diff --git a/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/__main__.py b/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/__main__.py
index 2a77829..23249ff 100644
--- a/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/__main__.py
+++ b/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/__main__.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 import vllm
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.api_server import (
     build_async_engine_client,
+    create_server_socket,
 )
 from vllm.entrypoints.openai.cli_args import make_arg_parser
 from vllm.utils import FlexibleArgumentParser
@@ -32,12 +33,18 @@
 async def start_servers(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
     loop = asyncio.get_running_loop()
 
+    # workaround to make sure that we bind the port before the engine is set up.
+    # This avoids race conditions with ray.
+    # see https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/8204
+    sock_addr = (args.host or "", args.port)
+    sock = create_server_socket(sock_addr)
+
     tasks: list[asyncio.Task] = []
     async with build_async_engine_client(args) as engine:
         add_logging_wrappers(engine)
 
         http_server_task = loop.create_task(
-            run_http_server(args, engine),
+            run_http_server(args, engine, sock),
             name="http_server",
         )
         # The http server task will catch interrupt signals for us
diff --git a/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/http.py b/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/http.py
index b50a0c1..c635e26 100644
--- a/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/http.py
+++ b/src/vllm_tgis_adapter/http.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     import argparse
+    import socket
 
     from fastapi import Request, Response
     from vllm.engine.async_llm_engine import AsyncLLMEngine
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@
 async def run_http_server(
     args: argparse.Namespace,
     engine: AsyncLLMEngine | AsyncEngineClient,
+    sock: socket.socket | None = None,
     **uvicorn_kwargs,  # noqa: ANN003
 ) -> None:
     # modified copy of vllm.entrypoints.openai.api_server.run_server that
@@ -63,6 +65,10 @@ async def set_correlation_id(request: Request, call_next: Callable) -> Response:
     }
     serve_kwargs.update(uvicorn_kwargs)
 
+    # should only be used in versions of vllm >= 0.7.3
+    if "sock" in inspect.getfullargspec(serve_http).args:
+        serve_kwargs["sock"] = sock
+
     shutdown_coro = await serve_http(app, **serve_kwargs)
 
     # launcher.serve_http returns a shutdown coroutine to await