Ridiculous Baltimore chicane needs to go

How many cars have to be damaged before Baltimore reprofiles the road before and after the RR tracks so the chicane is not needed? Adequate runoff at the end of the straight also needs to be ensured.

A chicane on the longest straightaway of the 12-turn, 2.04-mile street circuit is in place to slow the cars ahead of the bumpy rail tracks, but the curbing launched several cars.

Those of Marco Andretti, Sebastian Saavedra and Sebastien Bourdais suffered the most damage. Bourdais said he was trying to get the best out of the quick sequence of turns lined by tire bundles.

“It’s a stupid game; we all know it," he said. “There’s a big lap time (to be gained), but if you get it just slightly wrong it bites you, and it did (me). I hit the second curb and bounced off it. That was that."

Bourdais’ engineer, Tom Brown, couldn’t hide his displeasure.

“I hate that chicane," he said. “It wrecks cars."

James Hinchcliffe said the area is the best it has been in three years of racing, but there is still work to be done.

“It obviously wouldn’t be cheap to repave that section (so no chicane is needed), but other racetracks have done it," he said, mentioning the San Jose, Calif., street circuit. “I think if (Baltimore) is serious about having us here it needs to be addressed because we’ve seen the damage it does to cars. It hurts the racing." Indy Star