Why F1’s chaotic Las Vegas past doesn’t do Sin City justice

Elizabeth Blackstock
The Mercedes Safety Car driving laps of the Las Vegas F1 track.

The Mercedes Safety Car checks out the Las Vegas circuit ahead of the city's return to the Grand Prix calendar.

F1 has flirted with Las Vegas in the past, but the city actually has quite a rich history of motorsport and motor-related antics…

Utter the phrase “Las Vegas” to any Formula 1 fan, and you’re likely to conjure up images of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, the sport’s two-year fiasco in the parking lot of the iconic Sin City resort. It’s the natural predecessor against which to compare the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix down the city’s iconic Strip — but the history of motorsport in the Las Vegas area runs much deeper.

The Nevada desert has drawn daredevils and speed demons for decades. Some have attempted record-setting jumps in front of legendary resorts. Others have bombed through the sand in pursuit of glory. Still others have turned up to do battle on purpose-built oval tracks.

The Caesars Palace Grand Prix could only have existed as a result of all the American motorsport events that came before it — ones that have defined the city as the ideal locale for modern Grand Prix racing.

Evel Knievel 

Daredevil Evel Knievel had come to Las Vegas to watch boxer Dick Tiger defend two world titles and left having pinpointed the fountains in front of Caesars Palace as the ideal location for the kind of death-defying two-wheeled stunt that no sane man would dare even consider.

On December 31, 1967, record numbers of onlookers flocked to watch the 29-year-old Knievel attempt what would remain his longest jump ever: A 141-foot leap into fame on the back of a Triumph Bonneville T120. 

The much-hyped jump was both a stunning failure and a riotous success. His Triumph decelerated just before he launched into the air; Knievel fell short of his target and crashed, crushing his pelvis and femur and fracturing his hip, wrist, and both ankles as he skidded out of the Caesars Palace property and into that of the Dunes. 

Knievel spent the next 29 days in a coma, and ABC’s Wide World of Sports refused to air the footage of his accident. It could have been a crushing blow for a man who had spent his final $100 at the blackjack table just before his very public crash. 

Instead, Knievel soared into the headlines; no other stuntman had been audacious enough to attempt his most stunning jump in front of an eager Las Vegas crowd, and that alone cemented Knievel’s name into the annals of sporting history. 

Mint 400

If you’ve read Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, then you’ve heard of the Mint 400. 

Founded in 1968 by the promotions director of The Mint Hotel & Casino, the massive off-road race sent over 100 vehicles onto a grueling 400-mile high-speed trek through the desert to determine winners for multiple classes of performance cars.

Race activities primarily centered around Fremont Street — and after the 1989 running, casinos felt their businesses were negatively affected by hordes of growling engines. As a result, the iconic race went into an almost two-decade-long hiatus until off-road enthusiasts revived the event in 2008.

The iconic event still runs to this day, and throughout its history, the Mint 400 has drawn stars like James Garner, Steve McQueen, and Patrick Dempsey; Indy 500 winners Al Unser, Rick Mears, and Parnelli Jones; and off-road legends like Mickey Thompson and Rod Hall.

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NASCAR and the NHRA

Just a short drive from the glittering lights of the Las Vegas Strip lies the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval track that actually opened in 1972 as a drag strip and road course. 

The track took the place of Stardust International Raceway, a property that held Can-Am sports car races and one American open-wheel event. In 1985, the oval track was built, and NASCAR came to town.

In the modern era, NASCAR arrives at the Speedway twice a year: once in the spring, and once in the fall. The National Hot Rod Association, which sanctions America’s top levels of drag racing, also makes an annual trek to the track to take advantage of its four-lane drag strip.

American Open-Wheel

Formula 1 may think it holds a monopoly on open-wheel racing in Las Vegas, but various American open-wheel series have made a home in the Sin City for decades before the Caesars Palace Grand Prix was even a thought in anyone’s mind. 

First came the 1954 Silver State Century, a AAA-sanctioned racing event at a Las Vegas dirt track; the one-off race was won by future Indy 500 winner Jimmy Bryan, and it would take another 14 years before another American open-wheel sanctioning body, USAC, headed back to Stardust International Raceway for a second one-off event.

From there, American open-wheel capitalized on the existing infrastructure developed by other series. 

When Formula 1 abandoned the Caesars Palace Grand Prix circuit, the CART open-wheel series kept the track alive for two more years before the event was entirely canceled. 

Then, the Indy Racing League and Champ Car both made their way to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race that was once again revived when those rival factions made peace to become the IndyCar Series.

But tucked into the annals of American open-wheel history is actually the very first running of a street race in Las Vegas. 

Called the Vegas Grand Prix, this one-off race was run on a 2.44-mile circuit near the Fremont Street Experience. As one can imagine, there was local backlash regarding the loud noises and street closures caused by the event — but the course actually quickly earned its place in the hearts of both drivers and fans. 

Unfortunately, that one race was held by the Champ Car series in 2007 — one year before that series was folded into what we recognize as the IndyCar Series today.

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