LVGP: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

[ZoWie]

Ever since the crooked English billionaire sold Formula One to the right wing American media conglomerate, the Holy Grail has been a Grand Prix in Las Vegas. They've done three of them now, so they've had time to get it right, but sorry, no cigar for you.

It is now clear to anyone who has their head outside their butt that the Vegas GP is a disaster. It was a commercial concoction from the start, but that's normal in sports, so it's not the real problem. The real problem is that it's at the wrong time of day in the wrong time of year, and probably in the wrong part of town. It's an unworkable concept.

For either commercial or ego reasons, they insist on running the race right down the Vegas Strip, with all the casino lights flashing away, including the one with the giant lighted "TRUMP." Now, the casino resorts aren't about to put up with the streets being closed in the day time, so the race is in the dead of night. It's also held in late November, which means that a desert climate like Vegas is very cold at night. The sight of spectators all bundled up and standing next to giant propane heaters is not exactly the image that Las Vegas wants to be showing to the world.

This year was even worse, because the climate change that we are told does not exist has put the Pacific weather oscillation on steroids for several years now. As a direct consequence, a violent thunderstorm of a type that used to be unheard of at this time of year went through LA Saturday morning, blowing out our power, and then reached Vegas right at the start of qualifying on Saturday night. The resulting chaos made any of LA's misfortunes look like minor irritations.

It's not related, but another big problem comes from the Vegas storm drain covers. F1 has 24 races a year now, and 23 of them manage to keep drain covers from coming loose when race cars go over them at 220 MPH. Vegas is #24. Its covers do come loose. Twice in three years, they've had to throw the yellow flag because one of them has become a land mine after being picked up and thrown hundreds of feet by sticky racing tires with 1000 horsepower going through them. So far, no one has been killed. So far.

Personally, I could handle the Vegas hype because there's still a car race in there somewhere, but it's painful to watch them screwing up what could be a second Monaco if handled by real sports people.