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Welcome to The San Jose Grand
Prix!
The pagentry
of the Grand Prix – and 2006 Miss Grand Prix Jennifer Field.
The sounds,
the scene and the sights – oh, the sights – have come
to Silicon Valley.
San Jose, a small city often waving for attention while glamorous San
Francisco sits beautifully to the north, now hosts the largest sporting
event in the Bay Area. The Taylor Woodrow San Jose Grand Prix is an
open-wheel Champ Car race, which was contested for the first time the
last week of July in 2005,
Yet, the San Jose Grand Prix is more than a race. It is an event, a
happening, an open-air, fast-paced festival that brings in people from
all over Northern California. There's booths selling food and beer ($7
domestic, $8 for "premium") an expo, a stage on-site with
bands, a Miss San Jose Grand Prix pageant (Saturday's social highlight,
to be sure) and a true buzz that's felt throughout the city.
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2007
San Jose Grand Prix
• July 27-29
• Tickets: $45 (Sunday GA), $35 (Saturday GA), $60 (Three-day
GA), $74 (3-day Bronze), $99 (three-day Silver), $129 (3-day Gold)
• Paddock Pass: $40
• Thursday night Miss GP bikini judging, Taste Ultra Lounge,
8 p.m. Miss GP Finals, Saturday 5-6 p.m.
• San Jose Grand Prix: (408) 277-9470, www.sjgp.com
• Downtown San
Jose Bars & Nightlife
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The City Council certainly feels the race is a worthy addition to downtown.
In January of 2006 it voted to give organizersa $4 million subsidy to
keep it going for the coming years.
Granted, the buzz is definitely enhanced by the beer booths and abundance
of downtown watering holes, but it is initiated by the Grand Prix. Traditionally
Champ Car (formerly CART, the open-wheel racing sanctioning body) raced
at historic Laguna
Seca Raceway in scenic Monterey.
In 2005, the series moved to San Jose and the promoters let everyone
know about it.
As a result, 150,000 turned out for the three-day event, 62,371 of
them on race day. In 2007, a lucky guest was welcomed as the one millionth
person to attend a Champ Car event for the year. The surprised fan was
greeted by Miss San Jose Grand Prix and Miss Face of Champ Car Lauren
Gardner, the lucky chap.
 Qualifying
for the race may be Saturday, but the day's hilight is the Miss GP pageant.
(Bottom photo: Simon Leung).
Many fans had never been exposed up close to the sport. People crowded
along the fence lines – up to five deep even on Saturday –
to see the cars zip by with the ferocity of a Serengeti lion attack.
The smiles on the newfound fans' faces captured their enthusiasm and
afterward, while they headed to the many downtown bars to toast a great
day, they were saying things like "this is great for San Jose"
and "they should have been doing this for years."
Now that it's here, people use the event as a three- or even four-day
weekend celebration, as their is action on Friday and Saturday building
up to Sunday's main event. The downtown area is easily walked from the
track and a light rail system – unique not only in California but
for most of the USA – brings in fans from throughout the area.
Fans line the parks, the balonies and the fence lines to see the race.
The Layout – Seeing the Sights and Sounds of the San Jose GP
[MAP]
The track is divided into two areas,
separated by Almaden Blvd., which is used as the start/finish line and
the front straightaway. The main entrance at Plaza de Cesar Chavez,
sandwiched between the Fairmont and From there, it's a short walk to
the Expo in the Convention Center, the indoor Champ Car paddock –
the cars are here when not racing and assessable to fans with a $20
paddock pass – and expo.
On the other side of Almaden Blvd., is another focus of social activity,
centered around the Center of Performing Arts. It contains human fuel
for thirsy and hungry fans, the pits, the, Gold grandstands, and the
pit suites, which are racing's version of luxury boxes. Here, people
mingle about the food and beer booths, especially on Saturday afternoon.
Further down is the main stage for concerts and the Miss Grand Prix
finals.
Getting there, though, it a tough trick. For the first year, access
was primarily via a single temporary pedestrian bridge; crossing it
required patience and at least two full beers. That bridge has been
widened and a second one added, which provides some needed relief. An
alternative is to leave the track and trek all the way around to the
entrance at the end of Almaden Blvd. The reward for this long (20-plus
minutes) walk is a view through the fence at the hairy Turn One hairpin
(this is also the location of grandstands 3a and 3b, a key viewing area).
Track crossings occur at periodic times throughout the day; times are
posted on the fence.
Through the fence
at Turn 1, the cars come fast and furious.
This isn't the 49ers or the San Jose Sharks playing, where a home team's
winning or losing a contest makes seeing every moment critical, so part
of experiencing the event's atmosphere comes in walking around the track
area to visit different vantage – and refreshment - points. It's
like peering through the fence at a Giants' games; take a peek for a
few minutes and then move on to another location. Certain drivers like
Sebastian Bourdais and Paul Tracy provide a definite cheering platform,
but the series moves onto another location the next week and it's not
as if irate fans fill sports talk radio airwaves demanding the coach
be fired if they don't win.
The thing about these street events is that that are just that –
street events. It's not really about the racing, wall-to-wall action
and cars passing for the lead at every turn. Street courses are like
old ballparks – they must fit within the widths of existing streets
and are simply not wide or long enough to provide wheel-to-wheel racing.
Local media writes about "boring" competition but they watch
the event on TV from an enclosed press center.
 The
way to watch the race is from the grandstands, combined with walking
around the facility. Stop along a fence line and feel the wind blow
back the hair when these machines go by so fast they are brief blurs.
Experience the "wow" factor when they blast by at speeds inconceivable
to the everyday driver. (A good spot for this near the foot bride along
the front straightaway.)
You want competition? See if the cars can outpace the jets flying
overhead landing at thenearby airport. They travel at the takeoff speed
of a commercial airliner.
Overall, track viewing locations for General Admission ticket holders
are limited much more than those at say, the Long
Beach Grand Prix. Fans want more seating – even benches
would be welcomed – and a GA grandstand (though that's most unlikely
but would gladly settle for more viewing areas and additional jumbotrons.
Officials have addressed this issue at least in party by adding more
GA viewing areas
They have also made it better for their high-rollers, switching the
pit lane and the front straighaway in front of the Gold seats on Alamden
Blvd., which will dramatically improve the ability to see the cars streaking
down the street. And more subtle changes, such as widening specific
areas, help boost passing opportunities. A smoother ride over the MTA's
light-rail tracks on Almaden and Market streets is a major improvement
from a competition standpoint.
And there's always the bars within or just outside the track that show
the "game" on TVs in air-conditioned comfort. The Hilton
sets up a big screen and beer bar in the lobby and cars roare down the
front straight just outside the door. This proved to be a winning location
in the the event's inaugural year. Afterward, its City Grill
is loud with excited revelers. Next door is the Holiday Inn bar.
Just outside the main entrance, people get grilled at The Grille
at the Fairmont.
After the race and late into the night (well, 2 a.m., anyway) is
downtown San Jose with its many bars and restaurants. Very
conveniently, this thriving 5-6 block area only a couple of blocks from
the track. A few high-end hotels are also right there (expect to pay
between $175-250 per night during the Grand Prix).
Miss San Jose
Grand Prix Pageant
The Top Three:
Maivel Salgado (C), Sarah Guerrero (R), Areli Ahrens (L).
The Miss Grand Prix
girls enhance the event from the grid to bars to checkered.
Call it Beauty and the Beasts. The beasts
are the race cars, of course, and the beauties are the Miss San Grand
Prix contestants. San Jose is one of a half-dozen Champ Car events to
have a Miss Grand Prix pageant as part of its race weekend package.
And it is a pageant (or more appropriately, a model search) designed
to find the Face of Champ Car, a model representative for the series
for the following season.
 During
the course of several weeks, preliminary events are held at area bars
to find 20 finalists to compete on stage in front of thousands of revved-up
fans. Celebrity judges include Champ Car drivers – who seem to
spend more time around organizer Rosko Dickinson all weekend than with
their engineer – and local officials who see the lovely ladies
in evening wear, race suits and the all-popular bikinis. Moving about
stage in a carefully choreographed group routine, the girls bring new
meaning to the racing term "parade lap."
They then get the stage all to themselves to woo the fans and judges.
After an hour and a half, a winner is announced and all competitors
still get to enjoy the weekend as Grid Girls for the Atlantics and Champ
Car races on Sunday.
The pageant is held at the main stage at 5 p.m. It is highly advisable
to arrive and be in place by 4:30 for best viewing.
The 2007 Miss San Jose Grand Prix presented by Bodi Pro is Marivel
Salgado, who now represents the race to be the Face of Champ Car at
the series' race in Mexico City.
Hangin' with the
2007 Miss San Jose Grand Prix Race Team Presented by BodiPro.
Finalist Reesha Dedhia and choreographer Alexandra Janicek at the VIP
party.
All work and no play? No way; winner Sebastien Bourdais at the private
post-race party.
2007 Miss GP Marivel
Salgado is a winner to PubClubber Rick at the post-party.
For more on the event, plus the news and more, viisit the San Jose
Grand Prix web site at www.SanJoseGrandPrix.com
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