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Race is on for ideas to develop EL’s Grand Prix circuit
Posted on: Tuesday, 03 July 2007. Article source: Eastern Cape Business News
By ROUX VAN ZYL
THE race is on to give East London’s famous Grand Prix motor racing circuit a long-awaited facelift.
Holding the checkered flag is the Buffalo City Development Agency (BCDA) which has called for a feasibility study into its development potential.
Today, the BCDA is to hold its first public briefing in East London on ideas for the feasibility study for the area around what many have described as one of South Africa’s fastest tracks.
The BCDA’s town planner, Johan Allers, said the aim of the study was to establish whether there was any development potential in the circuit.
“We think the race track definitely has untapped development and historical potential. Currently, it is just an open piece of land that lies there. There’s huge interest in the race track from developers,” he said.
Allers said the circuit was built on council land leased to various stakeholders. It fell within the BDCA’s mandate area, which spanned from Nahoon through Quigney to the West Bank.
Motorcycle representative on the Border Motorsport Club committee Rodney Hiles said because the track was not privately owned it was difficult to develop.
“Each time there is a race we have to close the track, which is a public road, and that costs us. There is very little security for any potential sponsor due to the lack of ownership by the club. At the moment the track is not commercially viable,” he said.
Hiles said the ideal situation would be to privatise the track.
Border Motorsport Club chairperson Boet Marais said if the municipality built a road to bypass the track it would be the “most magic circuit in the country”.
He said the club had spent its own money to maintain the track and recently upgraded curbs and repainted the road lines.
Hiles said the circuit’s surface was in good condition, and its design made it the fastest track in the country.
Allers said the racetrack was the only one in the world that remained unchanged after the last Grand Prix it hosted in 1965
The briefing into the feasibility study will be hosted today from 9am at the Zonk’izizwe Conference Centre in the Quigney.
THE race is on to give East London’s famous Grand Prix motor racing circuit a long-awaited facelift.
Holding the checkered flag is the Buffalo City Development Agency (BCDA) which has called for a feasibility study into its development potential.
Today, the BCDA is to hold its first public briefing in East London on ideas for the feasibility study for the area around what many have described as one of South Africa’s fastest tracks.
The BCDA’s town planner, Johan Allers, said the aim of the study was to establish whether there was any development potential in the circuit.
“We think the race track definitely has untapped development and historical potential. Currently, it is just an open piece of land that lies there. There’s huge interest in the race track from developers,” he said.
Allers said the circuit was built on council land leased to various stakeholders. It fell within the BDCA’s mandate area, which spanned from Nahoon through Quigney to the West Bank.
Motorcycle representative on the Border Motorsport Club committee Rodney Hiles said because the track was not privately owned it was difficult to develop.
“Each time there is a race we have to close the track, which is a public road, and that costs us. There is very little security for any potential sponsor due to the lack of ownership by the club. At the moment the track is not commercially viable,” he said.
Hiles said the ideal situation would be to privatise the track.
Border Motorsport Club chairperson Boet Marais said if the municipality built a road to bypass the track it would be the “most magic circuit in the country”.
He said the club had spent its own money to maintain the track and recently upgraded curbs and repainted the road lines.
Hiles said the circuit’s surface was in good condition, and its design made it the fastest track in the country.
Allers said the racetrack was the only one in the world that remained unchanged after the last Grand Prix it hosted in 1965
The briefing into the feasibility study will be hosted today from 9am at the Zonk’izizwe Conference Centre in the Quigney.
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