Any plans for Labor Day Weekend next year? If you’re in Boston, those plans could include an IndyCar event on its streets.
The Grand Prix of Boston will be held on an 11-turn 2.25-mile temporary street circuit around the Boston Convention Center, Boston.com reports. The agreement made between city officials and IndyCar to hold the competition is set to last until 2020, with the first event to take place September 5 and 6 of 2016.
The course is designed to be “minimally invasive” to its surroundings, with construction to take place between 18 and 21 days in overnight shifts from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Safety features include four-foot concrete barriers and 10-foot fencing with a four-foot overhang.
Price of admission and sale dates are yet to be announced, and while cost estimates are too early to determine according to city spokeswoman Kate Norton, the event will be privately funded.
[Source: Trenten Kelley/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0]
Cool. You wouldn’t even have to block Boston’s normal traffic through the streets, they wouldn’t notice an Indycar race going on.
That’s true! Montoya with a Boston cabbie 6 inches away from his rear spoiler. The concrete barriers are there from the constant construction, so they wouldn’t have to go far. I’m familiar with the roads they are proposing. Unless it’s going to be an off-road event, they’ll need some new pavement.
They better bring some extra suspension parts for Boston roads
Yup! And a GPS attached to the Indy car so the drivers don’t get lost in that maize.
Actually GPS units get really confused in Boston. Every time I head near the city, or Cambridge my Garmin starts acting up and becomes unreliable. Lots of times it wants me to head the wrong way down a one way street. I know the area alright enough that I can spot issues before I make a wrong turn.
Perhaps IndyCar rules can be updated to require turn signals, so my fellow Bostonians will learn by example, if only for left turns.
Well, with all those “no right turn on red” signs, Bostonians may need instruction turning in both directions. What the race won’t change is Boston drivers’ practice of “3 inches of clearance is plenty”, but that’s from the side view mirrors, not the door handles. Those remote side mirrors are expensive to replace.
For pit stops they can just stop in the middle of the track with their hazard lights on.
And for yellow flags, three thick-set office workers will slowly walk out into the middle of the road and just glare at drivers, daring them to pass.
I can see banners now
The Edward M. Kennedy Safe Driving Foundation Presents The Masshole 250
Sounds like a great support event for The 24 Hours of Lemons Boston Tow Party 2016!!!
I spent a pleasant few days in Boston a couple of years ago. Boston is a very nice city.
It would be a great idea to have a sporting event like IndyCar event.
I’ve only been to one IndyCar Race in 2006 and that was a street circuit on the Gold Coast, Qld. A very good day.
We also provided supporting entertainment at the start of the race.
How clever, the “insert city here” jokes. I’m from Boston and I’m polish so I’m used to that sort of thing.
This is going to be so cool. Although I would have liked to see the Tip O’Neill tunnel in the course, that would rock, would be like gran turismo.
Storrow would be good too – tunnels, better turns, and grade changes. The only problem is that the overpasses would clip off the spoilers and half the field would end up lost somewhere in Cambridge.