An announcement regarding the proposed A1 GP event at Taupo, New Zealand, will be made on Friday (11 August), at a special press conference in Auckland.

In addition to New Zealand team owner Colin Giltrap, the meeting will be attended by the Rt Hon Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, which would appear to suggest that the event is to go ahead as planned. Representatives of A1GP, MIT and MotorSport New Zealand will also be present.

The Taupo event, originally (provisionally) scheduled for January 21, was put in doubt when MotorSport New Zealand issued a statement claiming that there would not be a race in 2007.

In a statement issued on 10 July, MotorSport New Zealand President, Steven Kennedy, said: "Reports in today's papers that the A1 GP is to hold a round in New Zealand on the Taupo circuit are incorrect. We have received confirmation overnight from the FIA that New Zealand is not a round of the A1 GP series for 2007."

However, talking to Pitpass later that day, A1 GP Chief Operating Officer David Clare said that he was in the "process of finalizing the event", and that "everything is moving ahead positively.

"New Zealand hasn't had such a prominent single-seater event for almost forty years," he added. "We are trying to arrange the New Zealand and Australian events so that they are two weeks apart. Everything is moving ahead positively."

Further details of the series' second season can be found here