Champ Car’s history in Las Vegas

Major league auto racing made its debut in Las Vegas in 1954 when a hundred-mile National Championship Race (the series which evolved into what Champ Car is now) was run. The one mile dirt track it was held on was a former horse racing track found behind the old Thunderbird hotel. The race victor was Jimmy Bryan, who won the last four races that season and the 1954 championship. After that initial appearance Champ Cars did not return to Vegas for several years, but racing did not disappear. In 1966, the Stardust Raceway opened for business. The 3-mile road course hosted major auto races from 1966-68 with Bobby Unser winning the one and only Champ Car race there in 1968. Champ Car staged two races in 1983 and 1984, with Caesars Parking lot configured into a modified oval consisting of five turns. The unique design produced some exciting racing, with Mario Andretti winning in 1983 and Tom Sneva out dueling Al Unser Sr. in the 1984 season finale, in which Andretti clinched the season championship by surviving a spectacular late-race spin with John Paul Jr. It's still possible to take a lap around the old racing circuit, but you had better have your wallet out as the Forum Shops at Caesars were erected on what used to be the front straightaway. In 1996 Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened and hosted a wide variety of racing series, holding Champ Car races in both 2004 and 2005. The 2007 Vegas Grand Prix will mark the first time Champ Cars have graced the streets of the Las Vegas in the historic downtown area.