JUNE 5, 2003

Something cooking in Turkey

The Turks have been quietly working away towards a Grand Prix for several years and that work is now beginning to pay off. Mumtaz "Mike" Tahincioglu, the chairman of the Turkish Automobile and Motorsports Federation (TOMSFED) has now announced that there is to be a ground-breaking ceremony for a Formula 1 specification track at Kurtnoy, near Istanbul on July 9. It is expected that the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the ceremony as will Bernie Ecclestone and almost certainly Max Mosley.

The new track, which has been designed by Hermann Tilke, will be finished by the end of 2004 and it is anticipated that Turkey will be bidding for a Grand Prix in 2005. The 3.3-mile track is expected to cost something in the region of $60m.