LV on course for F1 race

Friday, April 10, 1998 | 7:55 a.m.

Formula One czar Bernie Ecclestone is ready to bring his international racing series to Las Vegas if the Clark County Board of Supervisors grants a local group permission to build a 2 1/2-mile road course on the south end of The Strip.

"I think Las Vegas is good for us and I think we would be good for Las Vegas," Ecclestone said Thursday after touring the proposed 160-acre site. "It's one of those situations where it's a good marriage -- but we shouldn't have got divorced the last time we were here."

The F1 World Championship series raced in Las Vegas in 1980 and 1981 on a temporary road course behind Caesars Palace. But F1 has not had a presence in the United States since Phoenix last hosted the series in 1991.

Ecclestone made it clear that one of his priorities is to return F1 to America and said Las Vegas was a natural site to host a race. San Francisco and Atlanta are among the cities also trying attract F1.

"We've managed to survive without the United States but it's a bit silly; we're a world championship and we haven't got a race in the U.S.," Ecclestone said. "But we'll be back, that's for sure ... and I hope it's Vegas."

Las Vegas-based United States Grand Prix, headed by Tommy Baker, is one of three groups which submitted proposals last month to build a public 18-hole championship golf course and "an additional compatible recreation component" on Bureau of Land Management-owned land managed by Clark County near McCarran International Airport.

USGP's proposal is the only one of the three that incorporates an F1 road course as part of the proposed complex. The county is expected to award the development contract next month, and Ecclestone said a season-ending race could be held in Las Vegas as early as 2000 -- if Baker's group gets the nod.

"(USGP) needs to get permission to build it, first off," Ecclestone said. "Then we would have to have a bit of an input as to how it's going to be built, and then we're up and running.

"But we need an answer now because we have one or two other options."

Baker, president of USGP, has been trying to bring an F1 race to Las Vegas since 1995. Ecclestone said Baker's diligence would be a factor in his decision on which U.S. city would get an F1 race.

"We've been talking to Tommy Baker here for a long, long time, so we certainly owe him a go if he can make it work," Ecclestone said. "As soon as they get the OK from the (county), then we can get an agreement put in place and get going."

Although the proposed site of the Las Vegas F1 circuit is small compared to other venues around the world, Ecclestone said he was impressed with USGP's plans to incorporate the track within the 18-hole golf course.

"It looks pretty good ... but it would be better when it happens," Ecclestone said. "It's quite small to what normally we build on, but I think we'll have a good circuit -- as much as we can in 150 acres."

Formula One races reach an estimated worldwide television audience of 500 million and can have as much as a $300 million economic impact on cities hosting the series.

Top drivers in the high-tech open-wheel series include world driving champions Michael Schumacher of Germany, Damon Hill of Great Britain and French-Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the former Indy 500 winner and CART competitor who won last year's F1 driving title.