Intersport Racing prepared for the streets of Baltimore

Intersport Racing Sets Sights on Eastern Seaboard
American Le Mans Ready for the Inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix

Kyle Marcelli and Tomy Drissi, Mid-Ohio LMPC class winners

Photo by: Adriano Manocchia

Intersport Racing will roll into to Baltimore, Maryland this week for round seven of the American Le Mans Series championship. The inaugural running of the Baltimore Grand Prix will be a two-hour sprint race starting at 4:30pm on Saturday, September 3.

The second street race of the 2011 American Le Mans Series season, Baltimore's newly constructed temporary 2.0-mile race track represents an unknown challenge to the Series' drivers and teams. The Baltimore circuit will work its way through the streets of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor area and around Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The former railroad center will serve as the backing to pit row for the 12-turn temporary road course.

Mid-Ohio winners, Tomy Drissi and Kyle Marcelli will be back together piloting the No. 37 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked / DynaPrep / Lafarge / Muscle Milk LMPC car. It should also be noted that Drissi and Marcelli combined for a 2nd place finish the last time the Series raced a temporary street circuit in Long Beach California. In addition, the pair made their way to the podium in the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back in the prototype with Kyle," said Tomy Drissi. "I've been off doing a couple of NASCAR Nationwide events and campaigning the No. 47 TruSpeed Motorsports Porsch GT Cup car in World Challenge. ALMS weekends are always good competitive racing and it's even better when you're teamed up with a driver like Kyle and a crew like Intersport."

Brothers, David and Chapman Ducote will pilot the No. 89 Merchant Services LMPC car for Intersport. The brothers recently teamed up with team principal Clint Field, for the Time Warner Cable Sports Car Showcase at Road America. The trio was looking at a podium finish when a gamble on pit strategy caught them out on a caution dropping them back to fourth. David and Chapman like their odds in Baltimore citing the unknown circuit will level the playing field in the highly competitive LMPC class.

With the track being *the* unknown factor for the weekend, the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix has the potential of being the most challenging race of 2011 for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. It's no secret that team engineers have been trying to find any knowledge or detail that might provide an edge for the weekend event. The drivers will get their first full look at the track during a two-hour track walk on Thursday.

Track time will be at a premium with just two hours of practice before qualifying for Saturday's main event. The first practice session for ALMS cars is scheduled for 9:25 a.m. Friday. Who did their homework and guessed right will quickly become apparent.