diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 151f9af088f..1c322725e58 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -216,3 +216,6 @@ public/app/plugins/**/dist/
 
 # Go coverage files created with go test -cover -coverprogile=something.out ...
 *.out
+
+# Locally enabling the Go race detector until we can globally do so
+.go-race-enabled-locally
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7af7862ea4f..702632957bf 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ GO = go
 GO_VERSION = 1.22.3
 GO_FILES ?= ./pkg/... ./pkg/apiserver/... ./pkg/apimachinery/... ./pkg/promlib/...
 SH_FILES ?= $(shell find ./scripts -name *.sh)
+GO_RACE  := $(shell [ -n "$(GO_BUILD_DEV)$(GO_RACE)" -o -e ".go-race-enabled-locally" ] && echo 1 )
 GO_BUILD_FLAGS += $(if $(GO_BUILD_DEV),-dev)
 GO_BUILD_FLAGS += $(if $(GO_BUILD_TAGS),-build-tags=$(GO_BUILD_TAGS))
+GO_BUILD_FLAGS += $(if $(GO_RACE),-race)
 
 targets := $(shell echo '$(sources)' | tr "," " ")
 
@@ -209,6 +211,11 @@ build: build-go build-js ## Build backend and frontend.
 run: $(BRA) ## Build and run web server on filesystem changes.
 	$(BRA) run
 
+.PHONY: run-go
+run-go: ## Build and run web server immediately.
+	$(GO) run -race $(if $(GO_BUILD_TAGS),-build-tags=$(GO_BUILD_TAGS)) \
+		./pkg/cmd/grafana -- server -packaging=dev cfg:app_mode=development
+
 .PHONY: run-frontend
 run-frontend: deps-js ## Fetch js dependencies and watch frontend for rebuild
 	yarn start
@@ -404,6 +411,18 @@ scripts/drone/TAGS: $(shell find scripts/drone -name '*.star')
 format-drone:
 	buildifier --lint=fix -r scripts/drone
 
+.PHONY: go-race-is-enabled
+go-race-is-enabled:
+	@if [ -n "$(GO_RACE)" ]; then \
+		echo "The Go race detector is enabled locally, yey!"; \
+	else \
+		echo "The Go race detector is NOT enabled locally, boo!"; \
+	fi;
+
+.PHONY: enable-go-race
+enable-go-race:
+	@touch .go-race-enabled-locally
+
 .PHONY: help
 help: ## Display this help.
 	@awk 'BEGIN {FS = ":.*##"; printf "\nUsage:\n  make \033[36m<target>\033[0m\n"} /^[a-zA-Z_-]+:.*?##/ { printf "  \033[36m%-15s\033[0m %s\n", $$1, $$2 } /^##@/ { printf "\n\033[1m%s\033[0m\n", substr($$0, 5) } ' $(MAKEFILE_LIST)