Las Vegas Grand Prix

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For the Champ Car race, see Vegas Grand Prix

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was a car race which was a Formula One World Championship event in 1981 and 1982.

When Watkins Glen went off the schedule after 1980, F1 continued to look west and put an event in Las Vegas for the 1981 campaign. The new race ended the year, whereas Long Beach started it, but it was not popular among the drivers, primarily because of the desert heat. The track was laid out in the parking lot of the Caesar's Palace hotel and was surprisingly well set up for a temporary circuit: wide enough for overtaking, it provided ample run-off areas filled with sand, and had a surface that was as smooth as glass. Its counter-clockwise direction, however, put a tremendous strain on the drivers' necks. When Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship by finishing fifth in 1981, it took him fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after barely making it to the finish. The 1982 race was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell, but that was the end of Formula One racing in Las Vegas since the races had drawn only tiny crowds.

There have been speculative rumours of a return of the Las Vegas Grand Prix to the F1 calendar, especially after the 2005 United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, however it is one of many circuit linked with future races, and a strict limit on the number of races in a year means Las Vegas is not a favourite for a race.

In July of 2006, the Las Vegas City Council approved a 2.44-mile, 14-turn, counterclockwise street circuit in the downtown area for a Champ Car event, the Vegas Grand Prix fueled by VISA slated for April 6-8, 2007.[1]

[edit] Winners of the Las Vegas Grand Prix

Formula One World Championship races are indicated by a white background. IndyCar and Champ Car races are indicated by a blue background. All other races are indicated by a pink background.

The CanAm races 1966-68 were held at the old Stardust Raceway and was officially called the Stardust Grand Prix.
The Formula One races in 1981 and 1982 were officially called the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Indycar races 1983-84 were officially called Caesar's Palace Grand Prix.
The IMSA/ALMS races between 1997-2000 were officially called the Grand Prix of Las Vegas.

Year	Driver	Constructor	Location	Report
2005	Sébastien Bourdais	Lola-Ford Cosworth	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	Report
2004	Sébastien Bourdais	Lola-Ford Cosworth	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	Report
2000	Emanuele Pirro Frank Biela	Audi	Las Vegas	Report
1999	Jyrki Järvilehto, Steve Soper	BMW	Las Vegas	Report
1998	Wayne Taylor Eric van de Poele	Ferrari	Las Vegas	Report
1997	John Paul, Jr., Butch Leitzinger	Riley & Scott-Ford	Las Vegas	Report
1984	Tom Sneva	March-Ford	Caesar's Palace - Las Vegas	Report
1983	Mario Andretti	Lola-Ford	Caesar's Palace - Las Vegas	Report
1982	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	Caesar's Palace - Las Vegas	Report
1981	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	Caesar's Palace - Las Vegas	Report
1968	Denny Hulme	McLaren-Chevrolet	Stardust Raceway - Las Vegas	Report
1967	John Surtees	Lola-Chevrolet	Stardust Raceway - Las Vegas	Report
1966	John Surtees	Lola-Chevrolet	Stardust Raceway - Las Vegas	Report

The Indy Racing League also held races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from 1996-2000 (Las Vegas 500K).

[edit] See also

Races in the Formula One championship:

2006 championship Grand Prix events:

Past championship Grand Prix events:

Tracks of the Champ Car World Series

Current Tracks (2007)

Assen (TBC) • Cleveland • Denver • Edmonton • Houston • Las Vegas • Long Beach • Mexico City • Mont-Tremblant • Oschersleben (TBC) • Phoenix • Portland • Road America • San Jose • Surfers Paradise • Toronto • Zhuhai