The new Rockingham Motor
|
|
|
|
|
|
"It's going to be quick, busy, and there will be plenty of overtaking. From the grandstand you can see all of the race which is fantastic for the fans..." |
Scotland's racing ace Dario
Franchetti (37k) - the first current ChampCar driver to visit
Rockingham. |
|
The 'spectator experience' has been paramount throughout the design of Rockingham. It is intended that the Rockingham experience will begin before visitors have even reached the Speedway. It is an easy route into the circuit, centrally located in Britain between the A1, M1 and the A14 east-west route. In the long-term future, there'll be fully integrated transport with a railway link leading from St. Pancras to Corby, with a dedicated station opposite the main gate that will mean an easy day trip on the train from London, just and hour and a half away. Golden Triangle As an industrial transport centre, Corby already has good road infrastructure and Rockingham has committed itself to having all car parking on hard-standing, with a short walk or shuttle-bus ride to the Rockingham Building, which houses the main grandstand.
Situated on the outside of the track facing the pit lane, the 300m long, four-storey structure will contain 7,500 permanent grandstand seats under its distinctive cantilever roof when complete, augmented by two more permanent grandstands providing another 20,000 seats, supplemented by extra temporary grandstands for major events. Designed with the findings of the Taylor Report in mind, and the subsequent 'green guide' to stadium safety, Rockingham is Britain's first ever all-seat motor sport stadium. "It is a unique selling proposition", says David Grace. "Every visitor has a grandstand seat and every seat has an unimpeded view of the action. The terms of the Taylor report now make it very difficult to accommodate standing spectators in the large numbers we have to accommodate. We have turned this into a marketing advantage". The Rockingham Building is designed to be much more than a mere grandstand. It is designed to be a true multi-use facility. Below the main grandstand seats, two floors of glass fronted hospitality suites cater for corporate guests. Rented on a season-long basis, they are designed to be used as exclusive meeting rooms and training suites for the tenants' use during the week. "This increased utilisation offers advantages to our clients and to Rockingham alike" says Grace. "Our clients have the advantage of an exciting, well-serviced conference facility on permanent call, while we are able to maintain the top-quality, permanent infrastructure needed for a facility of this kind." The Rockingham building is also designed to contain operational areas for use during the race meeting such as the Race Control, commentary booths and press offices. This allows the buildings facing the grandstand on the opposite side of the track to be kept single storey. In turn, this ensures that every seat has an unimpeded view of every corner on the track. "There'll be excellent views, with all of the track action visible from every single grandstand seat, and every spectator gets a seat," says Grace. "The spectator experience will also be enhanced by top-class catering by professional service companies and clean, modern sanitation. To be successful in the future, we believe that live sport of any form has to be better than watching it on TV. At Rockingham, because of the oval track and the state-of-the-art facilities, it is much better." The lessons that Rockingham is putting into practice, have of course been learned in the USA where the development of Super Speedway tracks in locations as varied as Charlotte, North Carolina; Houston, Texas and the Fontana Raceway on the East side of Los Angeles, have bred a new market for motor sport, both in spectator volumes and in associated areas such as merchandising. America's largest Super Speedways can accommodate more than 240,000 spectators - but Grace has no aspirations to build so big. "The numbers in America are huge, but it would be wrong to simply assume that we could reproduce that here."
A prime reason for Rockingham's location is that it is in the 'golden triangle' between the A1, M1 and the A14 east-west route. Around 31 million people live within a 100-mile radius, but even then the most that can be expected at a national level meeting would be around 30,000 - around the same as most Premier League football matches - hence the carefully judged grandstand capacity. International Links
Although modern banked Speedways are new in Europe, there is a lot of technology available in the USA. The specific challenge at Rockingham was in utilising a 'brown field' site and in meeting rigorous standards, to minimise environmental impact and items such as noise levels. In contrast to conventional race tracks which are usually on flat sites which allows noise to spread, the design of the speedbowl throws noise inwards and upwards, "There is no commercial justification in offering another 'me too' motor racing circuit, offering the same as everybody else. We don't have any aspirations to host a Formula One race in the next few years. We will be offering something new that will broaden the interest in motor sport." Said Grace. That broadening of interest was accelerated with the announcement last July that Rockingham and the Lausitzring facility in Germany had landed the first-ever European rounds of the FedEx Championship series, "America's premier motor racing series will be a huge spectacle comparable to but different from Formula One" says Grace. "We always stated that our aim was to host a major international motor race within two or three years of opening, but to host an event of the magnitude of the FedEx ChampCar World Series in 2001 - our debut year - is astounding and a real boost, not just to our investors and management team, but to Corby and to Great Britain." Two of the biggest investors in the project are also very enthusiastic about the prospect of ChampCars coming to Rockingham. Guy Hands, of Nomura Bank, is one of the project's keenest supporters. He says: "The ChampCar race at Rockingham will be a key investment primer for the local East Midlands economy; it will form a landmark in the resurgence of the former steel town of Corby, providing significant numbers of new jobs. He continues: "Rockingham Motor Speedway has taken a 'brown field' site and shown what can be done. It is noteworthy that this complex construction project has never received any local, regional or Government aid, yet Rockingham provides strong support for motor sport and high-technology manufacturing, an area upon which 50,000 jobs rely in Britain alone." Another of Rockingham's major investors is Gerry Forsythe, who combines his role as CEO of the Indeck Group, one of the world's largest operators of private sector power stations, with ownership of two ChampCar teams and a stake in Reynard, who build both ChampCars and the BAR Formula One machines. He takes a transatlantic view of the tracks potential. "You have to grasp opportunity," says Forsythe. "Strategic locations are important to our race team sponsors and our partners. Being close to London is the key. It's a world Mecca. There are thousands of people in Britain who already support ChampCar and that will increase." So will the Rockingham team's endeavours be rewarded? Former ChampCar and Formula 1 racer Mark Blundell certainly thinks so. "The cars will be awesome at Rockingham. Oval races are fast, furious and exciting with the cars reaching speeds over 200 mph and often lining up three and four abreast for the corners. "You are talking 800 horsepower, 200mph racing just inches apart
- and maybe twenty or more lead changes during the race!" |
^ TOP ^
| subscribe to : magazine | eBULLETIN | feedback |
|
|
s the fastest racing circuit in the UK nears completion, cars
covering the last 90 years of racing from the aero-engined pre-war
racers to modern 240mph ChampCars are being prepared to race on UK
shores.
Free Thinkers
Rockingham
Speedway
Rockingham has combined the construction skills of Edinburgh-based
Morrison plc. with design input from Atlanta, Georgia-based architect
Bill Moss, the ChampCar organiser, British architects Ridge Partners
from Rugby and a truly multi-national track surfacing team incorporating
Americans, French, Swedes and Britons from the French contractor Colas.
