23/03/2007
NEWS STORY
Weeks ahead of Shanghai's round of the 2006/2007 A1 GP series, it has been revealed that Haiyi, the promoters, will not host any further A1 GP races at Beijing, which hosted round three of the second season in November last year, due to the significant losses incurred.
"We have worked our socks off to get everything right for both rounds over the past few months," Guan Yunke, deputy general manager at Haiyi, told The Shanghai Daily. But the financial burden to stage two races in a year is overwhelming with huge losses. Therefore we have decided to drop the Beijing leg next season.
Guan revealed that preparing the street circuit in Beijing had cost around $2.6m and all attempts to offset these and other costs through sponsorship had failed.
"Despite its growing popularity, A1 remains a hard-sell to sponsors," he added.