Baltimore Grand Prix

Bluegrass, Jimmy's Famous Seafood and Ryleigh's make a good showing at Baltimore Grand Prix. I had a good time at the Baltimore Grand Prix . I'll share the same observation about the environment within the race grounds that I would about a restaurant I was reviewing. People were having a good time. I think the crowd for this event  was highly self-selecting. That created a crowd almost entirely free of grousers and malcontents. I was very pleased to see Baltimore restaurants represented within the grounds.

Why is it that The Baltimore Sun is so negative about the Baltimore Grand Prix ("Worse and worse," May 9)? Why is it that The Sun's sports pages rarely include any articles about IndyCar races leading up to the Baltimore Grand Prix? Why would they want to snuff out an event that puts Baltimore in such a positive light? As quoted in The Sun as recently as May 10th, Baltimore is considered a "hell hole" by many outside of the city. So why is The Sun so negative about an event that puts beautiful views of Baltimore on TV for so many to see?

As long time fans of the CART racing series, which has evolved into the Indy Car Racing League, and as race attendees in Denver, Toronto, Mid-Ohio and Road America over the years, my husband and I were thrilled when the city of Baltimore announced its intention to host an Indy Grand Prix. For its inaugural effort, Baltimore did a fantastic job. Though some kinks need to be worked out (fan entrance and exit fluidity, additional race car passing zones), Baltimore was in some ways superior to other race venues we have been to. The grandstands were easily accessible.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dario Franchitti can't avoid talking about his race team's early season troubles and his hopes of getting his Chip Ganassi Dallara-Honda sorted out in time to win Sunday's Indianapolis 500. But Monday, while making the rounds with various media outlets, he was just as interested in chatting about the Baltimore Grand Prix, which has had its own troubles. It seems both the IndyCar driver and the race are coming from behind. "Is everything going well for Baltimore's race now?"

Among the tens of thousands of fans who came this weekend for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix were a large number of racing rookies. They were attracted for a variety of reasons — fast cars, a party atmosphere and the idea of supporting their hometown. For Tim Trochimowicz of Pasadena, it was the free tickets he won in a raffle outside the local Giant supermarket. "There was a band playing outside the Giant and people were putting their cards in for a raffle," Trochimowicz recalled.

Simona de Silvestro walked through the lobby of an Inner Harbor hotel Thursday looking comfortable in her white shirt and black jeans. "I feel like I'm back home," the IndyCar driver said. "It was one of the best races we had last year, and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the race track here. " De Silvestro was one of the first drivers to come here to promote last year's inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix. Thursday, one day after officials confirmed the race will return Labor Day weekend, she was back with her newly designed HVM Nuclear Clean Entergy race car with a new Lotus engine that has proven powerful in practice.

The extent of the financial liabilities of the Baltimore Grand Prix promoters is a continuing revelation, but let's face it: The race had "bad idea" written all over it from the beginning ("Papers say Grand Prix debts over $12 million," Dec. 8). Yes, the event generated some revenue for downtown hotels and restaurants, but has anyone calculated the cost to the environment? And what was the expense of tying up the downtown for months in advance and virtually shutting it down the first day of the race?

We're two days removed from the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix, and I haven't talked to one person who is looking forward to the big IndyCar race. Granted, I don't know every single person in Baltimore, but it seems the consensus is that this costly event is a logistical nightmare that is pretty much ruining everyone's lives. Is that a fair assessment? Everyone has been complaining about the gridlocked streets downtown . Traffic is so bad, it screwed up Buck Showalter's morning commute on Thursday (if Buck scowls when he's happy, imagine the face he made when he tried to turn onto Light Street)

When it was announced that yet another group would be taking on management of the Baltimore Grand Prix, one of the company's funders stepped into the spotlight. Columbia-based financier J.P. Grant III has stayed out of the public eye since the storm of a no-bid city schools contract blew over in 2000. But all the while, his company Grant Capital Management was accumulating city contracts. In 2003, the city granted his company a "master lease," an agreement that speeds up the contracting process, but also made it more difficult for The Sun to track.

In response to Randall Miller's letter about the Baltimore Grand Prix, I feel I must defend The Sun ("Why is the Sun determined to kill the Grand Prix?" May 15). Baltimore is also my hometown of 56 years. For the past three years I have been a Delaware resident, but I still can't completely break ties, so I buy The Sun every day. Of course Mr. Miller may feel good about sitting back and watching the race on television for free. Who could possibly be against that? Except maybe the taxpayers of Baltimore, who are footing the bill.

Despite financing more than $140 million city contracts in the past 12 years, donating tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and being a member of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's inner circle, J.P. Grant III has largely avoided the limelight. Then this week Grant, a West Baltimore native, stepped into the public glare as one of the latest saviors of the troubled Baltimore Grand Prix. City leaders, of course, already knew him. When he walked into a meeting of Baltimore's spending board this week, they greeted him warmly.

Tickets for the second Baltimore Grand Prix should be on sale by the end of the month, the latest group to organize the race announced Wednesday. Race On, a team led by two local investors that has partnered with racing champ Michael Andretti's sports marketing firm, also finalized sanctioning agreements with the IndyCar Series and American Le Mans Series for the Labor Day weekend festival, organizers said Wednesday. Investors J.P. Grant III, president of Grant Capital Management, and Greg O'Neill, vice president of BMW Construction, spoke of their plans for the race at a news conference at the city-owned Hilton Baltimore hotel, hours after the city's spending board approved the contract with Race On. "I'm honored to take on this important opportunity in the city we both love," Grant said.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakekeeps throwing this Baltimore Grand Prix event against the wall until it sticks ("New Grand Prix team announced," May 11). Like the long-defunct Baltimore Claws and the Baltimore Skipjacks, perhaps the race just not meant to become a Charm City sporting fixture. But don't let my anti-Grand Prix opinion (shared by many others) hinder your efforts. You just keep trying to pass that watermelon through the garden hose, Madame Mayor. Patrick R. Lynch, Nottingham

Racing champion Michael Andretti is working on a last-minute effort to organize the Baltimore Grand Prix, teaming with two local businessmen to put together the Labor Day street racing festival, the mayor's office announced Thursday. The new racing group, Race On LLC, will be headed by J.P. Grant , a Columbia-based financier with close ties to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and Curtis Bay concrete contractor Greg O'Neill. They will provide the financial muscle behind the group, which must speed through preparations in 31/2 months.

On June 25, 1992, The Baltimore Sun published its first letter to the editor from Patrick R. Lynch, who bemoaned the theft of his father's car from a Baltimore County park-and-ride lot. He called the incident "park and heist. " Since then, the Nottingham resident's letters and comments have appeared in The Sun more than 100 times. "Although I never pursued a career in the print media, I have always found writing to be an excellent release," says Lynch, The Sun 's most prolific letter writer of the past year.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blakesaid Wednesday that the city would not increase spending on the Baltimore Grand Prix to ensure the Labor Day weekend race comes to fruition. "I'm hopeful that with Indy's involvement that it will happen," Rawlings-Blake said of the three-day racing festival. City officials and Indycar executives have been trying for weeks to hash out a deal to continue the race.  Downforce Racing, the team city leaders picked to organize this year's race, is divided by internal strife and has not sold tickets or marketed the event.  City officials chose Downforce following the financial collapse of the group that put together the inaugural race last year.