09/01/2008
NEWS STORY
The Jacarepagua circuit, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, which hosted ten rounds of the Formula One World Championship between 1978 and 1989, faces demolition as Brazil bids for the 2016 Olympic Games.
The track was built in the 1970s on reclaimed marshland, less than a hundred feet from the Atlantic coastline, and with its mountain backdrop was one of the more picturesque circuits on the calendar.
Despite its notoriously bumpy surface, the track, in addition to hosting F1 races, was used as a winter testing venue.
In 1990, a year after hosting its last ever World Championship Grand Prix, Jacarepagua was re-named in honour of three-time World Champion Nelson Piquet. From 1996 to 2000 the circuit hosted a round of the Champ Car series, with Juan Pablo Montoya enjoying success there.
Rio, which if it successful would become the first South American city to host the Olympics, has previously bid for the 2004 and 2012 games, however, on each occasion it failed to make the final shortlist.
Having fallen into the hands of property developers in early 2005, the last year in which it hosted a round of the Motorcycle World Championship, there were always fears for Jacarepagua's future.