LV remains front-runner for F1 race

Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George has coveted a Formula One race for the past five years. A story in this week's Sports Illustrated said George has offered to add an infield road course to his legendary track in order to secure the international racing series.

But F1 president Bernie Ecclestone has made it clear during the past 12 months that Las Vegas is his first choice to host the only American Formula One race.

"Bernie has said that Tony George has been after him for five years ... and if (Ecclestone) wanted to go to Indianapolis, he would have done it five years ago," a source close to Ecclestone said. "As Bernie has said, (F1 and Las Vegas) are a perfect marriage."

Tommy Baker, president of a local group trying to build a golf course and 2.9-mile road course at the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip to host the F1 series, agrees.

Although San Francisco and Atlanta also have been lobbying to become the permanent site of an American F1 race, Baker reiterated that Ecclestone prefers Las Vegas.

"Ecclestone hasn't ... been to Atlanta and he hasn't even been to Indianapolis," Baker said.

"He has been here four times and he's personally looked at the plans, the design, and now he has brought in Normand Legault from the Montreal Grand Prix to (head) the event production team."

In Ecclestone's mind, Baker said, Las Vegas offers what Indianapolis can't and what San Francisco and Atlanta only can come close to offering.

"Formula One is a corporate-driven event, much like the Olympics," Baker said. "You cannot generate enough income from ticket sales to pay for one of these events so the only way you can do it is by having corporate alliances tied into it.

"Las Vegas has great hotels, great restaurants, great corporate hospitality and -- this is probably most important -- 40,000 hotel rooms within a 10-minute walk of the (proposed) track."

Any talk of bringing an F1 race to Las Vegas is speculative until the Clark County Commission casts its vote Sept. 1 on which of three groups will be awarded the contract to develop 155 acres of land at Las Vegas Boulevard, south of Russell Road.

Each proposal includes an 18-hole public golf course and a compatible recreation component. The race track is competing against one proposal that includes a tennis complex and another that includes a nine-hole, par-3 course.

The County Commission twice voted to postpone selection of one of the three proposals until additional information was obtained.

If Baker's group is awarded the development contract, Ecclestone has said he would bring Formula One to Las Vegas for a season-ending race beginning in 2000.

While F1 caters to a more affluent crowd than its American counterparts (such as the CART Fed Ex Championship Series, the Indy Racing League and NASCAR), Baker said the local race fan won't get lost in the shuffle.

In fact, Clark County residents would be afforded an opportunity that is unheard of at any of the 17 locales the series visits.

"Formula One, generally speaking, does not offer the general-admission ticket; you have to buy a three-day ticket and that's a reserved seat," Baker said.

"However, Clark County residents, exclusively, will be entitled to purchase a three-day general-admission ticket for $75 that allows them into an amphitheater setting that we are creating that will view about 25 percent of the entire circuit. Actually, you'll be able to see more of the circuit from that area than from any one grandstand."

Baker said his group's construction plans call for the creation of a 25- to 30-foot basin near the south end of the property, bordering McCarran Airport. That would create an amphitheater-like setting where fans can sit on grassy slopes and watch the race as it winds through the golf course.

The driving range and five of the golf course's 18 holes also will be located in this basin, Baker said, which should alleviate McCarran's concerns about structures encroaching into the airport's air space.

"Thanks to the county, we're affording some of these items (to county residents) because of the grounds being made available to us," Baker said.

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