Motor Racing: Swiss roll out pounds 30m campaign

A PRIVATE consortium has raised pounds 30m to build a new motor racing circuit and restore the Swiss Grand Prix to the Formula One world championship calendar, writes Derick Allsop.

Circuit 2000 has actually been located in France, in the Haute- Saone region, because motor racing was banned in Switzerland following the 1955 Le Mans disaster. Until that year the championship regularly featured a round at Bremgarten. There is a precedent for a Swiss Grand Prix in France: that label was given to a race in 1982, which was won by Keke Rosberg. Also, the San Marino Grand Prix is held not in that tiny republic but at Imola, in Italy.

Work on the four-kilometre 'Swiss' circuit has started and is due to be completed in time for the 1993 racing season. The organisers, who have the backing of the Swiss Automobile Club, hope to be competing for a grand prix the following year, and may also host other motor sport categories. They say their facilities and safety measures will exceed the minimum standards required by FISA, motor sport's governing body.