Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy was effusive in his praise of the new 2.4-mile street circuit: “This is a first class facility and it’s an awesome feeling to be right here, downtown,” Tracy commented. “It’s a very fast and technical track and there are some places to pass. You carry a lot of speed and the corners are quite a bit quicker than many of the traditional street tracks that we go to. It’s kind of like a combination of a road course with some fairly quick corners and some tight, traditional street track corners. It's a very quick track and obviously it's a lot of fun to drive. I think it's one of the best temporary tracks I've ever raced on.”
Three-time champion
Sebastien Bourdais, who is quick to criticise if he believes any aspect of the sport is not up to par, was as positive as Tracy about the Vegas track. “We’ve got ninety degree corners and you‘ve got serious, proper run-off where if you have a brake failure, you’re in much better shape,” Bourdais observed. “I think it’s a new standard for safety in street circuits in Champ Car and it’s a long one, too, so it’s really got it all. Between the length of the track and the width and the run-off and the grip, it’s going to be a first-class track all-round.”
Tracy said he was very sceptical when he first heard about promoter Jensen’s plan to run a street race in downtown Vegas. “When they first said they were going to have a race in downtown, I said, Man, there's no way you could have a race down there. The roads are so rough, you can hardly drive a nice car on them. But the city got behind the race. They made the track beautifully smooth. We had one small issue with a bump on the track and they came in and worked all night and fixed it. We had a problem with the track and they didn’t just try to band-aid to fix it. They tore the whole intersection out and repaved it and that’s great.
![Will Power on the Vegas podium with Robert Doornbos and Paul Tracy [Pic credit: BAM Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/308075.jpg)
