A1GP today officially withdrew from the race at surfers paradise. Reason is the uncertain financiell situation. Instead of the A1GP race, the V8Supercars will have two extra races at the Gold Coast. Totally 4 races of 150km each will be driven. The Nikon Super Grand Prix was formally the Nikon Indy 300 race and part of the IndyCar (before the Split and in 2008) and the ChampCar schedule. After the IRL havn't signed a new contract, A1GP became the co-header of the event.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79515

http://www.a1gp.com/News/NewsArticle.aspx?newsId=44498

The Gold Coast Promoter terminated the contract with A1GP. We have to wait and see wheather there will be a new partner for 2010.

that sucks. cause the V8s are quite dull.

Its the circuit, not the cars, that is dull.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

that sucks. cause the V8s are quite dull.

They generally tend to run under yellow flags at Surfers.

I just drove in the area tonight. Traffic was horrid. They really should get the event out of the metro area and move it to Ipswich (Queensland Raceway, the most boring racetrack in Australia) or some place away from the crowded inner-city.

Are you seriously knocking Surfers, i mean seriously its a great race track.

I'm not "knocking" Surfers as a race track, but the event is a serious pain in the arse for the locals. It's a high-traffic area, and plonking a great big race track in the middle of it for about two months of the year is just ridiculous. Not to mention the noise, and the fact that the Indy has been a money hole for many years.

I like motorsport as much as anyone on these forums, but the logic of holding an event at a place like Surfers makes no sense to me.

As a street circuit its one of the best,unfortunately with all street circuits it brings big disruption for those living in or nearby.Sydney should be interesting at the end of the season.
Tango

Has A1GP been completely called off?

I am unable to find any recent statements about it. Having passed the date of the 2dn event and the official site still considering 2008-2009 as the current season tells me it's dead.

I think it's safe to say that they are gone...while Superleague Formula on the other hand....

A1GP may not have provided the best racing but it was good to have somethin in the off-season.

I have never (and probably never will) followed superleague because of the deep hate I am harbouring for anything remotely related to football.

Quote from Joris :

Has A1GP been completely called off?

I am unable to find any recent statements about it. Having passed the date of the 2dn event and the official site still considering 2008-2009 as the current season tells me it's dead.

The series is in administration, all the cars are locked up somewhere so I doubt you'll be seeing any racing soon .. unless you have the money to revive it?

The 2nd and the 3rd event have been cancelled. Wouldn't be surprised if the organisators announce a death quite soon, as they're struggling to get the required budget. They're following the Speedcars series IMO.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 ... 9310_A1_Grand_Prix_season

The whole season season have been cancelled according to the French version of Wiki's A1GP article, but I very much doubt that the source is reliable as the author of the section doesn't even know what a cap is.

SpeedCar and Formula X before it

I do agree there should be a series during winter

There might be another problem... they will need to update the cars according to new FiA Safety Standards... that means extra costs and that makes it doubtful. Even if the cars itself are bought out, there might not be a racing series, so the A1GP Ferrari might join the CCWS Panoz

Let's found a series where you can drive the A1GP Ferrari, the CCWS Panoz and the GPM Reynard... those want-to-be top-level single seater serieses (exept CCWS, which really earned the top-level title)

Quote from lizardfolk :

SpeedCar and Formula X before it

I do agree there should be a series during winter

Yeah, there should be a load of non championship F1 races at 'lesser' circuits perhaps.

Obviously prize funds would have to be pretty substantial to encourage teams to show up, they could bring along the previous seasons car or something, and the races could be shortened and generally scaled down and less serious.

There is still the GP2 Asia series during the winter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 ... 10_GP2_Asia_Series_season

I'm hoping Christian Vietoris will take the title.

Does anyone think there are too many worthless single seater catagories on the motorsport ladder? What is the point of any aspiring single seater racing driver doing anything other than FFord/FBMW/FRenault/F3 (and then only the UK and Euro versions)/GP2/F1? Sure, some manage it from other paths, but it's a lot rarely, no cheaper, and a hell of a lot less likely.

Superleague - waste of time and money.
A1GP - waste of time and money (confirmed by the fact it has failed).
GP2 Asia - it exists solely to give people a second chance at getting into GP2 after their manager tells them to do something else.

Then once your career is over you can play in a Touring Car series (DTM/BTCC/WTCC), play on some ovals or commentate.

Yuus, a lot of these series market themselves as being affordable, but if you want to be successful you have to go the expensive F3/GP2 route, thats the way it is and thats not going to change in a hurry.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Does anyone think there are too many worthless single seater catagories on the motorsport ladder? What is the point of any aspiring single seater racing driver doing anything other than FFord/FBMW/FRenault/F3 (and then only the UK and Euro versions)/GP2/F1? Sure, some manage it from other paths, but it's a lot rarely, no cheaper, and a hell of a lot less likely.

Superleague - waste of time and money.
A1GP - waste of time and money (confirmed by the fact it has failed).
GP2 Asia - it exists solely to give people a second chance at getting into GP2 after their manager tells them to do something else.

Because that ladder is pretty euro centric. It's not exclusive or discriminatory by any means, but that doesnt mean it's not euro centric. Blame it on upbringing, motorsport culture, or just exclusive talent (if you want to be racists). It doesn't change it's current state.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Then once your career is over you can play in a Touring Car series (DTM/BTCC/WTCC), play on some ovals or commentate.

Sorta irrelevant but w/e. I mean after all, open wheel isn't the sole reason for motorsport's existence. Closed wheel GT/Touring (Le mans (endu), ALMS (endu), Super GT, V8 SuperCar), Rally (WRC, Rallycross), Off-road trucks/buggy (WSORR, World of Outlaws), and many other disciplines opens another side to motorsport that's absent in open wheel. I dont necessarily see why there has to be such a narrow path for motorsports. Why does it matter if you're racing in F1 or WSORR as long as you're racing for the love of racing.

I couldn't care less whether Michael Shumacher is a better driver than Matthias Ekstrom, Keith Steele, or Jeff Gordon just because of their respective series. And frankly, putting so much stock in on prestige is rather silly. Does it have good racing? Are the driver's clean (or atleast make an effort to be clean)? Is the race managed well? If all that's a yes then that's really all that truly matters.

Quote from lizardfolk :

Does it have good racing? Are the driver's clean (or atleast make an effort to be clean)? Is the race managed well? If all that's a yes then that's really all that truly matters.

You can forget WTCC then. :rolleyes:

Quote from 5haz :

You can forget WTCC then. :rolleyes:

Oh i do , that's why I didn't mention it (ps. I really do dislike WTCC)

I used to like it back when Andy Priaulx was winning everything, I wonder why?

But for quite a while now its been mostly a train of Seats chasing eachother around.

Quote from lizardfolk :

Sorta irrelevant but w/e. I mean after all, open wheel isn't the sole reason for motorsport's existence. Closed wheel GT/Touring (Le mans (endu), ALMS (endu), Super GT, V8 SuperCar), Rally (WRC, Rallycross), Off-road trucks/buggy (WSORR, World of Outlaws), and many other disciplines opens another side to motorsport that's absent in open wheel. I dont necessarily see why there has to be such a narrow path for motorsports. Why does it matter if you're racing in F1 or WSORR as long as you're racing for the love of racing.

Tristan does have a good point however, at least in European terms. Just quickly look at the top guys in the WTCC for example; they all pretty much went for a career in single seaters and either failed to make it to F1 or never made much of an impact there. Outside of Europe it is different though, and to a varying degree appears to depend on which series has the highest profile in that region.

Yes to the WTCC dislike, whose bright ideas was it to hold the final race at a shitty street circuit only famous for crashes and little passing?

And Tristan is bang on, F2 seemed like it was rejects from other series and some young drivers, while there's this new GP3 thing as well, it's getting hard to tell where the good drivers are now with the saturated market.

Quote from count.bazley :

Tristan does have a good point however, at least in European terms. Just quickly look at the top guys in the WTCC for example; they all pretty much went for a career in single seaters and either failed to make it to F1 or never made much of an impact there. Outside of Europe it is different though, and to a varying degree appears to depend on which series has the highest profile in that region.

I'll agree with this