Well, it looks like the group behind the Baltimore Grand Prix concept, Baltimore Racing Development, has launched a website.  While it’s no secret that I’m for the idea since the one race within six hours of the DC metroplex was dropped, some interesting tidbits can be found on the site.

First, the track design was drawn up by Martyn Thake, a former upper-level CART guy who also served on the CART Safety Team from 1986-1995 (presumably under Dr. Olvey).  His company, Motorsports Consultants, has a pretty entrenched history in the American Open Wheel Racing scene.  Of those still around, they were deeply involved in St. Pete and Edmonton.

Also, it’s been well publicized that Lil’ Al is the star power behind the effort.  What I haven’t seen publicized is the company behind the promotional aspects of the race:  MJ Promotions.  That’s Mike Lanigan’s MJ Promotions.  Lanigan is widely known as the third (no offense to him) owner of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.  In addition to that, though, he’s also the team owner with a substantial race promotion effort who does not have a race on the schedule.  Penske had Detroit before he canned it because of the current economic crisis.  Kevin Kalkhoven has Long Beach.  Andretti-Green has Toronto and St. Pete. Therefore, with five people vying for a spot in 2011, Lanigan has a vested interest in three of them (Cleveland, Houston, and Baltimore).

So we’ll see where it goes from here, but it’s an hour up the road.  They supposedly have over a half-a-mil in the bank in their efforts.  That’s a pretty good start.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 7:12 pm and is filed under ICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.