Courtshark

Tickets finally went on sale last week (the original organizers had some, uh, issues getting this rolling), but as a Porsche person, you might not need 'em! If you're a PCA member, volunteer to work in the Porsche tent. Volunteering involved sitting in the tent and registering attendees as they walked up, I think for about 4 hours. Most importantly, though, volunteering included parking in the Porsche Platz, which meant special access to the track and included a lap on the course on Saturday morning (if you volunteered for Saturday; I did all 3 days). I think there were only 3 or 4 sharks present last year (out of a couple hundred Porsches), so let's see if we can improve on that. Also note that Porsche USA now considers the Baltimore GP a "Tier 1" event, meaning there should be some nice goodies in the tent for members. I am not the volunteer coordinator, but I assume it will be the same person as last year. If you're interested, please let me know so that when he puts the call out for volunteers, I can add your name to the list. I believe you absolutely must be a PCA member to volunteer. Membership is cheaper than a ticket to the race.

Tom in Austin

Sounds interesting. Are volunteers allowed to bring guests? My Indy 500 buddy might like to go but he drives some wacky thing called a "BMW", whatever that is ;-)

Courtshark

IIRC, volunteers only get tickets for themselves. But your buddy could a) Bring Money With him, or b) volunteer himself. Last year there were probably 300 BMWs, including a few M3s that got smoked in the Saturday race by the GT3s. Corvette, Ferrari, Lambo, etc, all had nice car corrals, too.

mx22

Courtshark,

Add me to the list please - I was planning to come down to see the race, might as well get some use out of my PCA membership...

hmmm.... I wonder if there is something similar for ALMS Lime Rock race. I was planning to buy tickets in a week or two...

Courtshark

Two different area PCA sites I found say there will be a Porsche Platz at Lime Rock. Go for it! Awesome way to get into the race, and to meet all of the great Porsche people. Even non-shark owners!

mx22

Yep, there is a Porsche Platz at Lime Rock - plenty of P-cars there I just haven't seen anything from local PCA chapter about volunteers for the race.

GeorgeM

Thanks for posting, Court. There will no doubt be a PCA or Porsche owner related ticket deal which includes the Platz. I got tickets via the PCA deal before the volunteer opportunity came up and was fairly pleased - access was great. The fact that Porsche is making it Tier 1 should make a big difference. Not sure what tier it was last year, but we were showed up by all the other marques. Kudos to Cheseapeake Region for doing all they could to salvage PCA's reputation.

If you need a room and don't already have one, don't wait much longer. We stayed at the new Home2Suites (a new Hilton line), only a 10 minute walk to the track. It was also very reasonable for downtown during the event.

Courtshark

For the BGP, the call for volunteers wasn't made until about a month before the race, as George indicated. Fortunately I was able to give my weekend Porsche Platz tickets to my father, and thus added another Porsche to the Platz.

I've contacted the PCA rep handling this year's event, so hopefully I will have word soon on how many volunteers they need. They will possibly be scrambling to put this together since it was unclear until about a month ago whether the race would even happen this year due to all of the mismanagement last year. And yes, George, PCA had better step it up this year! Those other tents were remarkable. Ours was OK and as you said, we made a nice recovery. I know I still had a blast.

Courtshark

They are indeed taking volunteers. If you're interested, and a PCA member, please directly contact Dave Dukehart ASAP: ddukehart - at - gmail.com

mx22

Courtshark,

Is this for Baltimore or Lime Rock?

Thanks!

Courtshark

Alexei, just Baltimore. Contact your peeps!

tfz

From the Zone 2 website:
Updated 6/26/2012

Zone2.pca.org

Baltimore Grand Prix information:

There will be a Porsche Platz

Current thinking is to purchase your choice of grandstand seating NOW
and
That Car Corral/parking will be sold separately LATER

Information for volunteering will be posted on the Zone 2 website when available

mjdenn

Tickets are now available for purchase for Friday and Saturday only. According to the site there will be no parade lap. Tickets were available from the Ticket Master website

Courtshark

Yes the parade lap last year was a huge let down; they were doing emergency track repairs that morning, so our max speed was probably 50 mph in a single burst of joy; the rest of the time we cruised in first gear. Funny, I just watched my video of that yesterday. It was torture! Fun to be on the track for sure, but certainly far less fun than expected.

Manny Alban

Porsche Platz for Baltimore is still on Porsche's calendar. I think the group putting on the race is still playing catch-up. fwiw, Tier 1 doesn't mean food. It means a larger tent, better flooring, sound and video system, etc. I think the only Platz I've been to that had food last year was Mosport and that was simply hot dogs and hamburgers.

Be glad we kept things to 'parade laps' speeds. Some of the other marques never even got to do a parade lap because one of the other clubs started using the main straight as a drag strip.....while the maintenance crews were doing repairs. Might be one of the reasons they are saying 'no parade laps'.