Ostriches racing or Champ cars? Make your choice

May. 27, 2006 12:00 AM

It was to be our big shot on the international stage. A thrilling event that would catapult Phoenix into the rarified air of Formula One racing.

Monaco, Rio de Janeiro, West Washington Street.

An estimated 200 million people were to tune in for a glimpse of the Valley. People the world over would flock to this, America's only Grand Prix race. It was to be an economic boon, a glamour magnet.

"This race gives us a tremendous amount of exposure," Councilman Paul Johnson said in January 1989 after the City Council agreed to spend $8 million to lure the Grand Prix to Phoenix. "The eyes of the world will be upon us."

Well, it's a good thing the world was watching because nobody around here was. For the next three years, tens of dozens of people flocked to downtown Phoenix for the privilege of plunking down $50 to stand and watch Euro racers zoom around a corner.

The standing joke around town was that more people showed up to the watch ostriches race in Chandler.

Except that it was no joke.

In 1991, the Iceberg Phoenix Grand Prix sputtered out of town. Nobody was sorry to see it go. Nobody, that is, other than red-faced city types who were left holding the $8 million bag.

Now, 15 years later, there's a new proposal afoot to hold a Grand Prix race on the streets of downtown Phoenix. This time, it's not Formula One but Champ cars, which, as I understand it, are fairly low on the food chain in racing circles.

Though news of this thrilling impending event just surfaced this month, city leaders have given the go-ahead for staff to begin working on it, and no wonder. There's major juice behind this deal, notably Dale Jensen, one of the owners of the Diamondbacks and part owner of the Suns and Dodge Theatre.

"We're trying to do something really cool for downtown Phoenix," Jensen told a reporter this week.

I'm guessing Jensen wasn't here for the Formula One flop of 15 years ago. Ah, but this, we're told, is different.

This race, we're told, is to be held each November. True, the Formula One race was held in June its first year. But given dismal attendance it was moved to March, where attendance proceeded to fall even lower.

This, we're told, is to be a three-day festival, not merely a street race. By the third year of the Grand Prix, promoters added in a three-day street party. Instead of a one-day bomb, they had a three-day bomb.

There are differences. This deal requires no up-front city subsidy. Instead, the multi-millionaires staging it want taxpayers to reimburse them up to $1 million.

And this deal doesn't involve some guy from England selling us a bill of goods. Instead, it's the brainchild of Jensen and somebody named Brad Yonover, who I never heard of until this week.

Actually, it's shaping up to be quite the entertaining event. Jensen has big pull in city circles, not to mention a political strategist who's married to the mayor's chief of staff. Meanwhile, Bryan Sperber, president of Phoenix International Raceway, has hired a legion of lobbyists to kill the deal, including the mayor's campaign chairman.

While Sperber's people gnash their teeth about the possible hit to NASCAR, Jensen's people spin dreams of Champ Car glory. It's said that 150,000 fans will take to the streets for the festivities.

"The motivation," lobbyist Steve Roman said, "is to have a great event that's going to bring a lot of people downtown."

Given that, you'd think they'd ditch the street race and go for the ostriches.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8635.