Boston Herald Knows Where IndyCar Is Driving Next

May 1, 2016

Or maybe it doesn’t.

When the Not So Grand Prix of Boston crashed and burned on Friday, the Globe’s Mark Arsenault reported this in Saturday’s edition:

IndyCar race in Boston screeches to a halt

Labor Day event scratched, as promoters criticize city’s ‘ridiculous’ demands

Promoters of an IndyCar race in the Seaport this September are peeling out of Boston and will not race in the Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 2.16.30 AMcity.

“The relationship between us and the city is not working,” said John Casey, president of what had been called the Grand Prix of Boston, in a Globe interview Friday. “The relationship is untenable.” . . .

Instead, the promoters will turn to Plan B and try to hold a Labor Day race in a backup city in the Northeast, Casey said. The promoters have had contact with two other cities, he said, one of which is in New England.

“They are both willing to do it without the headaches of Boston,” he said, declining to name the cities.

 

Cut to: Saturday’s Boston Herald, where the totally Grand Prix driven Joe Battenfeld reported this:

Mayor crashes and burns as IndyCar waves red flag

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 2.38.22 AM

Mayor Martin J. Walsh was behind the wheel of the Grand Prix of Boston and got burned by its fiery crash, ignoring a series of repeated wrong turns and warning signs that the race would never get off the starting line.

Walsh’s administration spent a year pushing an idea that seemed ludicrous to many Bostonians: hosting a high-speed IndyCar race in a city that can’t even fill potholes or sync up its traffic lights.

 

No kidding – it’s like Joe Cocker has timed the traffic lights in Boston.

Regardless, here’s Battenfeld’s money quote:

Casey gave all the race vendors, consultants and attorneys a similar brusque sendoff, writing: “Thank you for your work. Pencils down” — another way of saying: I’m not paying you any more.

Then Casey let it be known he was taking his speedy race cars to a city that really wanted them: Providence.

 

Chalk up one more checkered flag for the racy local tabloid.

Except . . .

Today’s Herald spins out a bit.

Casey and his group now will look for another city to host the race. Providence has for years been rumored to be on the verge of an agreement to host an IndyCar race.

Though Emily Crowell, spokeswoman for Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, said nothing has been finalized.

“IndyCar has not applied for any permits or made arrangements to relocate the race yet,” Crowell said, “but we’re open to having a conversation to see if Providence is the right fit for 
their event.”

 

Sounds like Providence is about to have a Hub of a time with the Little Indy That Couldn’t, eh?


Boston Herald Keeps Driving Grand Prix Crash Car

November 7, 2015

Give Joe Battenfeld and the racy local tabloid their due: They’re not downshifting their efforts to total the proposed Grand Prix of Boston, maybe the second-worst idea Mayor Marty Walsh has had in office. (Store 2024 – c’mon down!)

Today’s Boston Herald, Page One  (Inexplicable Little Green Numbers Galore!).

 

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Battenfeld’s piece (with Chris Cassidy):

Life in the IndyCar fast lane

Docs show target audience young, rich

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Massive luxury skyboxes and beer gardens will loom large over the proposed 2.2-mile Boston IndyCar race course in the Seaport District that could jam traffic and require more permits for the Labor Day weekend spectacle, new documents show.

A 47-page “Stakeholders Info Deck” from the Grand Prix of Boston, obtained by the Herald, is targeting young, smartphone-wielding, rich professionals.

 

Not, we might add, the Boston Herald readership. The young, smartphone-wielding, rich professionals do, however, read the Boston Globe, which is still drafting in second place.

 

Screen Shot 2015-11-07 at 12.17.09 PM

 

And round and round we go.


Boston Herald Drives IndyCar Coverage

November 2, 2015

The Not-So-Grand Prix of Boston keeps sputtering along, and it’s the racy local tabloid that’s serving as the pit crew.

Today’s Boston Herald, Page One.

 

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Page 2:

Mayor gives ultimatum to IndyCar

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Mayor Martin J. Walsh is demanding IndyCar promoters get their act together, issuing an ultimatum to “finalize” deals with state agencies soon, in a major toughening of his stance on the planned Labor Day road race.

In an emailed letter obtained by the Herald, Walsh’s chief of operations, Patrick Brophy, gave IndyCar just 14 days to reach financial and other agreements with several agencies that control most of the planned course on the waterfront.

“It is expected that your team will finalize agreements with all interested parties within the next two (2) weeks,” Brophy said in an email Friday to Jim Freudenberg, chief commercial officer for the Grand Prix of Boston, local promoters for the race. “Please be advised that the Mayor grows increasingly concerned with the progress (or lack thereof) of those discussions.”

 

We’ll see if IndyCar can move that fast.

Meanwhile, the Boston Globe has stalled out on the story.

(Your eat-their-dust punchline goes here.)