When the lights turn off and the 20-car Formula One field hammers its way into the first turn of Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, ABC), it will mark the official South Florida debut of Earth’s biggest motorsports series.
But it will not be the first race with “Grand Prix” and “Miami” in the same title. Not even close. Prior to this weekend, nearly 30 events have been run under the name Grand Prix of Miami across five different series.
So, yes, F1 will make a little history as it races around Hard Rock Stadium this weekend. But there is little else that could be described as little about Miami’s auto racing roots. From the Alabama Gang and the Andrettis to an Indy 500 founding father and a famous televised racing death that wasn’t real, South Florida’s road to Formula One has had more twists and turns than the 19-corner, 3.363-mile Miami International Autodrome, fake parking lot marina and all.
You like fast cars? You like history? Then put on your pastel-painted helmet and race ahead.
Mr. Fisher’s beach and track
At the end of this month, they’ll run the 106th edition of the Indianapolis 500 in Speedway, Indiana, located 1,200 miles northwest of Miami Beach. But the same man was hugely instrumental in both of those locations becoming American institutions.
Carl Fisher was a Hoosier demigod, one of the four founders of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He sought to construct a proving ground for his Indianapolis-based automotive interests, from the first patented headlights to his automotive salesroom, widely recognized as the first-ever car dealership.
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IMS opened in 1909 and hosted the first Indy 500 in 1911. Fisher also built America’s first coast-to-coast road, the Lincoln Highway, and then decided he also wanted to build a north-to-south highway (which became the Dixie Highway) that connected the Midwest to Florida. Why? Because he loved to vacation in Miami. He loved it so much that he dedicated himself to converting a mangrove-and-snake-snarled island…
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