Road to Vegas Grand Prix smooth

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

It's safe to say that the smoothest roads in Southern Nevada can be found encircling the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Public Works Department has completed most of a repaving project on a 2.4-mile network of streets that will serve as the course for the inaugural Vegas Grand Prix street race in early April.

The circuit, which begins and ends on Grand Central Parkway in front of the World Market Center, will offer the Champ Car World Series drivers an eye-opening tour of downtown as it winds past an adult bookstore, several bail bond shops, a few flophouses, the county jail and a couple of pawn shops.

Other than the repaving, the only other visible sign that the 750-horsepower open-wheel cars will be speeding through the streets of downtown is a metal "Turn 10" sign that was in danger of being blown off a light pole at the corner of Fourth Street and Ogden Avenue during a recent windstorm.

The repaving project, the result of $500,000 worth of improvements the city agreed to make to bring the streets up to Champ Car specifications, couldn't have gone better, according to Vegas Grand Prix President and Chief Executive Jim Freudenberg.

"Our operations people are ecstatic, the Champ Car people are ecstatic and it could not have gone any better," he said.

What: Vegas Grand Prix

Where: Downtown Las Vegas

When: April 6-8

Tickets: $12 and up; 944-8661 or www.vegasgrandprix.com

Freudenberg also said he couldn't be happier with the cooperation he has received from city officials, including Mayor Oscar Goodman, who are hoping a successful and long-running street race and associated activities will help revitalize downtown.

"I've worked on over 70 of these things in the past 25 years and I've never worked with a city that is so accommodating and so willing to work with you as the city has been in Las Vegas," he said.

The only work left to do on the racing surface is the removal of the median along Grand Central Parkway that will allow for a wider pit lane and front stretch and will lead to more passing in the fastest portion of the course.

The removal of the median is not being done specifically to accommodate the Grand Prix, although the timing of the project is being moved up to early February so that it will be completed in time for this year's race.

"That was going to happen anyway ... because they're putting in a (bus) loop," Freudenberg said. "They're just doing it ahead of time, which will be tremendous for us.

"We're way ahead of schedule. The Grand Central Parkway project is big - I don't want to kid anybody with that - but we've got time to finish it."

The April 8 race, which will cap a three-day entertainment festival that will include drifting, three races, boxing matches and a concert, has proved to be a hot ticket, according to Freudenberg,

"Ticket sales are tremendous," he said. "We've sold out of our reserved seats and we're almost 80 percent sold out (of general admission seating). If we hadn't added seats, we'd already be sold out."

Freudenberg said there will be approximately 40,000 grandstand seats along the front stretch and at various spots around the course.