[2] When a relative warned his father that he was in danger, his family quickly arranged for Rafael to be sent alone to the United States as part of the Operation Peter Pan airlifts from Havana to Miami at the age of thirteen.
[1] After initially working in fastfood to support his large relocated family, Sanchez first attended Miami Dade Community College[2] and then earned accounting[2] and business administration[3] degrees from Florida Atlantic University in 1969, after which he started his real estate career with the Keyes Company.
Plagued by severe weather, only 50 miles of the planned 310-mile-race could be completed, cutting the total time of the race from three hours to thirty minutes.
[2] Sanchez remained dedicated to the idea and in the second Miami Grand Prix, Sanchez gave two-time Formula One world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who had retired more than three years earlier, a drive in his "Spirit of Miami" March-Chevrolet 83G in February 1984 and within months secured his return to racing in CART with Patrick Racing.
[5] Through the 1980s and early '90s Sanchez built the Grand Prix of Miami into a formidable force on the international motor-racing circuit, drawing the largest competitors in the industry at the time, including Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, Brian Redman, Doc Bundy, Bob Wollek, Geoff Brabham, and Juan Manuel Fangio II.
[6] Three years after his infamous first Miami Grand Prix, Sanchez then launched an even more ambitious plan to build a $100 million racetrack in South Florida, the Homestead Motorsports Complex (now known as the Homestead-Miami Speedway).
[7] The track was one of the largest projects to take place in Homestead, which was made more significant by its timing – Sanchez ground broke in 1993 as the city was struggling to recover as the epicenter the previous year's historic Hurricane Andrew.
[3] The track's high-profile events and races become closely associated with several top drivers, including Emerson Fittipaldi and Bobby Rahal, who both praised it.
[2] By 2013, it would host over 280 events a year, including concerts and NASCAR's November season closing that features a weekend of intensive races that can determine as many as three champions.
He became particularly active and highly respected in the city of Coral Gables, Florida as a managing partner for Ponce Circle Developers, which he launched in partnership with the Mas family of MasTec.
[10] The relationship would prove to be a key partnership as the firm would also be tapped by Sanchez for several future projects, including work on his family's private South Florida residence.
They centrally incorporated and renovated a 1926 Merrick-era three-story art center building located at 2901 Ponce de Leon Boulevard.
The renovation, costing over $1.5 million, was intended to serve as a visible bridge between the historic elements and the new of Old Spanish Village, and symbolically all of Coral Gables, with carefully crafted cohesion.
The onset of the Great Depression prevented the construction of a Spanish Village, which Merrick would reflectively refer to as his "unfinished symphony" before dying in poverty in 1942.
The project was renamed "Mediterranean Village" and plagued with increasing issues, until it was finally bought by the Jose Cuervo Spirits-linked Agave Holdings Development firm.
The tower was to be designed to resemble a Barcelona 15th century cathedral with imported marble, brass, woodwork, stained glass, fountains and international artwork.
[13] After his death, Homestead-Miami Speedway's then-president Matthew Becherer said: "It's difficult to underestimate the impact Ralph Sanchez had on motorsports in South Florida...
Through the Grand Prix of Miami race that was originally run downtown, he put the region on the global sports map years before the Heat, Marlins and Panthers."