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 And another street
race; a 1984 one-off run between hundreds of portable concrete lane dividers that ended up
as a test of how close drivers could come to heat stroke while driving a kart course.
Curiously, the race was won by a Finish driver. Keke Rosberg took it, while Nigel Mansell
passed out pushing his dead Lotus across the line. Knowledgeable observers wondered how
any venue could be more foreign to Formula 1. A decade, or so, later, however, NHL hockey
came to Dallas and met with quick success. The race organizers were probably not so crazy
afterall, although they couldn't come up with enough money for an encore in '85. Like Las
Vegas, Dallas was touted recently as a possible site for a U.S. GP in the future, but has
recently dropped out of the running. Length:
3.901 km (miles)
Fastest Lap: N. Lauda, McLaren MP4-2 - (1984) - 1'45.353" 133.3 km/h
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 The ancestral
home of the American car company plays host to a horde of effete European road racers
screamed the Detroit Free Press. In fact the respected newspaper declined to make that
statement yet many of the local inhabitants must have wondered why these racecars were not
running on a local speedway instead of their "beloved" city streets. The
inaugural event in 1982 gave the U.S. 3, count 'em, 3 GPs in a single year. Scene of a
couple of classic races, including John Watson's victory from the 17th starting position
in 1982. The course itself was no classic, but neither was it a Las Vegas, Dallas or
Phoenix. Length: 4.023 km
(miles)
Fastest Lap: A. Senna, Lotus/Honda - (1987) - 1'40.464" 144.172 km/h
(mph) |
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 Not even a
street circuit but an "only in America" parking-lot course and possibly the
sorriest excuse for a GP course yet produced. What does Las Vegas and Grand Prix racing
have in common? Nothing, and yet for two years; 1981 and 1982 the Winnebagos and
Airstreams that clog the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace were replaced by the whine of
1200 horse-power Formula One racing cars. Road racing in America had reached its
lowest point or so it seemed at the time. Vegas may have surpassed even Bernie Ecclestone
with its desire to place commercial above sporting interests. Piquet cemented his first
championship here in 1981. Las Vegas looked for a while as if it might be the site for the
next U.S. GP, this time with plans for for a purpose-built race track. The city fathers
opted for another golf course instead. Length:
3.65 km (last race) ( miles)
Fastest Lap: Alboreto, Tyrrell 011 - (1982) - 1'19.639" 164.995 km/h
( mph) |
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 Long
Beach was the third best street course in the world, following Monaco and Adelaide.
Sixteen years after it had first visited Southern California, Chris Pook brought F1 to
this dockside course in 1976. It stayed through 1983 after which the less expensive Indy
car show took over. Long Beach was the scene of some excitement. In 1982 Niki Lauda
secured the first victory of his second F1 career in only his 3rd start. McLaren was
victorious the next year as well when John Watson (who made something of a career of
finishing well in America) won the final Long Beach event in impressive style, rising from
the grave of grid position 22. Talented Swiss Clay Regazzoni's career ended here in 1980
when the run-off at the end of the long straight proved insufficient. Length: 3.25 km (1st 6 years) (miles)
Fastest Lap: N. Piquet, Brabham BT 49 - (1980) - 1'19.83" 146.6 km/h
(mph) |
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 Born
from the imagination of William "Willie K" Vanderbilt, Jr., great grandson of
millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt and a racer in his own right, these races were held
despite numerous court orders, public hearings and threats of injunction. The initial
course measured 30.24 miles winding for the most part through Nassau County, New York.
From 1904 to to 1910 the race was held on different circuits each year to offset strong
civic opposition despite their popularity with the general population. In 1908 the course
included 9 miles of Long Island Motor Parkway in a desperate attempt to gain some
semblance of crowd control. |
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 You guessed it,
still one more street race. 1989 through 1991, the latter being the last year a GP was
held in the U.S. Senna took 2/3 of the victories - '90 and '91. 1998 World Champion Mika
Hakkinen made his F1 debut here in 1991 finishing 13th in a Lotus-Judd. Length: 3.798 km (first 2 races) (miles)
Fastest Lap: G. Berger, McLaren MP4-5B - (1990) - 1'31.050" 150.168
km/h (mph) |
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 Another one-off U.S. GP site. F1 visited the Southern
California desert here in 1960. Riverside, like Sebring, could in no way be considered a
quality GP course. Ferrari didn't even bother to show up. The U.S.-made Scarab scored its
only GP finish, at the hands of Chuck Daigh. Local talent Gurney placed his BRM on the
front row but dropped out before the end of the race. Jim Hall, making his F1 debut, had
been a victim of a Chapman shell game - he was supposed to get a full-up Lotus F1 car but
somehow wound up with an under-sized engine. He had to scramble to find a replacement with
enough displacement to power him to a very decent 7th place finish. The race was won by
Sirling Moss in Rob Walker's Lotus 18. Recently crowned World Champion Jack Brabham took
fastest lap honors.
Length: 5.27 km (
miles)
Fastest Lap: J. Brabham, Cooper/Climax - (1960) - 1'56.3" 163.1 km/h
(mph) |
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 Out of the Depression
there arose a dream to resurrect international motor racing in the United States. The
sport had degenerated into dirt and board oval track racing with Indianapolis as
its crown jewel. While this type of racing was certainly entertaining it was so far
removed from Grand Prix racing that few if any European manufacturers ventured across the
ocean to compete. The rules also stunted the technological development of automobiles in
the United States for years to come.A group
of Wall Street financiers and well-known sports figures such as Eddie Rickenbacker, former
racer, WW1 Flying ace and ironically owner of the Indianapolis Speedway established Motor
Development Corporation (MDT). This venture had as its goal to create a road racing
circuit that would host an international event pitting the best that Europe and America
had to offer in men and machines. George Robertson, one of America’s greatest pre-WW1
racing drivers and the winner of the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup was its vice president and
general manager. The complex near Westbury, Long Island would be as grand as any in the
world or so its owners wished, with seating for 50,000, elegant sky boxes for VIPs (a
scourge, even then ed.) and permanent garages for the teams. With prize money equal to
$600,000 in today’s dollars the new "George" Vanderbilt Cup race would
entice some of the worlds greatest cars and drivers including the German Mercedes and Auto
Union teams. Unfortunately reality differed from the fantasy that was Motor Development
Corporation.
The Roosevelt Raceway’s 4
miles contained 16
corners and one ¾ mile straight. It was designed by Mark Linenthal, an architect friend
of co-owner George Preston Marshall, who gained notoriety as a horse race track designer.
In fact with its hard-packed dirt surface, wood rails and track width it resembled a venue
for horses more than modern racing cars. The New York press would quip that higher speeds
could be maintained on the nearby Long Island parkways. In two short years the dream was
dead and it wasn’t until 1959 that international motor racing returned to America. |
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 For 1915 the American Grand Prize was held in conjunction with
San Francisco's Panama Pacific Exposition. The Fair, which opened on February 20, 1915, was in honor of the the discovery of
the Pacific Ocean and the completion of the Panama Canal; it was also celebration of San
Francisco's resurrection after the shattering earthquake and fire of 1906.The 3.84
mile circuit was partially boarded over San
Francisco Bay mud and when the cars drove over the boards the mud would gush out and
splatter the drivers. The race was held on the 27th of February and after two hours of
racing the winds picked up and the rain began to fall in buckets. After five grueling
hours the winner was Dario Resta in a Peugeot. |
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 After a one year interlude the American Grand Prize was
re-established in 1914 on the other side of the continent. Santa Monica would play host to
this race as well as the Vanderbilt Cup during a February Speed Festival. The 8.4
mile
course along the Pacific shoreline started on Ocean Avenue before turning left at Nevada
Avenue. This 90-degree corner was known as the notorious Death Curve.After moving to San Francisco in 1915 the races were returned
to Santa Monica the next year which would prove to be the last American Grand Prize (Prix)
contested on a road coarse until a new Vanderbilt Cup race was held in New York in 1936.
Speedways had become the "track de jour" in America. |
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 The
Vanderbilt Cup races were still being held when the new and richer American Grand Prize
was established in 1908. That was the year when the American Automobile Association (AAA),
the sanctioning body for the Vanderbilt Cup decided to ignore the latest international
regulations emanating from Paris and instead imposed a simple 1200-kg. Weight limit on all
entrants. This lack of regulations would remove any advantage held by the specially built
Grand Prix cars of Europe. Into this breach stepped the Automobile Club of America (ACA)
who announced that they would abide by the regulations issued by the ACF. The prize, the
Gold Cup was worth $5,000 or twice the Vanderbilt Cup. The next task was to find a venue
for the race. From several candidates, Savannah, Georgia was chosen.Established in 1904 the Savannah Automobile Club built a
17-mile stock-car course and held several minor races before submitting the winning bid
for the American Grand Prize. The club was originally interested in holding the Vanderbilt
Cup event but entered into the new enterprise with great enthusiasm. Using convict labor
they lengthened and refurbished their course to an expanded 25.3 mile configuration. |
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 The
first American F1 race was held on this Florida circuit in 1959. Strangely, Dan Gurney was
not in the field for this inaugural "U.S. Grand Prix" and the first GP on U.S.
soil in 43 years, though future U.S. World Champion Phil Hill and 5 other Americans were.
The only one of the 6 to finish was Harry Blanchard, taking 7th in his only F1 start.
Roger Ward ran a midget dirt track car, to no avail. Sebring is an airport track, but it
is no Silverstone. Nevertheless it has achieved fame through its annual 12 hour endurance
race for sports cars originally promoted by Alec Ulmann (who also set up the GP) and first
run in 1952. At the '59 U.S. GP, Bruce McLaren became the youngest driver to win an F1
race, a record that still stands. Jack Brabham secured that year's driver's championship
pushing his defunct Cooper across the finish line to finish 4th. The U.S. GP never made
another visit to Sebring. Length: 8.368km
(miles)
Fastest Lap:M. Trintignant, Cooper/Climax - (1959) - 3'5.0" 162.8 kph
(mph) |
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 THE American GP track, the Glen was the only modern era U.S.
track worthy of mention in the same breath with Monza or Silverstone. Buried in the
beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York it was hard to get to, there was no place to
stay, and it was cold in October. But the virtues of this classic road course more than
out-weighed such nuisances. The contrast created by having a world class race track
nestled in rolling farmland among forests, waterfalls and vineyards, and on the outskirts
of a little hamlet that could not claim a population of 3,000, lent much to the Glen's
undeniable mystique. It hosted U.S. Grands Prix from 1961 through 1980. Notable races
included 1962 through 1967, which GP immortals Jim Clark and Graham Hill split evenly
between themselves. In 1970 Emerson Fittipaldi scored his first F1 victory, in the process
securing that year's driver's title for dead teammate Jochen Rindt. The challenges
presented by the track took their toll. Watkins Glen has been the only American GP track
to claim drivers' lives in the modern era. In 1973 it was promising Tyrrell driver
Francois Cevert and in 1974 it was Austrian Helmut Koinigg who paid the ultimate price. In
the late '70s The Glen ran short of money, which, in the age of Ecclestone, meant a sure
and swift death. The 1980 race was the end. There may never be another American GP course
to match Watkins Glen. Length: 5.435
km (1970 on) (miles)
Fastest Lap: A. Jones, Williams FW07B - (1980) -1'34.068" 207.998
km/h ( mph) |
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