A1GP Schedule Announced: With Holes
A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has unveiled a 13 date provisional calendar for the 2006/07 season. The calendar features a number of changes from the inaugural season, with three nations set to host a round for the first time, and China becoming the first country to host two rounds in a season.
The operative words are “provisional calendar” which I’ll get to in a minute. (The entire sched is listed below.)
The Netherlands will kick off the second season on 1 October, with the event having already been sold-out, while the Czech Republic
Did I read somewhere recently that A1GP’s first year loss was over one hundred million dollars (wish I had checked the source). Year two had better see a significant return on investment for this very original & highly innovative series to continue. If it were to bite the dust it would be a loss of a potential motorsport “ambassador” to the world, particularly the India’s & Russia’s where little or no motorsport exists.
The Series had a loss but I haven’t read how much of a financial hit the Sheik took on the deal Peter.
In reality he along with most of his family are billionaires or very close to it, so he could suffer losses for some time before hurting too much.
He has made the right move by having two events in China. The place is exploding in both finances and interest in autos in general.
One thing he will have to change in the NA schedule. The U.S. needs to have two events. The U.S. is too important as a market to ignore.
In reality every country that has a team and a track that passes FIA standards should hold a race.
interesting, prior to season 1 they had 2 US events on their original schedule (San Antonio being the second following the laguna seca date). when San Antonio was dropped (an event that i would’ve attended) i emailed A1GP and got a response saying that last minute issues caused the change, but they fully intended for another US event to be added for 07. they didnt specify SA, but I still wasn’t optimistic about it.
I recall SA being on the original sched as well and it wasn’t until after season start that it was axed from the calender. At the moment I don’t know the reason given.
One aditional thought on a second China event. While it makes sense for the long range future of the sport (creating an intercity rivalary between Bejng and Shanghai) since my last comment I thought of the street race in Macau that is held each year.
That race has a very long history and if the venue were added to the A1GP sched could enhance both the series and the track that only holds the single event now.