F1 News: Las Vegas GP manages to get themselves sued

Formula 1 and the Las Vegas GP have been hit with a class-action lawsuit after forcing spectators to leave the circuit for Practice 2.

–Mark Cipolloni–

Thursday night’s FP2 was delayed to fix the track issues and finally ran at 2.30am local time in front of empty grandstands as those fans who had stayed behind were ordered to leave before FP2 began. The 90 minutes extended session finished at 4am.

Although F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and Las Vegas GP CEO Renee Wilm issued a joint statement explaining the situation, and why certain decisions were taken, there was no formal apology.

Those fans with a Thursday-only ticket (estimated to be 35,000) were offered a $200 voucher to spend in an official store as compensation. Spectators with a three-day ticket were offered nothing.

That has resulted in a Las Vegas law firm, Dimopoulos, with JK Legal & Consulting serving as co-counsel, filing a suit with the Nevada District Court on Friday on behalf of 35,000 fans who had purchased tickets for Thursday’s practice.

Five individuals have been named as plaintiffs in the suit against Liberty Media, owner and promoter of the Las Vegas GP, and TAB Contractors Inc., a company charged with track maintenance.

The lawsuit, seeking $30,000 for each fan for ‘general’ and ‘special’ damages’ given associated travel and hotel expenditure,  alleges breach of contract, negligence, and deceptive trade practices against the defendants.

Lead lawyer Steve Dimopoulos said: “We will vindicate the rights of the fans that travelled great distances and paid small fortunes to attend, but were deprived of the experience.”