By Liam Griffin (The Washington Times)
Traffic on the National Mall will look a little different this weekend.
Honking horns, road-raging commuters and distracted out-of-town minivans will be replaced by 25 of the world’s best IndyCar drivers for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix.
The 147-lap race will feature cars hitting speeds of 170 mph around a scenic circuit that crisscrosses from 3rd Street in front of the U.S. Capitol to Pennsylvania Avenue, down 9th Street and 7th Street before crossing onto Independence Avenue to complete the loop.
Drivers such as Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou and Kyle Kirkwood will be separated by as little as 2 inches as they jockey for position in front of 125,000 expected spectators.
“If we did that during the regular day, I think people would be put in jail, perhaps for the rest of their lives,” President Trump recently said of the speeds while promoting the event.
The Freedom 250 Grand Prix is the latest in a series of Washington events to mark the American semiquincentennial.
Like previous events — the UFC White House card and the Great American State Fair — this weekend’s festivities required a substantial logistical lift.
Workers from Penske Entertainment Corp., which owns the IndyCar series, have imported hundreds of walls to line the track, welded down maintenance hole covers, and constructed grandstands and pedestrian bridges to surround the circuit. More than 1,000 laborers have strung together 12-hour shifts to make the event possible.
“We’ve got upwards of 30 different agencies that we’re working with,” said Jonathan Bailey, Penske’s vice president of operations.
It’s the nature of working in the District, as Bailey and Penske President Bud Denker now understand.
Mr. Denker is part of the event’s brain trust, first coming up with the idea while sharing beers in Indianapolis with Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks.
It took 81 meetings, an assist from the president of the United States and a venue change — Mr. Denker originally wanted the race to start closer to the Capitol but faced difficulty in obtaining bipartisan congressional approval.
Once Mr. Trump signed an executive order clearing the way for the race in January, Mr. Denker moved into high gear. His first walk around the site proved fruitful.
“By God’s will, I saw a racetrack in two hours,” Mr. Denker told The Washington Times.
Outlining a new racetrack is difficult in any city that hasn’t previously hosted an IndyCar event. Making the process even more complicated is when dozens of companies and federal agencies are involved.
In cities like Detroit or Arlington, Texas, Mr. Bailey’s teams have had three months to set up tracks and grandstands. They’d have an additional six weeks to remove the structures.
For the Freedom 250 event, the organizers completed most construction in just five weeks. Their hard work will be erased from the National Mall in three weeks.
“Everything is expedited as it relates to that,” Mr. Bailey said. “It’s a lot of hours, but it’s all worth it.”
The organizers aren’t alone in that feeling. Drivers have had a similarly tough time preparing for the first-of-its-kind race.
Most events on the IndyCar schedule are consistent from year to year. Returning drivers can rewatch footage from last year’s event to rehearse for their return to different tracks. Their teams can check turns and laps to identify areas for improvement.
Not this time.
None of the 25 drivers have raced on the National Mall before.
“It’s going to be a big challenge. Here, we don’t have that,” Ericsson, who won last week’s IndyCar race north of the border in Ontario, told The Times. “It’s a blank sheet of paper. You’ve got to be a fast learner. It’s really like you have to be strong from the get-go.”
The drivers, who experience forces of up to 5Gs during races, aren’t completely helpless. They’ve relied on simulators — like a high-tech version of a racing video game — to prepare for the trip to Washington.
The virtual reality setups let drivers rehearse the exact layout of the course, from the starting line on 3rd Street to the pit lane on Pennsylvania Avenue and the straightaway down Independence Avenue.
“I still have a feel for the corners that we’re going to have here,” Ericsson said of the seven-turn track. “Of course, reality is always a bit different from the simulation, but I have a sort of general feel on how to drive this track.”
The stakes are high for Ericsson and the other drivers. Sunday’s race is not an exhibition — it factors into the championship standings with just two weeks remaining in the season.
Beyond the competitive considerations, the setting provides a unique spotlight for the sport. June’s UFC fights at the White House became the promotion’s most-watched event ever.
IndyCar is enjoying a similar spotlight.
“It’s not only the race; it’s everything that goes around it,” Ericsson said. “There’s a lot of things going on, so I really hope that we can reach some new people — new fans — and make them fall in love with IndyCar racing.”
The event begins with practice sessions on the track at 9 a.m. Saturday. The race is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Sunday.
This article was made available to WMAL via The Washington Times.
