Race Tracks in Asia - Photo's

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Race Tracks in Asia - Photo's


Great shot of the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia :RO

 

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Talk of Singapore's 1st Moto GP track

Talk of Singapore's 1st Moto GP track

In the slipstream of Singapore’s Formula One success story, the city-state could soon boast a MotoGP race after the contract to build the republic’s first permanent racing track was awarded.

Southeast Asian motorcycle race fans now hope the likes of multiple world champion Valentino Rossi can be lured to Singapore’s US$235 million (RM800 million) facility.

SG Changi Private Limited won the contract to build the track and director Eddie Koh outlined the consortium’s plans to bring in top-flight races.

“The completion date is slated for the end of 2011, and we hope to start events in 2012,” he told Singapore media.

“We have the intention to bring in a couple of international races like the GT events, and MotoGP.”
Would it look like this?

Would it look like this?

Located on a 41-hectare site near Changi Airport, the facility will feature a 4km FIM Grade 1 and FIA Grade 2 certified race track, a 20,000-seater sheltered grandstand, karting track, a quarter-mile drag racing track, motor museum and 35,000 square metres of commercial space.

Adjustments have been made to the original plan of a 3.7km track, to accommodate the FIM’s requirements for MotoGP races, local media reported.

Singapore Sports Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan called the project a “landmark in development”, after the republic’s hosting of the world’s inaugural Formula 1 night race in 2008.

“The Formula 1 race is the crown jewel of Singapore sports, and we view that as step one … we need to go further than that, and that’s why we conceived the idea of building our own motorsports hub,” he told a news conference. — Source: Reuters

 

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Bira International Race Track, Pattaya, Thailand

Bira International Race Track, Pattaya, Thailand

Bira Circuit is named after the famous Thai prince H.H. Prince Birabongse Bhanutej Bhanubandh. The circuit has been operated by Bira Circuit One Company, Limited. The track, initially opened in 1985, covers an area of 65 acres (260,000 m2). It is a 2.41 kilometres (1.50 mi) permanent motor and motorbike racing circuit with an offroad track, a rally stage and a go-kart facility. It is located in 111 Moo 5 Banglamung, Chonburi, 15 kilometres (9.32 mi) Northeast of Pattaya. The circuit located on State Highway 36 which is 120 kilometres (74.56 mi) from Bangkok and 20 kilometres (12.43 mi) from the CBD of Pattaya.[1]

The circuit is twisty and bumpy which consist of elevation and two chicanes, a fast downhill double apex corner.[2] There are 30 pits for racecars, plus a control tower, medical center and meeting room. The grandstand and spectator area can accommodate up to 30,000 people.[3] It is also the only circuit in Thailand that meets the standard of Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (F.I.A.). The South East Asia Touring Car Zone Challenge (SEATCZC) has been run at Bira Circuit since 1992 and the Asian Formula 2000 (AF2000) since 1997. The Circuit has full facilities for arranging all kinds of motorsport events; race meeting, racing school, test drives and etc.[4]

Bira race track website

http://www.bira.co.th/

Bira race track facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001137462441

 

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Pasir Gudang race track, Johor, Malaysia

Pasir Gudang race track, Johor, Malaysia

Built in 1986, the Johor Circuit is the first international class motor racing circuit outside of the Klang Valley. It initially catered to the growing local enthusiasts but soon gained recognition not only regionally, but also internationally. Although it was then a comparatively new circuit, its challenging 3.86km configuration soon attained respect and admiration amongst the racing fraternity. In 1990, just four years after it was built, the circuit was upgraded to the strict FIM World GP homologation requirements. In 1998, it hosted the World Motorcycle Grand Prix Championship. Ever since then, it has been hosting regular local and regional events.

Pasir Gudang / Johor Circuit race track website

http://www.johorcircuit.com.my/

 

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Motegi, Japan motogp circuit

Motegi, Japan motogp circuit

Owned by Honda and home to the company’s famous Collection Hall, the ‘Twin Ring’ Motegi was built in 1997 in a mountainous region 150km north of Tokyo.

In fact, three mountains were flattened to facilitate construction of the circuit which also incorporates a 2.5km oval built primarily for IndyCar racing. Motegi has also hosted Outdoor Trial World championship events.

The 4.8km circuit first staged an international motorcycle race in 1999 and has hosted the Japanese Grand Prix since 2004. It boasts a 762m-long main straight and a spread of six left and eight right-hand turns, some of which are quite slow.
Motegi Circuit information
First race 1999
GPs held 12
Laps 24
Race distance 115.224km / 71.592miles
Track length 4.801km / 2.983miles
Track width 12-15m
Longest straight 0.762km / 0.473miles
Corners 14 (8 right, 6 left)
Pole position Left
Motegi Circuit records
Pole position 1m45.543s (163.758Km/h) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha, 2008)
Race lap 1m47.091s (161.391Km/h) Casey Stoner (Ducati, 2008)
Race time 43m09.599s (160.181km/h) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha, 2008)
MotoGP Wins 3 (Loris Capirossi 2005-07)
2008 Winner Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2009 Winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
2010 Winner Casey Stoner (Ducati)
Motegi Circuit contact details

120-1 Hiyama, Motegi-machi,
Haga-gun, Tochigi Pref. 321-3597, Japan

T: +81-285-64-0001
F: +81-285-64-0009


Website : http://www.twinring.jp/english
Email : english-info@twinring.jp

 

[Brian66]

Phil

The singapore track holds great interest for me as i live in Singapore for 7 months of every year and all singaporeans and expaits are forced to go to Pasir Gudang and Sepang. Both of which are splendid tracks. The Singapore track has been an on and off affair for years now.

Read the two seperate press realeases below, the first one dated the 11th of June, the second just one week ago and one starts to wonder if it will eventuate. I think it will but not in the grand way that was envisaged.

"The Government is sticking to its deadline for the completion of Singapore's first permanent motor racing circuit in Changi despite growing signs that the $380 million, problem-riddled project may remain stuck in neutral gear for several more months.
Asked for an update on the project, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) would say only that it expects the builder to keep to its year-end deadline.
The project was announced in October 2007 and awarded to Japanese-Singapore consortium SG Changi in March last year.
The Straits Times understands that SG Changi faces hefty penalties - between $20,000 and $50,000 in damages a day - or could even have its contract rescinded if it fails to deliver on time.
SSC chief financial officer Goh Fang Min said the consortium had made specific commitments and 'we expect it to continue to comply with its commitments under the project agreement'.
'It is responsible for delivering the Changi Motorsports Hub by December 2011,' Ms Goh said, adding that the group had fully paid for the 41ha, 30-year leasehold land, sited next to the Singapore Airshow grounds. She said that in the meantime, the council was in discussions with relevant parties and 'different options will be carefully studied'.
Industry watchers said options could include opening the facility in stages - as has been the case for other major infrastructural projects which were delayed, including the MRT Circle Line.
SG Changi is believed to have paid just under $40 million for the land, a reclaimed plot at the Changi coast. Besides a 3.7km track that will host races such as MotoGP and Super GT, the facility is expected to have shopping and food and beverage outlets, a motor museum and a racing academy.
Plans are also afoot to build a 250-room hotel on site and develop a 400m stretch of beach fronting the track, after the latter is up and running.
With just six months to go, and hardly any work done, observers think chances of meeting the deadline are slim. SG Changi director Thia Yoke Kian agreed, saying finishing the project by December 'is definitely not possible'.
'We have to ask for an extension,' he said.
He added that the group had found a new investor, and that an announcement would be made soon. 'It is a reliable investor from Europe,' he said, refusing to give details.
The project has been beset with woes and delays from the start. The Government took almost three years to decide on a builder from a shortlist of three. Work began only last December, months after the contract was awarded in March.
Shortly after, talk that the group had cashflow problems surfaced, fuelled by the resignation of two of the project's four original shareholders - former racing driver Genji Hashimoto and Singaporean Eddie Loh. Then, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau started a probe into alleged irregularities in the tender process for the project.
SSC deputy director Fan Chian Jen, who was in charge of the project, later left the body.
Piling - slated to be completed by last month - grounded to a halt in February, just weeks after it started, when SG Changi failed to pay piling firm CSC Holdings.
Amid the delay, more allegations of wrongdoing surfaced, with one levelled against SG Changi executive chairman Fuminori Murahashi for a purportedly forged bank guarantee. Mr Thia yesterday confirmed he had lodged the complaint against Mr Murahashi and was assisting the Commercial Affairs Department in its investigations.
The delay is seen as a cause for red faces within the SSC, which also had problems with another high-profile sports project. The $1.87 billion Sports Hub in Kallang, initially slated for completion this year, is now expected to be ready only in 2014. The project was temporarily derailed by the 2008 global financial crisis.
Singapore Motor Sports Association president Tan Teng Lip is keeping his fingers crossed that the Changi race track can become reality.
'I'm still hopeful that they can find a solution because the circuit is very important to us,' he said.
'So far, there has been no information. Everyone is very anxious about what's going on.'
Amid towers of piling rigs and stacks of steel pipes, an eerie silence enveloped the 41ha site in Changi, where work to build Singapore’s first permanent motor racing track is supposed to have been going ahead full steam.
This reporter’s visit to the site yesterday showed all activity on the Changi Motorsports Hub had ground to a halt. Further enquiries revealed that work had stopped in the middle of last month after SG Changi, the consortium who won the bid in 2009 to build the facility, failed to deliver on time an instalment for the $50-million piling work.
But SG Changi told MediaCorp yesterday that the outstanding $10 million due to CSC Holdings will be paid today after company chairman and shareholder Fuminori Murahashi had secured a personal loan.
“The amount will be enough to cover the entire cost of the piling work but it is not going to cover the sum needed to complete the project,” SG Changi director and general manager Moto Sakuma told MediaCorp.
“We have secured US$200 million ($256 million) from investors in Hong Kong that would have allowed us to do so but they have frozen the funds.”
The $370-million project came under scrutiny after media reports last month said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had begun a probe into the tender for the project.
MediaCorp revealed that the consortium’s only other shareholder, Thia Yoke Kian, had been assisting the bureau with investigations since November.
The Singapore permanent resident led the group to beat two other consortia in their successful bid to build the track but was dropped from the management team in July.
While Sakuma said they have handed their accounts and records to the CPIB and cooperated with the bureau fully, they are unsure if the probe is still in progress or has been concluded.
Said the Japanese: “We’ve got nothing to hide, we’ve given them everything they have asked for and are confident SG Changi are not involved in anything irregular.
“But as long as CPIB do not clear us publicly, we are caught in a bind because our investors want this clearance before handing us the funds to complete construction of the track. Without this investment it will be difficult for us to move forward.”
Apart from the capital to lay the track, Sakuma said it would cost another €100 million ($173 million) a year to operate the 4km FIM Grade 1 and FIA Grade 2-certified race track.
A karting circuit, a quarter-mile drag racing strip, a motor museum and 35,000 sq m of commercial space are also being planned for the motorsports hub.
But the CPIB probe has spooked interested parties, especially those from Singapore, and the 46-year-old now plans to court investors from Japan and Europe.
This could inevitably lead to the country’s first permanent motor race track being under the total control of foreigners when completed at the end of the year.
Said Sakuma: “If the funds do not come in soon, we are dead. We have a Project Delivery Agreement with the Singapore Government to complete construction of the track by the end of this year and we have no choice but to get funds from outside of Singapore, if this is what it takes for us to honour our agreement.”

 

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The R2M race track in Nakhon Chaisi, about 70km west of Bangkok, near Nakhon Phanom

 

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The Bonanza race track, Kao Yai, Thailand


More on the Bonanza track in the link below:
under-the-helmet/bonanza-race-track-kao-yai-north-of-bangkok-t1610.html?hilit=bonanza