Will Racing Return to Miami’s Bayfront Park?

Formula E’s inaugural Grand Prix of Miami is 13 months out, and little by little information is slipping out about the event.

A recent article in the Miami Today gave the most information on the proposed street race, and some of it is a little odd. Most interesting to me is that neither the Dade County Commission nor the City of Miami have voted to grant Formula E and Andretti Sports Marketing a permit to hold the event. Considering Formula E organizers have been talking about this for almost a year, and have a date on their schedule it seems odd to me that they don’t have a permit.

Formula E shows off its car during a demonstration in Las Vegas 1/6/13 courtesy of formulae.om

They still have almost thirteen months to pull the event together, and I’m sure there are handshake agreements in place, but if I learned anything in my decade as a reporter it’s that governments are squirrely things.

I’m not hugely surprised that the elected officials are somewhat in the blind. It’s been my experience that the staff hash out the specifics, does all the dealing, and the commissioners are typically the last to know the details. As a rule, very few items brought up for votes fail, and mostly the staff’s deals go through with a few minor modifications. Odds are someone has been working out a deal with Miami’s staff and are working on an informal agreement. Still, it’s just strange to me that Formula E put the date on the schedule without a formal agreement.

So far, it appears that the only official thing the city has done is pass a motion calling for a feasibility study of bringing either Formula One or Formula E to Miami. You can read the actual legislation here, but again, it seems odd to me that an event is schedule for thirteen months out, and you start a three-month feasibility study now?

The other piece of information that came out of the Miami Today story is that the event would take place near American Airlines Arena and would require the closing of Biscayne Boulevard. I’m familiar with Miami, and to me that suggests a return to Bayfront Park.

If you’ve been an open wheel fan for a while you’ll remember that Bayfront Park is where CART staged the Grand Prix Americas in 2002 and 2003. It’s in the shadows of American Airlines Arena and requires the closing of Biscayne Boulevard. Bayfront Park is a good area for the race, and unless they somehow stage a race around the arena there isn’t another location in that part of town suitable for racing.

It’s a good location for a race. There are four or five hotels that overlook the park, it is well served by mass transit, is used to moving 40,000 people in and out of the area,  and it has a nice backdrop. It’s not a particularly racey layout though. The CART track was 1.38 miles with a short, jagged, front stretch and only one passing area. The CART Layout might work better for Formula E because the cars reportedly have a top speed of only 150. It doesn’t look like there are a whole lot of options for a better layout unless they incorporate some of the highly trafficked side streets.

So, we’re still waiting on details, because there’s no details about anything, including the street race in Los Angeles which is less than a year out. I’m still curious about the possibility of Indycar piggybacking on the event. We’re less than seven months out from the Formula E race in Beijing and tickets and circuit maps aren’t available for any of the 10 street races on their calendar. Answers need to be forthcoming soon.