Christian Schacht
The 62nd edition of the Macau Grand Prix, to be held from November 19 to 22, will feature a FIA GT World Cup race for the first time, as revealed by João Manuel Costa Antunes, Coordinator of the city’s Grand Prix Committee, at a media briefing yesterday. As announced previously, the other novelty event is the “Celebrity Cup Race,” exclusively for celebrities, and in this race the drivers will be using Lotus cars.
The new race differs from the “Macau GT Cup,” which has been held over the past seven years. Christian Schacht, president of the FIA GT Commission, said that the GT World Cup intends to be as successful as the local F3 race.
“The idea of an FIA GT World Cup was born four or five years ago, and it always takes time to get it through all the FIA structures. I’ve been visiting Macau for many years. (…). So I know Macau very well. And when we put up this project, and I know the success of the Macau GT races, that was completely in parallel to what happened with WTCC. Macau is a very attractive place for GT racing. I think it’s the start of a very unique event,” said Schacht.
“Like [the following] we have here with the F3, we hope to build GTs to be as successful as F3s are here in the future,” continued the commission president, also adding that some principal agreements have been concluded over the past two days, with corresponding arrangements having been made already.
Last month, FIA announced its partnership with Macau’s motor-racing organizer in a meeting held in Geneva, where the topic of conversation was making Macau the destination for their end-of-season GT World Cup race, which is open to GT3-homologated sport cars.
Mr Costa Antunes said that the new GT race should not be seen as a replacement for the WTCC race; that was dropped from the GP calendar this year. Asked if the WTCC race would return to the Guia circuit, the coordinator said it was hard to comment on the future.
The schedule of this year’s GP comprises seven races, categorized in three groups. The first one includes the FIA Formula 3 Intercontinental Cup and Motorcycle Grand Prix, while the second group features the Guia Race of Macau and the GT World Cup. The last category is composed of supporting races, such as the Macau Touring Car Cup, the Road Sport Challenge and the Celebrity Cup Race.
Regarding the celebrity race, Costa Antunes said that the participants will be required to qualify for a racing license and gain experience before taking part in the event. Staff reporter
Thumbs up for MGP
Residents are generally satisfied with the Macau Grand Prix (MGP), or at least they have been for the past few years, according to a survey conducted by the University of Macau’s Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming.
Around 2,000 respondents surveyed in May and November last year were not acquainted with the annual car-racing event details, with not even half of them able to tell the surveyor – in the first period of phone interviews before the event took place – between which dates the event would be held, and how many times it has been held.
Yet, a total of 75 percent surveyed either “agree” or “strongly agree” that the Macau Grand Prix elevates the city’s international profile and reputation. The motor-racing event also made it more difficult to find parking spaces, as expressed by over 60 percent of the respondents.
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