The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was an annual car race held in Las Vegas, US from 1981 to 1984. In 1981 and 1982 the race was part of the Formula One World Championship and featured a 2.268 mile (3.650 km), 14 turn Grand Prix layout; in 1983 and 1984 it became a round of the CARTIndy car series and featured a 5 turn 1.125 mile (1.811 km) distorted oval layout. Nissan/Datsun was a presenting sponsor of the races.[1] The races were held on a temporary circuit in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel.[2][3][4]
History
Derek Warwick (Toleman TG182 Hart) at Las Vegas in 1982.
There had been Can-Am races at the Stardust International Raceway in the mid to late 1960s, but that circuit was bought by developers and then demolished in 1970. The first race was originally supposed to take place as the last race of the 1980 season on November 2, 4 weeks after the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. But when Watkins Glen went off the schedule after 1980, the Caesars' Palace Grand Prix gained importance, and more effort was put forth by Bernie Ecclestone and others to make sure this Las Vegas race went ahead. The new race ended the year, whereas Long Beach, only 300 mi (480 km) away, started it. But the Las Vegas Caesars Palace circuit was not as popular among the drivers [who?] as Long Beach, primarily because of the flat, repetitive nature of the circuit, its parking-lot location, and Las Vegas itself. It has been described as one of the worst circuits Formula One has ever visited.[5]
The track was laid out in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel and was set up for a temporary circuit. Wide enough for overtaking, it provided ample run-off areas filled with sand and had a surface that was as smooth as glass. Its counter-clockwise direction, however, put a tremendous strain on the drivers' necks. When Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship by finishing fifth in 1981, it took him 15 minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after barely making it to the finish. The 1982 race, held in intense heat—another unpleasant feature of this race—was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell, but that was the end of Formula One racing in Las Vegas, since the races had drawn only tiny crowds (the venue has been described as "an impossibly tight and unedifying circuit that failed to excite drivers or fans"[6]) and the 1981 race made a huge loss for the hotel.
Following the withdrawal of Formula One, the event was assumed by the CARTIndy car series for 1983 and 1984. The circuit was modified with turns 1, 6, and 10 connected in a continuous straight, producing a flat 1.125 mi (1.811 km) distorted oval. The two races were contested over 178 laps, a distance of 200.25 mi (322.27 km).[7][8][9] For the 1984 running, the exit of the final corner was widened, increasing lap speeds by around 7 mph from the previous year.[10][unreliable source?] Following the 1984 race, the circuit disappeared from the calendar, with the location now covered with urban development (namely, the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Mirage).[11][12]
