If Formula One is going to make it in America, it’s going to need a race in Las Vegas. That’s not our opinion, but that of Kurt Busch – a Vegas native who knows a thing or two about racing.
The NASCAR driver spoke to Motorsport about the prospect of adding an additional F1 race in America. The United States Grand Prix in Austin “worked, but it is difficult to get returns, and people to come again and again and again,” said Busch. “The way you get multiple returns is in the tourism industry, and that is what Vegas is known for.” Ticket sales at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch says, are 60 percent from outside Nevada and California.
F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone has been promoting the idea of having a race in Vegas for some time now, particularly after earlier plans to have one in New York failed. The city known for its casinos already has the infrastructure in place, including plenty of hotel rooms, regular flights coming in from every which direction, and a reputation for entertainment. But it also has history on its side.
The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held in Las Vegas in 1981 and ’82, then switched to Indy for ’83 and ’84 before disappearing from the scene altogether. Though the Vegas speedway complex has a 2.5-mile road course (and another 1.1-mile road course) on premises, the F1 race would likely entail building a new facility based on a design by Hermann Tilke, the German engineer responsible for just about every new circuit that F1 adds to the calendar.
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