Press Snoop: Things heating up in Vegas.

The inaugural Vegas Grand Prix is promised to be the worst-ever Vegas Grand Prix - by none other than BRAD YANOVER, one of the promoters.

On Thursday, he promised the media that, every year, the Vegas Grand Prix would build on the first race and just get better.

The street race is off to a hot start - literally. Wednesday night, the temperature was still 80 degrees - at midnight - and Thursday daytime temperatures were above 90 degrees F despite a cloud cover all day.

The Vegas Grand Prix is the season's opener race for all three of the series running the street festival - Champ Car World Series, Cooper Tyres Presents The Champ Car Atlantic Series Powered by Mazda, and the Historic Grand Prix.

The track was officially measured Wednesday by Champ Car Timing and Scoring, and is confirmed to be 2.44-miles or 3.927 km in length. The street course was designed by CHRIS KNEIFEL, a former racer and five-year attendee at the FIA F1 Circuits Commission meetings. The track was certified Thursday by FIA Circuits Commission President, ROGER PEART of Canada.

Kneifel is pleased at how the circuit turned out and with the progress in getting the course set up. Work started 35 days ago and is on schedule for a Friday 8am start with the Atlantic Series. The course promises to be quite fast, with Kneifel estimating speeds upwards of 190mph. He said the course will 'impressively showcase the Champ Cars'.

At its widest point, the Vegas Grand Prix track is 82 feet - going into turn one. It should prove to be an interesting corner, which some drivers compared to the interesting turn one at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Vegas turn one is wide going in, but narrower going out - 53 feet. The circuit's narrowest point is in one of the two tunnels. Kneifel calls it the Ogden Tunnel, named after the street. It's 30 feet wide. The other tunnel is the Bonneville Tunnel, and is basically a railroad crossing underpass.

Champ Car has 17 cars new Panoz DP01 cars, the Historic Formula One field numbers 26 or 27, and the Atlantics will have 27 cars.

Champ Car's field solidified with the last three drivers lined up - MATT HALLIDAY of New Zealand with Conquest Racing, and Dale Coyne running KATHERINE LEGGE of England and BRUNO JUNQUEIRA of Brazil. Junqueira's car chief didn't know Thursday if the two Dale Coyne drivers were signed for the season.

Three is the number these days in the Champ Car paddock. Halliday will run the first three races with Conquest. MARIO DOMINGUEZ of Mexico will run the first three races with Forsythe Championship Racing - the team which fired him last year for twice crashing team-mate PAUL TRACY of Canada out of a race.

Halliday is one of two Champ Car drivers who have been competing in the A1GP Series. Halliday has been running with Team New Zealand, Junqueira with Team Brazil. Atlantic driver JAMES HINCHCLIFFE has been competing with Team Canada, but said that his obligations with the team ended with the race in Mexico City, so he could concentrate on his Atlantic ride. He will be replaced by returning SEAN McINTOSH, who has the only victory for the Canadian team. Hinchcliffe had two top six finishes earlier this year in New Zealand.

The Champ Car race will be televised live on NBC at 3:30 pm ET. The in-car cameras will be on #2 Medi-Zone with rookie GRAHAM RAHAL, #9 CDW with JUSTIN WILSON, and #15 Aussie Vineyards with rookie SIMON PAGENAUD, winner of the 2006 Atlantic Championship and its $2 million prize to be used towards a Champ Car ride.

Strangely, Rahal isn't listed as a rookie on the entry list. Besides Pagenaud, five other drivers are down as rookies - ROBERT DOORNBOS of the Netherlands in #14 Muermans Minardi; the two PKV drivers - NEEL JANI of Switzerland and TRISTAN GOMMENDY of France - and the two Pacific Coast Motorsports drivers - RYAN DALZIEL of Scotland and ALEX FIGGE of Denver. Halliday of course is also a newcomer, driving the #42 42 Below car.

The Atlantic field dropped by one Thursday afternoon. RYAN LEWIS of England ran up against the Easter holiday and bureaucracy in processing his visa application, and he won't be in the United States in time for the Vegas Grand Prix weekend. Lewis will be in the United States in time for next weekend's Grand Prix of Long Beach and, had he raced in Las Vegas, the Atlantic field of 28 would equal last year's high of 28 at LBGP.

Lewis races for Walker Racing. The team will run just one car this weekend, for team-mate SIMONA DE SILVESTRO, the only female running the Atlantic series this year. The 18-year old Swiss college student comes from the Formula BMW Series and has moved to the United States. She has dropped out of college to concentrate on her racing career. Her parents still live in Switzerland, but will be here this weekend to see their only child make her Atlantic debut.

The Atlantic race will be televised on ESPN2, airing Friday of LBGP. The in-car cameras will be on the #8 Champ Car Grand Prix of China car raced by rookie JIANG TENGYI of Shanghai for Brooks Associates Racing; the #23 Miracle Sealants/PR1 Motorsports car of JONATHAN BOMARITO of California, and rookie JR HILDEBRAND's #36 Newman Wachs Racing entry.

The 28 cars entered for the Historic Grand Prix group could have been a series high, but there has been one drop-out, and there could be another. For this weekend, HGP will have several celebrity guest drivers - DIVINA GALICA, ARIE LUYENDYK and BOBBY RAHAL. DANNY SULLIVAN is also entered but hasn't yet arrived. Several drivers, including Galica, Luyendyk, PETER GULICK and JAMES KING tested Wednesday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, using the 1.1-mile infield road course. Rahal didn't test as he has prior experience in the 1974 Brabham BT44 owned by Series co-founder, PHIL REILLY. Rahal knows and likes the car and promises a good race. And he's enjoying his new role of being known as GRAHAM RAHAL's dad, proudly wearing his Graham Rahal shirt.

Galica has raced with HGP before, but not in the car she's driving this weekend, LEE CHAPMAN's 1972 Brabham BT-37/02. Luyendyk is driving DOUG MOCKETT's 1978 Wolf WR-6. Mockett is racing his 1975 Penske PC-3/1. Gulick is racing his 1982 Williams FW08C, which he brought from FRANK WILLIAMS. The car was 'pristine' said Gulick, coming out of Williams' museum, after only being raced once by KEKE ROSBERG. JAMES KING, one of the Series co-founders, is racing his 1976 March 761-08.

The historic F1 cars are in one of three huge pavilion tents in the paddock, one for each series. The white pavilions are large enough to be - and look like - airplane hangars. These tents, which have wall to wall carpeting and air conditioning, have been used for trade shows with 140,000 visitors. The pavilions are so huge the entire field for each series has lots of room for other things such as vendors. In the Atlantic pavilion, there are a variety of vendors setting up, most not appearing to be race-related. The most non-racing vendor looks like it will be a Vegas wedding chapel, complete with chequered flags. Only in Vegas.

After the race, the pavilion carpeting will be torn out and replaced with new carpeting, which lies in wait, in large rolls in each pavilion.

Friday's weather forecast calls for more clouds and high temperatures.