP cars out there to but who cares since the Muscle Milk car is an Aston and not a Spyder. 

Indy was a new experience for me, but more of a "NASCAR" type crowd, not that there's anything wrong with that.  Danica was very tentative with the city/road course and finished much better than she deserved.   Will Power was amazing as he consistently pulled 30 second gaps on whoever was in second place.  The nature of this track really neutralized the HP and really emphasized driver skills making his dominance even more impressive.

Anyway, I'll be going back again next year and thanks Tom Z for pulling the Platz/Corral together and to Brian and Terry Minkin for doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

Jim

[michael lang]

From an experience stand point I it was an absolute awesome time. I was really amazed at the access the fans had to get up close in the paddock areas. I think Baltimore did a really nice job of trying to offer enough entertainment for just about everyone that went. From a race standpoint, I thought visibilty to the track and to the cars racing were poor at best. I thought the fences were too far back from the track and the walls were too high to be able to see any action during practice or the race. My seats were descent, I was a couple of rows up at T1 so I got to see alot of downshifting and attempted passing but after awhile I got tired of that and wanted to see different areas of the track. I probably would go again next year just for the experience and watch the race on the internet.

 

[Jimbeau]

michael lang wrote:

From an experience stand point I it was an absolute awesome time. I was really amazed at the access the fans had to get up close in the paddock areas. I think Baltimore did a really nice job of trying to offer enough entertainment for just about everyone that went. From a race standpoint, I thought visibilty to the track and to the cars racing were poor at best. I thought the fences were too far back from the track and the walls were too high to be able to see any action during practice or the race. My seats were descent, I was a couple of rows up at T1 so I got to see alot of downshifting and attempted passing but after awhile I got tired of that and wanted to see different areas of the track. I probably would go again next year just for the experience and watch the race on the internet.

I completely agree with the visibility issues but not sure what they could have done about it. We were able to find grandstands with a big screen so we could see more, but I recorded both races to watch after. Still a great experience.

[Mark Fox]

It was a street course, so visibility is not going to be a premium.  You need to do the LRP race next year if you want to see these guys really earn their pay check.  The Lmp1 cars lap cars every other lap and it allows you to get  extremely close to the track as a spectator.  LOL moment this year was talking with Christiano Dematta with blood shot eyes, tell us he doesn't know the track with 60 minutes to go before the start.  We thought he was kidding, but he was dead serious and with the speeds and congestion was seriously concerned.  Frank spent the nest 15 minutes going turn by turn with.  Very Funny.  Mechanical issues put them out early.

 The problem with the ALMS telecast on line is the idiot announcers John Haughtug and Jeramy Shaw.  If you have grown to expect the quality of the Speed crew and F1 telecast, you will turn the sound off while viewing the ALMS telecast on line.  John never shuts up, never ever.  His comments add nothing to the telecast, description of what is occuring is remarkably wrong 99% of the time.  It's like cable access from someones basement with the beer flowing. Think Wayne's World and you get the idea. I racing doesn't qualify you as a color analyst.