Sports/Olympics / Feature and Column
Motor Racing-Game on for World Cup of Motorsport
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-07-07 12:41
LONDON, July 7 - As the soccer World Cup reaches its conclusion in
Germany this weekend, A1 Grand Prix organisers are cranking up
preparations for a second 'World Cup of Motorsport'.
The series, which made heavy losses when it started up last year with 25
national teams competing in identical cars over 11 races on six
continents, this week published an expanded provisional calendar for
2006/2007.
Events in Germany and Portugal have been dropped due to disappointing
crowds but New Zealand, with a well-supported team, has been added
provisionally and China will have a race in Beijing as well as Shanghai.
The season starts in October and finishes in April at two tracks that
once echoed to the howl of Formula One cars -- Zandvoort in the
Netherlands and Brands Hatch in England.
Organisers say more than 100,000 tickets have already been sold for
Zandvoort.
Other locations include Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai, South Africa,
Australia and the Czech Republic as well as another race to be confirmed
in North or South America.
"We learnt a lot of lessons (last season), as you can imagine," A1's
chief operating officer David Clare told Reuters.
"But we had some very strong races...and I think we proved the concept.
"It will be a lot slicker (next season) and a lot better operation," he
added.
"The series started off with a lot of enthusiasm and drive and I think it
evolved over the course of the season...into a more efficient business
prospect."
HEAVY LOSSES
Dubai's Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum, the enthusiastic
founder of the series, suggested last year that A1 could be a
"two-billion-pound business" by year two if all worked to plan.
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