Jay Davidson

Send Gene Sweeney Jr. your questions about the Baltimore Grand Prix, and he will relay them to Jay Davidson, the event's president, in an upcoming episode of The Checkered Flag. Email Sweeney at gene.sweeney@baltsun.com.

The University of Maryland will close its downtown campus for three days because of the Baltimore Grand Prix auto race, and medical staffers are drawing up plans to care for patients as nearby streets are transformed into a high-speed raceway over the Labor Day weekend. Patients are being asked to postpone elective surgeries, some clinics will be closed and classes will be canceled for the Grand Prix — whose open-wheeled cars will race at speeds approaching 190 mph. Some medical staffers will stay at nearby hotels so they won't be caught in traffic snarls on their way to the hospital, officials said.

Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will be the honorary grand marshal for the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix on Sept. 4, race organizers announced late Tuesday night. Powell will give the command to "start your engines" to the field of IndyCar drivers at the start of the 80-lap event. He also will be given the opportunity to take a 180-mph tour of the 2.0-mile temporary street circuit in downtown Baltimore from the passenger seat of an IndyCar two-seater. "The opportunity to be grand marshal for the inaugural Grand Prix is an honor, as it will showcase the city of Baltimore and the beautiful Inner Harbor to a worldwide audience, and I'm very happy to be a part of that," he said.

The organizers of the Baltimore Grand Prix received an unprecedented $500,000 loan from the state's economic development agency late last month, just as the group was required to make a $500,000 bond payment to the state's stadium authority. Jay Davidson, president of Baltimore Racing Development, called the timing of the loan and the bond payment a "coincidence. " He said his group could have made the bond payment without help from the Maryland Economic Development Corp. "We have millions of dollars in ticket revenue right now," Davidson said.

The only time Simona de Silvestro gave her parents any peace when she was a child was when they turned on a Formula 1 auto race. Even then, it seems, she loved the sound of the racing engine. De Silvestro smiles at the memory from long ago. "My mom and dad said it was the only time I was quiet," she said. "And when I was about 4, my dad, who worked for a dealership that imported Porsche and Audi, had a go-kart demonstration at his dealership. I wanted to drive one so bad, but my feet wouldn't reach the pedals.

Organizers of the Baltimore Grand Prix say that they are no longer focused on landing a title sponsor for the three-day racing festival and would be content with a number of smaller backers. "We have a bucket we need to fill, and it doesn't matter how we fill that bucket," Jay Davidson, president of Baltimore Racing Development, said Friday. Race organizers had said last summer that they were looking for a title sponsor to pledge $1 million to $2 million. Davidson said the group has declined "low-ball offers" but remains in talks with businesses about the possibility of a title sponsorship.

Baltimore Racing Development sold more than $600,000 in tickets Wednesday for the Baltimore Grand Prix , the high-speed race that is slated to run through the streets surrounding the Inner Harbor next Labor Day weekend. Six thousand presale tickets, some priced at nearly $900 each, were sold in two hours, said Jay Davidson, the race's executive director. Baltimore Racing Development has raised more than $1.5 million from backers, the organization said in a report filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The organizers of the Baltimore Grand Prix race failed to make an $800,000 bond payment this month for a $1.9 million project to convert Camden Yards parking lots into a pit lane for race cars because, in part, of the group's limited cash flow. The Maryland Stadium Authority has agreed to a new payment plan under which the racing group will pay $150,000 next week, with an additional $750,000 coming in two installments before the end of the year. Mike Frenz, the authority's executive director, said the racing group asked for more time because it has "a variety of cash-flow needs.

Heart-pounding turns, surprising twists and edge-of-your-seat drama draw fans to the brand of high-speed automobile racing that will transform the streets of Baltimore in less than a year. But as the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix looms closer, it appears the lead-up to the event could be just as much of a nail-biter. With the three-day racing festival just 10 months away, organizers have yet to land a title sponsor to help shoulder the cost of promotion. A set of light rail tracks is posing an apparently unprecedented challenge for engineers.

City officials and organizers have moved Baltimore's inaugural Grand Prix to the long Labor Day weekend next year, which they say will draw larger crowds and cause fewer hassles than the August date for which the event was originally planned. "We really want people to be able to come to this for the full three days, and not just for the Sunday race," said Baltimore Racing Development president Jay Davidson, who announced the date change Monday. "This makes it marketable as an entire weekend in Baltimore City.