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Caesars Palace Grand Prix: Las Vegas, Organized Crime and the Pinnacle of Motorsport
The path of Grand Prix racing in America wound through raceways at Sebring, Riverside, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, and finally Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. At each stop, the influence of organized crime seemed no more than a handshake away. But at Caesars the vast crime syndicate appeared deeply involved in the operations of the luxury-branded resort. The Caesars Palace Grand Prix then culminated in an unholy alliance of the world capital of gambling, the mob, and the international czar of Formula One. During its four-year run of successive Formula One and CART IndyCar events, the race hosted the biggest names in motorsport--Mario Andretti, Bernie Ecclestone, Roger Penske, Chris Pook, Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Niki Lauda, Danny Sullivan, Bobby Rahal and Al Unser among them. The podium celebration of the inaugural Grand Prix put the convergence of alleged organized crime influences and auto racing on public display, while the years that followed provided their own curiosities. This book traces the intertwined threads through decades of accounts, extensive interviews, and the files of the FBI.
442 pages, Paperback
Published October 8, 2021
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 2, 2025
This was a tricky book. I assumed it would be very interesting because of my interest in motorsport and knowing more about the Las Vegas GP from the 1980s, but it was not what I was expecting at all.
Half the book was about the mobster connections of Las Vegas and half about the history of the US GP. Intertwined in sections of each chapter and I found the US GP bits much more interesting than the intermixing names of various mobsters (not to mention how Cannon had the American habit of calling teams with sponsors names, like Elf Tyrrell, when that is not used in F1).
In its best passages this is an entertaining book, but those don't come as often as they should. Which made it a slog to read, unfortunately, despite how much organized work the author put into this.
Half the book was about the mobster connections of Las Vegas and half about the history of the US GP. Intertwined in sections of each chapter and I found the US GP bits much more interesting than the intermixing names of various mobsters (not to mention how Cannon had the American habit of calling teams with sponsors names, like Elf Tyrrell, when that is not used in F1).
In its best passages this is an entertaining book, but those don't come as often as they should. Which made it a slog to read, unfortunately, despite how much organized work the author put into this.
Displaying 1 of 1 review