Newsflash: Champ Car still boring...even in Vegas

As we’ve mentioned before, we are race fans here at VegasRy, but that race sucked.

Just finished watching the Vegas Grand Prix, (on Tivo, thank god for the 30-second skip) which was won by the polesitter, Australian Will Power. Defending series champ Sebastien Bourdais was hampered by tire problems, and was never a factor. Spotlighted rookie Graham Rahal, son of Bobby Rahal, crashed just past the start/finish line at the drop of the green flag and finished last.

The race was a joke for many reasons; Bourdais had 3(!) flat tires, there were bad pit stops all around, and best of all, 6 of 17 cars finished on the lead lap. Seriously…6, on a 2.4 mile road course!

The stands looked pretty empty, probably due to the race being held on Easter Sunday, but more so the fact that people probably couldn’t be pried away from their slot machines. I wonder if the Champ Car fans were as unruly as the NBA fans…

Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy finished 3rd.

Full story here.

Preview: Vegas Grand Prix

We are big fans of racing here at VegasRy, but Champ Car seems to be on it's last legs. We have also been pretty rough on Downtown Las Vegas in our recent commentary. However, we think that the upcoming Champ Car race taking place downtown seems like a pretty cool idea.

Next weekend the Champ Car series Vegas Grand Prix will take place on a temporary circuit that snakes aroung Downtown Casinos:

Click to enlarge...
The race is on Sunday April 8th, Easter Sunday, but there are a bunch of festivities throughout the weekend.

We really are more NASCAR and Formula One (Did you know F1 raced in the Caesars parking lot in 1981 and 82?) fans, but this does sound pretty slick. Will keep you updated.

Vegas Grand Prix Official Site

Get 'em while they're hot!

As seen in front of Bally's

The town was overrun with NASCAR fans last weekend, and they all needed a place to buy subtle little numbers such as these.

Homefield Advantage for Busch

Kyle Busch returned home this week for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race at Las Vegas Moor Speedway. Busch finished second to Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson in 2005 here and looks to better that in the town he was raised. This is a homefield of sorts for both Kyle and his brother Kurt. Kyle is an 18-1 favorite at the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and my money's on him to end up in the winner's circle. Couple the homefield advantage with the vast knowledge of teammates' Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson and we have a serious contender in Busch. Watch out for the 5 car on Sunday.