The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Shanghai readying for race

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 09, 2004

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Sport - Racing : Motor

Shanghai readying for race

SHANGHAI, APRIL 8. The grandstands await their fans, the pit stops their crews and the track its speeding racers — just as soon as it all gets paved.

With China's first Formula One race six months away, workers are toiling around the clock to ensure the Shanghai International Circuit is ready when the biggest show in international auto racing comes to town.

``It's been tough going at times,'' said Xu Zheng, president of the track's builder, Shanghai Construction Group.

Eighteen months into construction, the sprawling suburban site was brimming with activity on Thursday during a tour for reporters.

Backhoes and graders scraped up rocky soil that was carted away by blue Liberation-brand trucks and the smell of asphalt wafted from where the final turn was being paved. The project's 7,000 workers, mostly local farmers in ragtag suit jackets, planted trees, laid pipe and shovelled gravel, appearing as tiny dots against the hulking masses of pavement and steel.

The September 26 Shanghai Grand Prix is a landmark event for China's largest city, which already boasts a thriving auto industry, along with the country's tallest building and its highest average incomes.

But as the second new event added to this year's Formula One season, the race is also a major happening for Formula One, which in recent years has aggressively expanded into new Asian markets. Formula One commercial director Bernie Ecclestone has warned older European tracks to lift their standards or face elimination from the 18-race season.

The Shanghai circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke, a prolific German who also created the Bahrain circuit that debuted on Sunday.

Stabilised against Shanghai's swampy soil conditions by thousands of steel beams, the 5.4-kilometer (3.3-mile) circuit features a punishing 14 turns, some on 8 percent grades. The main grandstand raises about 10 stories above the track in shiny glass and steel, its roof adorned with yellow and red skylights. Wedge-shaped annexes link it to the pit area opposite.

A second grandstand embraces the tight first corner. The complex can accommodate more than 200,000 spectators — about 1 percent of greater Shanghai's population.

The circuit rises from fields of bright yellow rapeseed on the edge of the town of Anting, home to massive Volkswagen and Buick plants.

Surrounded by tile farmhouses in various stages of demolition, it will be connected to new highway offramps that will shorten the journey from the centre of town to as little as 40 minutes. A rail link will eventually connect it to the city's subway system.

Whether locals will embrace it is another story. China has no car racing tradition to speak of and ticket prices begin at 370 yuan (US$45), still a hefty sum for most Chinese.

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