Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.
It's just an invitation across the nation A chance for folks to meet There'll be laughing, singing, music swinging Dancing in the street
Martha & the Vandellas meet Oscar Goodman.
If you're wondering why the World's Happiest Mayor is downright giddy this week, it's because he has been dancing in the streets.
This past Sunday, Hizzoner set his alarm so he wouldn't miss the New Las Vegas Marathon, which for the second year was run up and down the Strip. Somebody even said they saw him sipping on a Red Bull at the crack of dawn, although I'm sure his was probably spiked with Bombay Sapphire.
The next morning, Oscar Mayor had made his way downtown, where doughnuts were being served for breakfast. Only these weren't the Krispy and Kremey kind. They were the really loud and smoky kind.
To kick off the ticket drive for the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix, which will be April 6-8, Champ Car drivers Ryan Dalziel and Alex Figge squeezed into their magnificent flying machines and began spinning their wheels in big, looping arcs - at the intersection of Ogden Avenue and Third Street in front of the Celebrity Theatre. Drivers who win auto races call this visceral display of rubber meeting road "making doughnuts."
When Figge's car nearly jumped the curb, I thought we were going to lose one Las Vegas celebrity. Mayor Goodman was standing a little too close to the yellow crime scene tape, which was somebody's idea of a protective barrier.
"I drink to excess," the World's Shakiest Mayor said upon being introduced at the news conference. "I didn't think anything could take the place of Bombay Sapphire gin in my life but that was really awesome.
"I think I'm going to watch from the 10th floor of City Hall, feeling very secure."
Before NASCAR began running in circles at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Goodman's idea of a race was getting from the courtroom to the cocktail lounge before last call. But that was before he discovered that brightly colored racing machines that zip around at speeds that would make the Road Runner blush attract lots and lots of people who have a need for that kind of thing. And that these rack-and-pinion heads spend large sums of money on pit passes and beer and garish T-shirts with their favorite driver's picture on them.
So Goodman wisely deferred to the racing people, who announced they have added a corporate sponsor (Visa) and "35 percent more grandstand seats to accommodate the demand for tickets" - although the suits wouldn't say how many seats will be sold. And that unlike the NASCAR race at the speedway, they won't cost an arm and two legs.
While you will be able to get close enough to the cars to smell the ethanol for free, if you want a seat on race day it's still going to cost a minimum of $44. If you're still single, think of it as a really fast dinner at the local Outback and a movie.
Jimmy Vasser, the former Champ Car champion and longtime Las Vegan who retired a couple of years ago, was then called to the stage. He said driving under railroad tracks, which is what the cars will do when they zoom under the Union Pacific overpass on Bonneville Avenue, sure beats the heck out of driving over them, which is what happened at San Jose a couple of years ago when the light-rail tracks turned some race cars into bottle rockets.
By then, Mayor Goodman had stopped paying attention. He wanted the emcee to turn the microphone back to the race organizers, who predicted that as many as 250,000 people could pass through downtown for the street party, rock concert and boxing matches that will be part of the Vegas Grand Prix weekend.
Maybe that's a bit of a reach. But any way you look at it, there's going to be a lot of beer served in large, plastic footballs that weekend.
That would explain why the World's Happiest Mayor excused himself, ducked under the crime scene tape and began to dance in the street.
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