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Shop at Jay’s Market at 190 East Flamingo Road at the Koval Lane intersection east of the Strip.
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Well, better later than never for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
It would have been ideal for F1 to not rush to stage its Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023 that caused major traffic disruptions and business losses in the Strip corridor and instead plan a race circuit that caused less public pain while also connecting with locals in 2024.
Toward that end, the Las Vegas Grand Prix lifted the curtain on a “Grand Prix Plaza” for VIP and media Friday that showcased three ticketed interactive race activities that included working the steering wheel of a race simulator, driving karts on a 1,650-foot track that includes an actual piece of the 3.8-mile race circuit and designing your own race car in a high-tech area of the F1 pit building east of the Strip.
There was a lot of technological razzle-dazzle in that immersive race car design area, where F1 fans got a taste of creating their own race teams. That was $79. The high-tech displays were housed on the second level of the pit building at Harmon Avenue and Koval Lane, east of the Strip, where the November race starts and ends.
The simulators were $26, while the karting operations were 59 bucks. These plaza experience ticket prices do not include fees and taxes. And there are discounts for locals.
The fan experiences at the 39-acre site open to the public May 2 after F1 had hoped to debut them Saturday.
Ideally, it would have been effective to open this type of interactive operation when the first Las Vegas Grand Prix was staged in the Strip area because the public engagement would have helped locals deal with the race event.
New F1 LVGP President Emily Prazer acknowledged that Year 1 got off to a rocky start with the traffic snarls and business access problems, but that the race event now in its third year is committed to trying to connect with its host market after the PR black eye in 2023.
Four businesses filed lawsuits against F1 and Clark County, alleging they lost millions of dollars because of the race course barriers and traffic problems and that the county fast-tracked the race’s approvals by not properly reviewing the grand prix’s permit applications.
Clark County commissioners, who failed to understand the scope of the race’s impacts in the Strip corridor in the first year, will have to decide whether to allow the Las Vegas Grand Prix to continue holding the race for another seven years after the three-year deal is done after the Nov. 20-22 race event.
The fan experience activities will be open through mid- to late-September when the grand prix starts getting the pit building ready for its annual road race. F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix is targeting late Jan. 2026 to reopen the plaza fan activities. The Las Vegas Grand Prix has reduced ticket prices this year after there were complaints from locals that the tickets were too expensive in Year 1 in 2023.
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