IndyCar race on streets of Boston set for next year

The Verizon IndyCar Series has another venue to add to its 2016 schedule as it was announced today that the city of Boston will join the series with a street race along the southern side of the Boston seaside coast.

The race, which has a contract with INDYCAR through 2020, will be held on Labor Day weekend on September 4, 2016.

The course is a 2.25 mile circuit with 11 turns featuring a unique “split pit” design with two separate pit complexes on either side of a singular pit lane whose exit lanes funnel into one going back to the main circuit, as Derrick Walker explains.

“The pit lane is actually on both sides of the pits.  There's pits either side, and there's two lanes down the middle.  You can see what's going to happen.  Pit stops come in, they emerge, they've got two lanes, and it will blend into one as they go out.  I think that's going to add a completely different dimension to pit stops, so that is very unique to this Boston track,” Walker said.

The course does run near light rail tracks similar to the street courses in San Jose and more recently in Baltimore, but it was revealed that the tracks would be closed off so no cars could get airborne.

The course also has a mini-Monaco section where the cars will travel underneath the Westin Boston Waterfront hotel along the turns 7-8 complex before rejoining the natural light at turn 9.

The city has been working with INDYCAR for years to bring them to the northeast after the single running of IndyCars at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2011.