Short-lived Vegas Grand Prix recalled 10 years later

It was 10 years ago when “Hallelujah! He is risen!” gave way to “Gentlemen, start your engines!” in downtown Las Vegas.

The one and only Vegas Grand Prix was held on Easter in 2007. It was a big success and a big pain in the rear spoiler. It depended on whether you were a driver, a spectator who watched for free from the downtown parking garages, or a guest of the Golden Nugget who couldn’t get to the airport because racing cars were blocking the taxi lines.

“I thought it was fantastic from a participation standpoint,” said Henderson’s Sam Schmidt, a car owner in the present day IndyCar series who was in the crowd estimated at 40,000. “But it was Easter weekend, a slow tourist date … and some of the logistics were a recipe for disaster.”

In addition to locking in tourists in some cases, a bridge over the railroad tracks behind the Plaza hotel that was to connect the front side of the course to the back side never got built. That made it difficult for spectators in the grandstands to commute to the downtown area.

But the biggest reason the Vegas Grand Prix capitulated is that CART and the Indy Racing League merged into a single entity, the IndyCar series, which continues today.

The downtown circuit featured elevation changes and underpasses, rare for a temporary street course, and drivers raved about it.

Will Power — then a young unknown from Australia, now a series champion who drives for vaunted car owner Roger Penske — won the Vegas Grand Prix. Other notables included Simon Pagenaud, the reigning IndyCar champ who also drives for Penske; Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy and Justin Wilson, who sadly was killed in a racing accident in 2015.

Graham Rahal, son of 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal and husband of drag racing star Courtney Force, was an 18-year-old rookie.

As they say, it seemed like only yesterday: The UNLV basketball team, coming off a Sweet 16 performance, served as the honorary starters.

Kicked to the curb

Remember when UNLV was courting Rick Pitino to coach its basketball team, and somebody in the athletic department reportedly left his wife, Joanne, standing on the curb at McCarran International Airport?

Something similar happened to new Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant, under slightly different circumstances, in North Carolina in November.

The NHL team he had coached to its best finish in history only the year before kicked him to the curb.

Gallant was fired after the Florida Panthers lost 3-2 to Carolina, and he was photographed standing on the curb outside the arena waiting for a taxi after the team bus pulled away.

And here you thought a Saskatchewan winter was cold.

NFL hypocrisy redux

So the NFL — No Fun League — says it is OK for the Raiders to move here, but not for its players to arm wrestle in a Las Vegas casino?

What happens to this, from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell?

“All of us have evolved a little bit on gambling. To me, where I cross the line is anything that can impact on the integrity of the game. If people think it is something that can influence the outcome of a game, we are absolutely opposed to that.”

Roger, that.

It’s the only rule that should apply regarding pro football players and Las Vegas. One gets caught betting on games, one gets suspended. Like Paul Hornung and Alex Karras in the 1960s. Everything else goes, as it goes for any other citizen.

We should arm wrestle on it.

0:01

In poking around on what has been written about Desiree Reed-Francois, UNLV’s athletic director in waiting — everybody seems to speak highly of her, by the way — I found something she wrote that appeared in the Sports Business Journal. She said her must vacation was kayaking with killer whales in the San Juan Islands, which should almost prepare her for being UNLV’s AD.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.