A group of Vegas businesses has launched a petition to stop the 2024 Grand Prix. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Support floods in

Signatures of support have flooded an online petition launched by six Las Vegas business owners seeking to stop the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Stop the Las Vegas Grand Prix”

The group is backing the “Stop the Las Vegas Grand Prix” petition launched Friday. The petition, posted by organizer Lisa Mayo-DeRiso on X, had harvested 256 signatures en route to an initial 500 signature target as of Monday morning:

By the early hours of Tuesday, the total had reached 726, with a new target of 1,000 signatures.

The business owners claim last year’s Grand Prix lost them $30m. The under-fire Clark County Commission (CCC) gave F1 carte blanche to use the Strip for the 2023 race without the FIA-sanctioned racing body paying the county any compensation.

Bridges, light mounts, concrete barriers and fences built for the race affected customer access for many local businesses, such as petitioner Ferraro’s Ristorante. Owner Gino Ferraro stated F1 is moving ahead with plans for the 2024 race without acknowledging losses suffered by businesses like his: “as if we don’t exist.”

“My family restaurant has been here for 39 years. We matter,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal cited Ferraro as stating.

Silence so far

The petition hopes to halt Clark County Commission before it approves the 2024 Grand Prix’s special use permit. It wants to first address issues from 2023, such as the lost $30m, and “traffic issues caused by the race’s setup and teardown.”

LVSportsBiz on Monday threw further fuel onto the issue asking “what is Clark County hiding?” after stating the administration refused to make public the traffic plans for the 2024 Grand Prix. These were submitted to the county on May 1 by the F1 race organizers.

petition also called “for more transparency and community input”

In what seems a direct indictment against the Clark County government, the petition also called “for more transparency and community input” during the planning of the 2024 race. Mayo-DeRiso stated the business owners will use all available administrative channels to push their concerns, with a lawsuit in mind if they don’t get anywhere.

The affected businesses have been trying to get their concerns across since at least January. This was when Ferraro’s Ristorante was one of nine Vegas firms to approach the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) seeking reimbursement of an estimated $23m in lost revenue attributed to the 2023 race.

Petitioning for action

“To date, F1 has not held a public meeting or even sat in a room with all of us together who lost millions in 2023,” said Ferraro.

According to the LVR-J, Las Vegas Grand Prix representatives “didn’t respond Monday to a request for comment,” with CCC Chair Tick Segerblom opting not to comment.

Mayo-DeRiso stated she hopes the attention the petition is getting will prompt Clark County to set “a public meeting specifically focused on the impacts of the race.” She added affected businesses and employees:

deserve to have some sort of voice in what’s happening.”

Owner of Battista’s Restaurant and Stage Door Casino, Randy Markin, concurred in a statement he wrote in the petition. “We firmly believe that we need public input on this event that proved to be devastating to my business and others,” he said.