The 2008 Olympic city of Beijing will host the next round of the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport, with the event taking place from 10 – 12 November. A1 Team Pakistan will be making its first trip to the Asian capital, with Nur Ali behind the wheel for the team.

A1 Team Pakistan completed the opening European rounds of the series last month and the teams now move on to Asia for three rounds in this continent: Beijing, China; Kualu Lumpur, Malaysia and Jakarta, Indonesia prior to the end of the year.

The Beijing location is a new event in the calendar for A1GP, with the races being held on a temporary street circuit in the Chinese capital. The 3 km circuit will use the Jingkai Convention and Exhibition Centre land and public roads in the Yizhang area of the city, with 7000 metres of fencing and concrete walls, and temporary grandstands for 25,000 spectators lining the track.

A1 Team Pakistan driver, Ali, will drive for the team in Beijing, after competing with the team in the Zandvoort and Brno rounds. The Pakistani driver stopped off in Karachi before arriving in China and is ready for his next A1GP challenge.

Nur says, "I have some experience of a temporary street circuit from racing at Reliant Park in Houston with the Star Mazda championship and I hope that this will help me to get on the pace fairly quickly in Beijing. Street tracks are always very challenging with the lack of run-off areas and they tend to be quite narrow. The surface can also be fairly dusty and slippery at the beginning of the weekend, and as the cars lay down rubber the conditions are constantly changing.

All these factors add to the excitement and challenge. I've only seen a track layout diagram, so it's difficult to predict the characteristics of this circuit. My first chance to really start to understand it will be Thursday morning when I walk the track with the team engineers!

Arif Husain, Chairman, A1 Team Pakistan adds. "This Beijing A1GP event is set to be one of the crown jewels of A1GP. We're very privileged to be racing in the Chinese capital and I'm sure that among all the local spectators we'll also see some Pakistani supporters for the team. We're very proud to be representing our nation in this country which is so close to us."