Race of Champions drops Wembley

Event boss Fredrik Johnsson revealed to AUTOSPORT that a new venue would be announced in the coming weeks, and that Wembley had been dropped after two events owing to a decline in spectator numbers.

"It has been really good to work with Wembley, but we've got five different proposals for next year," said Johnsson.

"Last year, we thought we would get a bigger crowd because the first year at Wembley was 50,000. But in the end we had only 48,000 despite the fact that we had a better starting line-up and a better campaign, so we decided that it was time to move.

"Looking at the five different options, there were many good ones and we hope to finalise a deal within the next few weeks."

Johnsson did not rule out the possibility of the event returning to Britain, and possibly Wembley, in the future, but that a change of venue after two years would expand the appeal of the Race of Champions.

"You want an international event with an international audience, so every time you go to a new country there is new awareness in that market," said Johnsson. "It's good to move on, but maybe to come back to England every three or four years,"

Johnsson is also planning to change the event's one-day weekend format into a two-day mid-week event. This would allow the Nations Cup - a two-driver event built around national teams - to be held on one day, with the headline individual Race of Champions the following evening.

There is also a plan to run it around a month earlier than its traditional slot in the second week of December.

"It will be in the early part of November," said Johnsson. "It allows us to be a bit earlier in the season, which is obviously better for the spectators not to suffer in a cold country.

"And by doing it mid-week, we could get the NASCAR drivers who are the only ones still competing.

"We feel that running it over two evenings is a better format both for the drivers and the spectators. The drivers would get a bit more driving time and the spectators would get a two-hour live event. Two events on the same day makes it a bit long."