Donald Trump arrived at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix through the streets of Washington DC on Sunday and took a ceremonial lap in his presidential limousine, The Beast, with Melania Trump beside him. As the pair reached the finish line, Trump's new Air Force One flew overhead, giving the first professional road race ever hosted in the capital a presidential frame.
The race was scheduled for 13:00 EST and was built around 25 professional drivers, 147 laps and seven crucial turns on a 1.7-mile track that totals 250 miles. Organisers expected about 140,000 people to attend, and many of them had been handed free general admission tickets through a lottery while premium packages were selling on Saturday for about $3,600 for a pair of passes.
That scale explains why the event has turned so much of Washington DC upside down. The city, where the maximum speed limit is 55mph, is being used for a race that will send open-wheel cars past the Washington Monument and museums on the National Mall before the finish line comes into view with the US Capitol in frame, with speeds expected to reach 190mph. To make room for the event, roads were closed, manholes were bolted down and surfaces were resurfaced, while Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had a three-hour airspace closure for the military flyover.
The race is the latest in a string of summer celebrations tied to the country's 250th birthday, after Trump hosted an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn and a fireworks show on 4 July. IndyCar is a road-racing series built around open-wheel, single-seater cars powered by Chevrolet or Honda engines, and this capital debut puts that formula on streets far removed from a permanent circuit. What remains after the ceremonial lap is the simple count that matters most to fans: the 25 drivers still have 147 laps to settle on a 250-mile course in a city that is not built for racing at all.
