President Obama Shuts Down the National Mall for a Car Race and Takes the First Lap Himself in the Presidential Limousine

WASHINGTON — The National Mall, a public lawn normally reserved for protests, kite festivals and people looking for the bathroom at the Air and Space Museum, has been converted into a seven-turn street circuit at the direction of President Obama, who is scheduled to open the racing on Sunday by driving the course himself in the presidential limousine.

The race exists because the President created, by executive order, an organization to plan the nation's 250th birthday, and the organization decided the nation wanted 147 laps of open-wheel cars past the Capitol at speeds the Capitol has not previously been asked to absorb. The track runs 1.66 miles, takes in Pennsylvania Avenue and the Reflecting Pool, and comes with seven military flyovers, which organizers describe as a tribute and the National Gallery describes as vibration.

Congress set aside $90 million for security. A private racing company is covering most of the rest, a figure that officials would only describe as larger than the cost of racing through Detroit. Flights into Reagan National will be grounded for three hours during the race so the planes do not compete with the cars for the airspace, and roughly 140,000 spectators are expected, 100,000 of them on free lottery tickets and a smaller number on a Champions Club pass costing about what a used sedan costs.

Preservationists raised the possibility that a weekend of racing engines could rattle the artifacts in the museums lining the course. The National Gallery said it had studied the question extensively and had taken protective measures, which it declined to specify, in the manner of a museum that has wrapped its paintings in blankets and would rather not say so.

The President's aides framed the whole thing as a gift to the country. The President's critics framed it as a man who was given the keys to the capital and immediately asked whether it had a track. The Press's motorsports desk notes that both framings are, as usual, issued on a schedule that depends entirely on whose limousine is in the lead.

"This is about the American people," said one organizer, standing in front of a grandstand the American people could see but mostly could not afford to sit in.

At press time the Mall was fenced, the hay bales were in place around the monuments, and a lone hot-dog cart had been left inside the circuit, where it will presumably remain until someone with a faster vehicle comes to collect it.