Grand Prix to promote neighborhoods for big weekend

BALTIMORE - The roar of the cars.

The roar of the crowd could be heard all over the city.

But the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix failed to help create the sound of clinking cash.

It left debts and a lot of businesses had their Labor Day weekend crash at high speed.

This time around the folks who are running the big race say they're paying all their bills.

Early ticket sales are good and individual event tickets went on sale today.

In fact they expect to start working on the track about now.

They're also working on making the race more inclusive to the rest of the city and not just the west side of downtown.

"People are going to have the opportunity to come and go through our ticket styles most major league sports don't allow you to leave the venue in our case we are we're stopping restaurant and entertainment at about 7pm so people can have the opportunity go out and have dinner." Baltimore Grand Prix General Manager Tim Mayer says.

The problem with last year's race was that once you got away from Light Street things came to a halt.

Nobody was going east.

You had venues in Little Italy, Harbor East and Federal Hill; that were left with extra staff but no one hanging out.

So how do you get 100 thousand people, most who don't know your city to start heading out.

“Our motto is Baltimore is Open for business. ”    

J.P. Grant is one of two local promoters who were brought on board to work with the different neighborhoods to open things up more.

Physically the race will have a smaller footprint taking up less of downtown and making it easier for folks to walk around and out of the race area.

They're also negotiating with different venues to spread the joy and entertainment.

They want parties and entertainment all over the city.

“We've been meeting with the business on Pratt street that were impacted with the logistics last year they were impressed with our logistics plan we've been meeting with the restaurants in little Italy we plan to have an event prior to the race where one of our dignitaries comes in for an evening of meals in Little Italy. ” Grant Says. 

The Grand Prix also has three big new sponsors this year; Sunoco, Giant Foods and

There's still time to buy tickets.

You can get tickets for the individual days or get a three day pass.