Event owners move quickly

Dale Jensen and Brad Yonover were not happy entrepreneurs nor budding race promoters on the afternoon of June 7, 2006.

Neither was Jim Freudenberg, their point man for what they hoped would become the Vegas Grand Prix.

It was a project for which Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was asked to turn over 2.44 miles of downtown streets for use as a racing circuit and provide some funding for the transformation.

The race promoters sat through almost an hour of a mundane Las Vegas City Council meeting that day, waiting for another opportunity to pitch the merits of their proposed three-day event. But Goodman devoted at most two minutes to the subject without asking for their input.

"I only want to hear about the $500,000 and if any progress has been made to raise that, so the city won't have to come up with it," Goodman said, referring to the request for needed street upgrades.

But on July 19, the council voted unanimously to approve a five-year contract with the promoters. The deal included city funds to transform the requested route into a racing circuit. Money budgeted for repaving over the next few years was advanced so that resurfacing and minor street modifications could be completed before the race.

The old and new of downtown Las Vegas is four days away from being showcased to a live, national television audience Sunday afternoon on NBC (Channel 3) and a potentially larger international viewership including key tourism markets in Canada, Mexico and China.

Today, the finishing touches are being put on the circuit in preparation for Friday's opening day, which will feature practice and qualifying for teams in the premier Champ Car World Series, Historic Grand Prix and Champ Car Atlantic developmental series.

The Grand Prix has become a reality due to the multimillion-dollar investment by DDB Ventures, which is owned by Jensen and Yonover. One source within the organization said the group has invested around $15 million in the event. A little over five miles of special concrete barriers, topped with special built safety catch-fence, cost around $4 million, and another $2 million was spent on five temporary pedestrian bridges over the course.

The pedestrian bridges and galvanized metal safety catch-fence will be shipped to Phoenix for its inaugural Arizona Grand Prix in December, an event also owned by DDB. Five miles of 12-foot concrete barriers will be stored in Southern Nevada.

"It's amazing, just amazing to see what our team has done," Jensen said Wednesday. "There have been so many professionals involved in this.

"Just to see the course now is exciting, incredibly exciting."

It's taken more than a year of planning and three months of construction to get the job done. And within 10 days of the final checkered flag being waved late Sunday afternoon, all remnants of the race course will be gone, but the smoothest streets in Southern Nevada will remain.

"This will be the worst Vegas Grand Prix ever," Jensen said. "I'm being tongue in cheek.

"We've been saying trust us, trust us, trust us. We've already discovered areas we will improve for next year's event. It's better and easier for downtown every year. "

He promises there will be a second Vegas Grand Prix.

It's the first motor sports event for Jensen and over, and both have a history of making good investments and understanding the intricacies of the entertainment industry.

Jensen is a venture capitalist from Phoenix who owns about 25 percent of baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks and part of the NBA's Phoenix Suns. Yonover, an entertainment entrepreneur, helped to start GreeneStreet Films, which produced movies that garnered five Oscar nominations.

Freudenberg, president and chief executive of the Vegas Grand Prix and the street race in Phoenix, has been in racing for 23 years, with jobs ranging from general manager for an IndyCar team to organizing or managing 73 races.

The promoters' contract with the city is for five years.