Green Light for Downtown Grand Prix : Sports: City Council approves plans for the car race. Two other entities must also give their OK.

The San Diego City Council on Monday approved plans to bring Le Mans-style racing to downtown San Diego next Labor Day weekend.

The car race will move from the Del Mar Fairgrounds to a 1.56-mile course on the south side of Harbor Drive, next to the Convention Center.

The council voted 6 to 0 to approve plans for the Grand Prix of San Diego, with Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilmen John Hartley and Bob Filner absent.

A final contract is expected to be completed and presented to the council by January, City Manager Jack McGrory said, along with an environmental review.

The proposal was approved last week by a unanimous vote of the San Diego Unified Port District board, one of four entities, including the city, needed to agree on the contract. The Centre City Development Corp. and Convention Center management also must sign off on the project.

The change in venue will increase attendance and visibility, promoters say. The event is expected to draw as many as 60,000 people each day of the three-day weekend, Sept. 3-5--about 20,000 more per day than the Del Mar event. There are also plans to show the racing on national television.

Council members said the race is expected to bring in $14 million in tourist dollars.

The promoter, Del Mar Race Management, will pay the city $225,000 over five years for use of city property, according to the contract. It will also pay a “success fee” if gross gate receipts are more than an agreed-upon amount.

Del Mar Race Management will reimburse the city for all city services, including police, fire and public works support. The figure, added to administrative costs, will total an estimated $275,000.

The city will also be reimbursed for about $450,000 in construction costs to widen the roadway on the Martin Luther King Promenade side of Harbor Drive. The sum will be repaid over the first five years of the contract.

Organizers have patterned the urban race course after the 17-year-old Grand Prix race in Long Beach, which is managed by the same promoter. The Grand Prix Assn. of Long Beach, named after the flagship event, sponsors similar races in Miami and New Orleans.

Cars used in those cities’ races are Indianapolis 500-style, with an open-wheel design. San Diego’s Grand Prix, however, will feature sedans like those used in France’s 24-hour race at Le Mans.

The proposed course would start and finish on Harbor Drive, in front of the Convention Center, turning right onto 5th Avenue, left onto Convention Way, then left into a parking lot where the pit area would be located, south of the Convention Center.

Cars would continue through the lot, making a left-hand turn onto 8th Avenue, and another left onto the north side of Harbor Drive. At 1st Avenue, a hairpin turn would put the racers back on the south side of Harbor near the finish line.

Harbor Drive between 1st and 8th avenues would be blocked off from 6 p.m. Wednesday before the race weekend until 6 a.m. on Labor Day.

Races are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.