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Miller on Las Vegas
Miller on Las Vegas
MILLER: The Right Kind of Street Show
Written by: Robin Miller Las Vegas, Nev. - 4/8/2007
Defying expectations of skeptics, the Vegas GP course presented a
great drivers' challenge. (LAT photo)
During his 17 years in the Champ Car series, Paul Tracy has driven on
every kind of street course. From the Mickey Mouse layout at Miami to
the ski jump at San Jose to the concrete confines of Toronto to the
paper clip of Australia to the wide open spaces of Cleveland, each
city is either memorable or forgettable.
Nothing can be any racier than the airport circuits at Edmonton and
Cleveland, while nothing could have been any further from a racetrack
than the second versions at Miami and Denver, before the later became
passable last year.
Long Beach's original design had everything that makes a street show
exciting before being gradually emasculated by the city's progress.
When we heard Champ Car was going to stage a race through old downtown
Las Vegas most of us chuckled at the thought of 750- horsepower
creeping around a bunch of 90-dergee turns in front of the Horseshoe.
It was even money that the nearby interstate speed limit of 55 mph
would be quicker than lap times.
But, thanks to promoters Dale Jensen and Brad Yonover, Mayor Oscar
Goodman, track manager Chris Kneifel, ex-CART employee Martin Thake
and Champ Car competition chief Tony Cotman, the Las Vegas layout is
the best of all Champ Car street courses - past and present.
It's 2.4 miles of pure road racing joy with challenging corners that
top out at 170 mph, a tricky chicane, a straightaway longer than
Elkhart Lake, elevation changes, two tunnels, good runoff spots and at
least three good passing areas.
It's wide, smooth, fast (average speed for pole-sitter Will Power was
113 mph) and first class.
"This is a great street course, probably one of the finest and not
only from a driver's standpoint," said Tracy, who starts second Sunday
in the season opener. "A lot of the track we go to, the city wants to
have a race but they don't want to give up too many streets.
"A lot of the tracks we race on are compromised. The tracks are in
parking lots or streets nobody uses and it makes the tracks too short
for our cars. But, other than Australia, this is one of the longest
street tracks we've ever raced on and certainly one of the better
ones.
"They've done a perfect job."
"They" would be DDB Ventures, owned by Jensen and Yonover. They
convinced the city's fathers they were serious about staging a street
show and then they put considerable money where their mouths were.
They paid for all the streets comprising the track to be repaved. They
built five miles of state-of-the-art concrete barriers and fences,
They erected five pedestrian bridges. They spent an estimated $15
million and delivered a winner.
"We've been saying, 'Trust us, trust us' and to see how this course
has turned out is incredibly exciting," said Jensen, a venture
capitalist who is part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix
Suns.
"We've had a lot of help from a lot of good people."
Nobody is more responsible for this success story than Kneifel. A
former CART driver who didn't work out as chief steward a few years
ago, he's been invaluable since becoming a track inspector/director
for Champ Car. He worked four straight days and nights to make sure
San Jose's track opened in 2005 and seems to be in his element
planning tracks, adjusting to problems and putting out fires.
"All credit to Chris, he's done a fabulous job," said Cotman, whose
common sense and racer's mentality has made him one of Champ Car's
best ever hires. "We've had great cooperation from the city and this
has really been a joint effort from a lot of folks."
Case in point would be Friday's thrill show. A massive bump near the
chicanes was launching cars at 135 mph to the point that ALL FOUR
tires were off the ground. It was great for the spectators but
hazerdous for the drivers and teams (seven of which have no backup
cars at this time) so a fix was in order.
But, instead of a patch job, it was major surgery.
"They didn't try to fix it with a band-aid, they tore out the whole
intersection last night and repaved it," said Tracy. "I mean, that
never happens and what else can you say about what they've done?
"I live here and when I first heard we were running downtown I said
the streets were way too rough. But they've done a great job in every
way."
Of course there's no guarantee this is going to be a home run for the
promoters. It appears there are approximately 25,000-30,000 bleacher
seats so anything approaching 35,000 would seem good. But tickets
priced from $50 (general admission) to $187 won't come close to paying
that $15 million nut and the supposed sponsorship with VISA never
materialized.
It would take Jensen and Yonover, who are also promoting the initial
Phoenix street race in December, several years to recoop their
investment without title sponsors or much larger crowds but obviously
they've made a huge commitment.
It's hard to say if anybody on The Strip knows or cares about this
race but here's hoping this race makes it. Because, from a pure racing
perspective, it can't get any better.
* w w w .speedtv . com /commentary/36547/
MILLER: The Right Kind of Street Show
Written by: Robin Miller Las Vegas, Nev. - 4/8/2007
Defying expectations of skeptics, the Vegas GP course presented a
great drivers' challenge. (LAT photo)
During his 17 years in the Champ Car series, Paul Tracy has driven on
every kind of street course. From the Mickey Mouse layout at Miami to
the ski jump at San Jose to the concrete confines of Toronto to the
paper clip of Australia to the wide open spaces of Cleveland, each
city is either memorable or forgettable.
Nothing can be any racier than the airport circuits at Edmonton and
Cleveland, while nothing could have been any further from a racetrack
than the second versions at Miami and Denver, before the later became
passable last year.
Long Beach's original design had everything that makes a street show
exciting before being gradually emasculated by the city's progress.
When we heard Champ Car was going to stage a race through old downtown
Las Vegas most of us chuckled at the thought of 750- horsepower
creeping around a bunch of 90-dergee turns in front of the Horseshoe.
It was even money that the nearby interstate speed limit of 55 mph
would be quicker than lap times.
But, thanks to promoters Dale Jensen and Brad Yonover, Mayor Oscar
Goodman, track manager Chris Kneifel, ex-CART employee Martin Thake
and Champ Car competition chief Tony Cotman, the Las Vegas layout is
the best of all Champ Car street courses - past and present.
It's 2.4 miles of pure road racing joy with challenging corners that
top out at 170 mph, a tricky chicane, a straightaway longer than
Elkhart Lake, elevation changes, two tunnels, good runoff spots and at
least three good passing areas.
It's wide, smooth, fast (average speed for pole-sitter Will Power was
113 mph) and first class.
"This is a great street course, probably one of the finest and not
only from a driver's standpoint," said Tracy, who starts second Sunday
in the season opener. "A lot of the track we go to, the city wants to
have a race but they don't want to give up too many streets.
"A lot of the tracks we race on are compromised. The tracks are in
parking lots or streets nobody uses and it makes the tracks too short
for our cars. But, other than Australia, this is one of the longest
street tracks we've ever raced on and certainly one of the better
ones.
"They've done a perfect job."
"They" would be DDB Ventures, owned by Jensen and Yonover. They
convinced the city's fathers they were serious about staging a street
show and then they put considerable money where their mouths were.
They paid for all the streets comprising the track to be repaved. They
built five miles of state-of-the-art concrete barriers and fences,
They erected five pedestrian bridges. They spent an estimated $15
million and delivered a winner.
"We've been saying, 'Trust us, trust us' and to see how this course
has turned out is incredibly exciting," said Jensen, a venture
capitalist who is part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix
Suns.
"We've had a lot of help from a lot of good people."
Nobody is more responsible for this success story than Kneifel. A
former CART driver who didn't work out as chief steward a few years
ago, he's been invaluable since becoming a track inspector/director
for Champ Car. He worked four straight days and nights to make sure
San Jose's track opened in 2005 and seems to be in his element
planning tracks, adjusting to problems and putting out fires.
"All credit to Chris, he's done a fabulous job," said Cotman, whose
common sense and racer's mentality has made him one of Champ Car's
best ever hires. "We've had great cooperation from the city and this
has really been a joint effort from a lot of folks."
Case in point would be Friday's thrill show. A massive bump near the
chicanes was launching cars at 135 mph to the point that ALL FOUR
tires were off the ground. It was great for the spectators but
hazerdous for the drivers and teams (seven of which have no backup
cars at this time) so a fix was in order.
But, instead of a patch job, it was major surgery.
"They didn't try to fix it with a band-aid, they tore out the whole
intersection last night and repaved it," said Tracy. "I mean, that
never happens and what else can you say about what they've done?
"I live here and when I first heard we were running downtown I said
the streets were way too rough. But they've done a great job in every
way."
Of course there's no guarantee this is going to be a home run for the
promoters. It appears there are approximately 25,000-30,000 bleacher
seats so anything approaching 35,000 would seem good. But tickets
priced from $50 (general admission) to $187 won't come close to paying
that $15 million nut and the supposed sponsorship with VISA never
materialized.
It would take Jensen and Yonover, who are also promoting the initial
Phoenix street race in December, several years to recoop their
investment without title sponsors or much larger crowds but obviously
they've made a huge commitment.
It's hard to say if anybody on The Strip knows or cares about this
race but here's hoping this race makes it. Because, from a pure racing
perspective, it can't get any better.
* w w w .speedtv . com /commentary/36547/
