What Happened
The District of Columbia is preparing to host the Freedom 250 Grand Prix on Aug. 22 and 23, an IndyCar race organized with President Donald Trump as part of the country’s 250th-birthday celebrations. The Associated Press report, carried by ABC News, says the course will run along Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall.
The normal speed limit on Pennsylvania Avenue is 25 mph. The race cars can approach 200 mph on street courses. That means the event will briefly transform one of Washington’s most recognizable avenues from a place where you inch behind a delivery truck into a place where a vehicle covers a football field in a little over a second.
Trump joked that anyone doing that during a normal day would be jailed “perhaps for the rest of their lives.” The joke is doing a lot of work here, because on race weekend the exact same conduct will be encouraged, televised, fenced off, and accompanied by a very large bill for making sure the street does not throw pieces of itself at the drivers.
Manhole Cover Countermeasures
According to AP, the circuit contains more than 220 manhole covers. Organizers are welding them down so the cars cannot create a new category of urban aviation. About 50 are set deeply enough into the road that they need silicone treatment to smooth the bumps.
The race will also require 1,800 concrete walls weighing 10,000 pounds each, metal detectors staffed by the Secret Service, road improvements and special permits for displays and vendors. The walls are there to keep race cars from leaving the track. The manhole welding is there to keep Washington’s plumbing system from joining the race.
The Capital Gets a Pit Lane
The 1.66-mile circuit will feature seven turns and 147 laps for a total of 250 miles. The track will pass views of the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the National Air and Space Museum. The pit lane will sit on Pennsylvania Avenue between Turn 1 and Turn 2, which is a wonderful location if you have ever looked at a historic government boulevard and thought, “This needs more tire changes.”
Organizers say most of the spending is being covered by Penske, with the city handling limited repaving. About a third of the track needs road improvement, and the race chair said the cost should be under $3 million. That is less than some other races spend on road work, which is the sort of comparison that makes an unusual project sound sensible until you remember the project is still a high-speed occupation of the federal neighborhood.
Birthday Party, Presidential Edition
The race is part of a series of 250th-anniversary events that have included a UFC event on the White House South Lawn, rallies on the National Mall and a proposed state fair. The AP report notes that Trump’s events have made the nation’s semiquincentennial celebration unusually centered on the president himself.
There is nothing wrong with a race, a fair or a celebration. The particular Washington flavor is the decision to use the capital’s symbolic center as a giant backdrop for a high-speed event that requires government permits, federal agencies, security barriers, road construction and the temporary welding of civic plumbing.
The Dumb Part
The dumb part is not that people want to watch fast cars. Fast cars are honest about what they are. The dumb part is the visual contrast: a race car traveling nearly eight times the posted speed limit with the Capitol behind it, while a crew of adults has to explain why the manhole covers have been bolted down.
It is also the perfect political event because it converts a birthday into branding. America turns 250, so the official answer is apparently: shut down Pennsylvania Avenue, bring in the Secret Service, weld the street, and let a presidential limousine lead the field to green.
The Bottom Line
Washington is getting an IndyCar race on Pennsylvania Avenue, with 200-mph cars, 220 welded manhole covers, 1,800 concrete walls and a presidential birthday-party wrapper. It may be spectacular. It may be the first and only race there. Either way, the nation’s capital is about to discover whether the road to civic celebration is paved with asphalt, silicone and extremely nervous utility workers.
Sources
Associated Press via ABC News: Trump’s IndyCar race in Washington
AP: Washington IndyCar race organized by Trump