Inaugural Vegas Grand Prix

Southern Nevada Paving and Bardon Materials were proud sponsors of the first inaugural Vegas Grand Prix (April 6-8, 2007), a three-day festival of speed and included concerts by superstar artists, extreme sports demonstrations, a celebrity poker tournament and, of course, numerous automobile races through the streets of downtown Las Vegas.

Downtown Las Vegas is comprised of a 2.44-mile, 12-turn temporary street circuit that encompass a route that circumnavigates World Market Center, Fremont Street and the downtown casinos. Southern Nevada Paving was instrumental in building part of the track, including creation of the pits & paddock area, general paving, and side walks. Additionally, we resurfaced approximately half of the road track with 4500 tons of UTACS a polymer modified oil product, that provides high grip, reduced noise and low spray. The UTACS material is paved through a modified paver which sprays a patented bonding bitumen to the road just in front of the martial, creating a high strength bond between the new surface and the older base course.

SNP is proud to have both paved the track and sponsered the race track in Las Vegas.

SNP and Bardon Materials were on the scene for an emergency response to a major course issue the first day of practice for the racers.  The cars had to maneuver through a chicane then cross an intersection dipping into a tunnel under the main rail lines. The course officials had not noticed the 8” crown at the intersection and during practice 3 cars crashed heavily as they bounced over the crown going airborne into the tunnel. Our team was asked to mill out and replace the whole intersection after practice was completed at 5pm that evening and be ready by 8am the next morning.  Phil Langager, Surfacing Supervisor and Bill Kaiser,  Asphalt Operations Manager went into action. Phil organized the equipment and crew; while Bill organized a plant crew from Sloan Asphalt to make 150 ton of PG oil 3.50“ marinated mix. The mix was delivered at 9pm and the crew finished the intersection at approximately 2am.

The internationally televised Vegas Grand Prix capped an action-packed on and around Fremont Street. It was one of the largest events in the history of downtown Las Vegas.

The inaugural Champ Car race in downtown Las Vegas marks the first major racing event there since the old Mint 400 Desert Race, which held popular pre-race activities on Fremont Street until its conclusion in the 1980s. It was also the first world-class road race in Las Vegas since the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, a once-annual race held in the 1980s.