Phoenix street circuit

Motorsport track in the United States

Phoenix, a Grand Prix Downtown

Conceived to draw attention to a reviving downtown, the Phoenix street circuit held the United States Grand Prix from 1989 to 1991, twice won by Ayrton Senna.

Most Grands Prix begin with a racetrack. Phoenix began with a question from city hall. In 1985 members of the city council asked Howard Pynn, a local developer, how they might draw attention to the redevelopment of downtown Phoenix, and he suggested a street race. Chris Pook, who ran the Long Beach Grand Prix, studied whether it could work, Bernie Ecclestone was consulted, and in January 1989 the council signed a five year Formula One contract and pledged 9 million dollars of public money to the circuit's infrastructure. The course used downtown streets alongside America West Arena and the Phoenix Civic Plaza.

The desert introduced itself in June 1989, at the first United States Grand Prix in Phoenix, with punishing heat. Ayrton Senna started from pole and retired with an electronic failure, just six of the 26 starters finished, and his McLaren teammate Alain Prost won from Riccardo Patrese and Eddie Cheever, a local man. For 1990 the race prudently moved to March and opened the season, and Senna won with Jean Alesi second. In 1991 a revised layout trimmed the lap to 3.721 kilometers; Senna won again from pole, and only nine cars were still running at the end. McLaren won all three.

Ecclestone first confirmed a date for 1992, then told the city in October 1991 that Formula One would not be coming back, offering no reason. Later he blamed the seats, or rather the lack of anywhere to put them: more than 20,000 could not be placed with a proper view of the racing. The United States waited until Indianapolis in 2000 for its next Grand Prix. Phoenix's 3 championship rounds, from 1989 to 1991, live on in a mural of Senna painted on Central Avenue in 2019, looking north toward where the track used to run.

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