F1 Sepang International Circuit confident of good crowd

Next year is marked as Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and race promoters Sepang International Circuit (SIC) believe that the country’s aggressive campaign to promote tourism will boost attendance to motor-racing events, especially for the Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix.

The SIC chairman, Datuk Mokhzani Tun Dr Mahathir, said that the international events promoted and organised in Sepang would be a key to the success of the Visit Malaysia Year programme.

“With the government’s new emphasis on sports tourism, the Malaysian GP and other international events in Sepang are expected to be the country’s strongest tools to woo foreign tourists,” he said at the prize giving ceremony for the recent Japan GT Championship contest.

The grand prize of a Limited Edition Sentra 1.8XGL worth RM102,000 was won by Malaysia Airlines aircraft engineer Tun Mafizal Tun Majid, who along with five others made the correct prediction of the top three winners at the Super GT race in Sepang.

The race was won by Ralph Firman and Daisuke Ito of Honda Racing ahead of Richard Lyons-Michael Krumm (Nismo Racing) and Benoit Treluyer-Kazuki Hoshino (Impul).

The Malaysian GP next year will be the second round of the F1 world championships and will be held from April 6-8.

“With the opening round in Melbourne scheduled for March 15-18, we will actually have a grace period of three weeks to make our final push for ticket sales in the local and regional markets,” said Mokhzani.

The Japan GT race, Mokhzani said, had always been a key event for the SIC in their efforts to make Sepang the hub of motorsports in the region and to promote Malaysia as an international tourist destination.

“The Japan GT Championship Malaysia will continue to be staged in the third week of June. Hopefully, without the distraction of the FIFA World Cup as we experienced this year, we hope to finally break that 50,000-spectator mark,” he said.

The other major international events in Sepang this year are the Merdeka Millennium Endurance race at the end of the month; the Marlboro Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (October); and the Malaysian A1 Grand Prix of Nations (November).

Next year’s schedule begins with the inaugural K4 24-Hour Endurance Grand Prix on Feb 10 and 11.