Initial steps to stage a world class motor sport event in Malta have taken place the past few days. A delegation from Canada which included Greg Macdonald, Eleasha Naso and Robert Vilas who are part of the organising group of the Grand Prix of Edmonton arrived in Malta last Wednesday to meet with the local promoters, potential suppliers, future investors and members of government.
Grand Prix Malta is spearheaded by Bert Kuehne and Martin Mintoff since the late 90s. Stephen Ritchie and Charles Zahra came aboard at a later date. The race in question would be part of the Champ Car World Series.
The group’s vision of hosting a major motor sport event has taken many years of dedicated work and involved investments of both time and capital.
This dream has taken a major step forward on Thursday when the delegation from Canada made a presentation to a trio of Ministers that included Dr Francis Zammit Dimech, Mr George Pullicino and Mr Jesmond Mugliett in the hope of receiving support for the project.
The presentation covered what is involved and what anticipated benefits can be achieved through this project. The key factor is the economic benefit to Malta.
Champ Car events attract an average of 150,000 spectators, of which 35 per cent are from exterior origins. The average economic impact during a Champ Car race weekend is $40 million.
The events are normally transmitted live on Eurosport with around 300 million households able to watch the event around the world.
The Champ Car World Series is an international racing competition that includes venues in the US, Canada, Mexico, Korea and Australia. They are presently looking to expand in Europe, Asia and North Africa.
Their present calendar of events encompasses 16 races and is looking to fill three open points. The series is one of the most exciting forms of motor sport that compete on a variety of street, airport, oval and road courses. The drivers competing in the series hail from the US, France, Spain Great Briton, Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Australia and Brazil.
They include Cristiano da Matta, Sebastien Bourdais, Oriol Servia, Paul Tracy just to name just a few. Past competitors have included some of the world’s greatest drivers, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansel, Bobby Unser, Emmo Fitipaldi have all competed in this series for numerous years.
The Champ Car World Series competes with a 750hp open wheel chassis vehicle that attains speeds of 390 km/ph.
The group also visited the proposed site of the track and was very impressed with the potential that it offered as an ideal location for all aspects involved in a race event. Champ Car events are more than just a race over a weekend. It involves a number of community events leading up to the race. Champ Car calls this a Festival of Speed. They include a variety of off site initiatives, (Street Fest, Drivers Party, Face of Champ Car, VIP Gala and Speed Zone) that entail local businesses and allow all members of the community to get involved.
The next steps for the group will involve a presentation to Champ Car officials in the months ahead. That will require a firm site location and a business plan to be in place as well as letters of support from Government and local investors. The Grand Prix Malta group feels confident that they will be ready by July to go to America with all of the components in place and look to have a date on the 2007 Champ Car calendar.