Bahrain track working to draw crowds for V8 race

By DPA

Sakhir (Bahrain) : The Bahrain International Circuit has launched an aggressive marketing campaign ahead of the November Australian V8 Supercars race that it is hosting for the second time by targeting Australian and European markets and cutting ticket prices by a third.


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The track’s chief executive officer, Martin Whitaker, said the venue is seeking to attract more foreign business and investment into Bahrain and solidify the position of the track as the home of motor sport in the Middle East.

The Australians are sending a trade mission of 30-plus companies to coincide with the race, Whitaker said at the racecourse south of Manama.

He added that circuit corporate lounges for the November 1-3 race dubbed the Desert 400 are nearly sold out and paddock club seats are going quickly.

Prices for the corporate five-star paddock club or oasis complex suites start at 210 dinars ($558) per person for all three days or 150 dinars per person for Nov 3, the day of the race.

“We had some 2,000 Australians flying in to attend last year’s race, and I expect to get more than that this year,” Whitaker said.

According to the track’s administrators, about 28,000 people attended the first V8 Supercars race in the Middle East, which is the farthest distance the racing circuit had travelled.

Sighting figures from last year’s Grand Prix race, which pumped $400 million into the Bahraini economy, Whitaker said he expected the Australian race would also have a positive economic impact.

In terms of the number of people racing, the number of championships around the world and the number of carmakers competing, tour racing is the world’s most popular form of motor sport.

During the V8 championship races, cars lean on each other through corners, tap each other while braking and generally get involved in some of the most muscular driving techniques in the sport.

The tour is one of the world’s most successful motor sport series with a television audience bigger than cricket or rugby in the Supercars homeland. The V8 Supercars Series is currently the second most-watched sport in Oceania, just behind Australian rules football.

To draw fans in Bahrain, the Bahrain International Circuit has cut ticket prices by about 33 percent. A ticket for all three days of the Desert 400 weekend, including a seat in either the main grandstand or oasis complex, now costs 10 dinars for adults with children aged between three to 15 receiving a 50 percent discount.

Whitaker said that while his track was focusing on attracting fans from Australia, New Zealand, Europe and India, it was also intent on building the sport’s popularity in the Gulf.

Sheikh Salman bin Isa al-Khalifa, the track’s chief operating officer, touted its location as able to draw more fans from parts of the world other than Australia and New Zealand.

He added that his venue, which opened in 2004, was still in the early stages of tapping opportunities as a spectator and business draw.

The Desert 400 was the second-largest race for the racing course, attracting crowds second only to those who attended the Grand Prix, he said.

Whitaker and Salman reaffirmed the track’s long-term commitment to continue hosting the V8 Supercar race after a race was held in Shanghai in 2005, only to have the promoter cancel a five-year contract after losing money.

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