Baltimore Racing Development and the IZOD IndyCar Series will hold a press conference and luncheon Wednesday to announce final plans for the Baltimore Grand Prix to be run around the Inner Harbor in August 2011.
Gov. Martin O'Malley, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Jay Davidson, president of Baltimore Racing Development, and IndyCar officials will be on hand to make the announcement.
IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard announced in May that the Baltimore race will be on the schedule next year. The race would be the series' only event in the Mid-Atlantic region, since the league left Richmond, Va., last summer.
The Indianapolis 500, the biggest race of the IndyCar series, was held Sunday with Dario Franchitti winning his second Indy 500. The race was marred by a spectacular crash on Lap 199. Ryan Hunter-Reay's car, already low on fuel, started sputtering and Mike Conway, going about 220 mph through the short chute between turns three and four, couldn't avoid running into the back of Hunter-Reay. The contact sent Conway airborne and into the catch fence, splitting the car into two large pieces though the driver's seat remained intact.
Conway will miss at least three months with back and leg injuries. The 26-year-old Englishman had surgery for multiple fractures in his lower left leg and has been diagnosed with a compression fracture in his back.
The race in Baltimore will be known as the Baltimore Grand Prix. Two other U.S. cities, Long Beach and St. Petersburg, Fla., are home to Indy races on streets.
