Caesars Palace Grand Prix
| Caesars Palace - Las Vegas | |
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| Race information | |
|---|---|
| Number of times held | 4 |
| First held | 1981 |
| Last held | 1984 |
| Most wins (drivers) | No repeat winners |
| Most wins (constructors) | No repeat winners |
| Circuit length | 3.650 km (2.268 mi) |
| Race length | 273.750 km (170.100 mi) |
| Laps | 100 |
| Last race (1984) | |
| Pole position | |
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| Podium | |
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| Fastest lap | |
Coordinates: 36°07′1″N 115°10′30″W / 36.11694°N 115.17500°W
The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was a car race held between 1981 and 1984. For the first two years, the race was part of the Formula One World Championship, before becoming a round of the CART series in 1983. Nissan/Datsun was a presenting sponsor of both races.
When Watkins Glen went off the schedule after 1980, F1 continued to look west and put an event in Las Vegas for the 1981 campaign. The new race ended the year, whereas Long Beach started it; but Las Vegas was not popular among the drivers, primarily because of the desert heat. It has also been described as one of the worst circuits Formula One has ever visited. The track was laid out in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel and was surprisingly well 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 fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after barely making it to the finish. The 1982 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 and the 1981 race turned out to be a huge loss for the hotel.
Following the withdrawal of Formula One, the event was assumed by CART for 1983 and 1984. The circuit was modified with turns 1, 6, and 10 connected in a continuous straight, producing a flat 1.125-mile distorted oval. The two races were contested over 178 laps, a distance of 200.250 miles. For the 1984 running, the exit of the final corner was widened, increasing lap speeds by around 7 mph from the previous year. Following the 1984 race, the circuit disappeared from the calendar, with the location now covered with urban development (namely The Forum and The Mirage).
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