Race Move Clears Hurdle : Racing: Committee approves negotiations to move Grand Prix from Del Mar to downtown. Contract to come before panel next month.

The green flag dropped Wednesday for Chris Pook and his Del Mar Race Management team, which seeks to move the Vons Grand Prix of San Diego downtown.

The city’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee voted unanimously to move forward with a proposed contract between Pook and the city manager’s office that would move the race from its site on the Del Mar Fairgrounds to a location that would have the San Diego Convention Center as its centerpiece.

Deputy City Manager Bruce Herring, who handled the Russian Arts Festival, will handle the project for the city.

Committee members Judy McCarty, Valerie Stallings and John Hartley voted to move ahead with the plan. Herring will present a contract in late September to the committee. After approval, it would then have to be approved by the city council.

“I think the committee’s very excited about having the race in the city of San Diego and we fully expect that the city manager and Mr. Pook will be able to work out the details so it does not have a negative impact on the downtown community,” said McCarty, the 7th District council member and the committee chair. “They are working with ConVis, the Convention Center and the local residents to make sure they work out the details on the time, date and the impact.

“We just feel very confident (the race will move downtown). He had a lot of people representing his professionalism and citizenship and character and it should go very well. It certainly would be a wonderful event for our city.”

The race, which features GTP prototypes and GTO and GTU sedans, attracted a record 76,000 over a three-day period last year, but Pook--who is not unhappy with the Del Mar site--expects a move downtown will allow the race to expand and attain the status of another of his projects, the highly successful Long Beach Grand Prix.

Pook has proposed a 10-turn, 1.56-mile layout that would use Harbor Drive between First and Eighth avenues, Fifth and Eighth avenues south of Harbor Drive and outside the parking lot to the south of the Convention Center.

The course would not disrupt traffic at Seaport Village, the Marriott Hotel, Embarcadero Park south, the shipyards or the trolley lines.

The race’s five-year contract with the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the current site, has a clause that allows Pook to move the race after its sixth running, which is Oct. 9-11.