Dodgy Business

What have Johnny Herbert, Jean Alesi, Stefan Johansson, Ukyo Katayama, Gianni Morbidelli and Narain Karthikeyan got in common?

Well, apart from belonging to the hallowed ranks of F1 drivers, they are about to knock seven bells out of each other in stock cars. They will all take part in the new Speedcar series which kicks off with GP2 Asia on January 26 at Dubai Autodrome.

They will be the star attractions of a new 24-car series which boasts $3 million prize money and a 10-race schedule on five dates. They will be on the programme at both the Malaysian and Bahrain GPs.

The TV deals are still being sorted, but Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Management will supply the feed and so it should be a good show. Knowing a bit about the guys involved, it promises to be spectacular. And entertaining.

Satrio Hermanto tests the Speedcar in Dubai © Reuters

"Obviously it wouldn't be much fun just blowing these guys away. Done that, worn the T-shirt" Johnny joked at the launch, "I'd rather wait for them and have some fun ..." Cue much abuse.

Ecclestone's backing for the project has obviously done Speedcar a favour, and has even led to speculation that it could eventually become Bernie's NASCAR. That might seem a little far-fetched, but there is a lot going on in the region and the potential is enormous.

Those of you with sharp eyes might have noticed that the main backer of the recent Autosport Awards was Motor City Dubai. The operating offices of Speedcar are in Dubai but it is a UK company. Mr Speedcar, the man doing all the legwork, is Benoit Lamonerie.

"The shareholder is a big corporation from the Middle East, not really linked to motor racing," Lamonerie says. The best guess is Union Properties.

"People ask me, is Bernie the owner? Well, I'd like to say yes, but the answer is no. He's busy with his own thing, but we have a great relationship and he's helped us with many things."

Lamonerie appreciated that motor racing is in its formative stages in the Middle East. To get in touch with his audience, he went into the grandstand when the FIA GTs visited Bahrain. When the first car stopped for fuel/driver changes, there was confusion. He heard people speculating that perhaps the driver was sick ...

"Speedcar will be spectator driven - that's why there will be no pit stops and none of the things that make a race interesting for the specialist, but difficult to follow for the public. There will be a start, a fight and a winner. There will be fighting on the track, sliding and spinning."

Without boring you with tech specs, the cars will have 600 horsepower, they will be meaty and they will sound good. The races will be around 45 minutes long.

"Everyone asks why NASCAR is so successful," Lamonerie says. "Well, it's a successful national championship, like DTM is in Germany. Germany is a small country, but in the US there are 400 million people and so NASCAR's success is bigger.

"But, in China and India together, there are three billion people. Between Dubai and China lives more than half of the world, with more than half the world's wealth. The market is not totally untapped, because F1 is there. But we are trying to create something from the region, for the region.

"The two biggest sports in the world are soccer and then motor racing. And I don't know anything about soccer ...

"We will try to captivate the audience and grow together. Narain will appeal to the Indian market, Ukyo to Japan, Jean to Europe, Johnny to English-speaking people everywhere. We don't want to expand too far east too soon. We want to learn what the audience wants."

To stimulate the local interest, Sheikh Hasher Al Maktoum will be the first Emirati to join the series.

Narain Karthikeyan tests the Speedcar in Dubai © Reuters

"This isn't GP Masters," Lamonerie adds, "It's a blend. Renowned drivers who are still active and fast, and young drivers who want to challenge them."

As well as the six Speedcar 'names', there will be another 18 cars entered by what, in the main, will be two-car teams.

"I'm quite happy to talk figures, it's no secret," Lamonerie goes on. "From the end of January to April we're talking 10 races on five dates, and the price of the car and associated expense will be $400,000.

"That includes tyres, transportation, fuel, and maintenance. It doesn't include the travel costs of personnel and crashes, but there is an insurance."

To keep costs down, Speedcar has limited the number of mechanics who can touch the car to two. The organisers will also allocate one 'supervisor' to help each team. Oh, and also to make sure they don't cheat ...

In fact, there is little that can be played with on the cars. What they want is a show where the driver makes the difference.

Visiting Dubai, it's hard to take in the scale of what's happening there. I went for the first time between the Malaysian and Bahrain GPs. The construction around Dubai Marina is unbelievable. It's more like Manhattan.

Looking out of the full-glazed windows of Lamonerie's Dubai Motor City offices at the autodrome, it looks like, well, a desert. Because basically, it is. But, in a tad over 12 months, it is also where F1's first theme park will be opening.

The major consultant for the project is Lucchiano Secchi.

"Looking out here," he says, pointing to an area where trucks trundle back and forth in huge dust clouds, "there will be a Marriott Hotel with 350 rooms, and offices. And nine floor parking for 5000 cars. There will be a small track, like Fiorano, but 1.1km whereas the real thing is 1.6.

"We will have an F1 school with F3 cars to learn on, and then three or four F1 cars and one two-seater. You pay your couple of thousand dollars, or whatever, then you have your day, you get a movie, your diploma and so forth and you go home happy!"

In case you're worried about the thought of punters being let loose in F1 cars - health and safety and all that - let me tell you that it does already happen. In the south of France, about 50 miles from St Tropez, AGS operates such a thing already, and apparently does very nicely thank-you all summer, largely courtesy of cash-laden Russians at the moment.

They're not real, real F1 cars, but similar scale with Cosworth engines, as they will be in Dubai.

Next to the track will be a simulation of the F1 paddock, a museum, 15 restaurants, and 35 big attractions. The biggest will be a roller-coaster with two rails, each with two F1 cars, sitting four people.

"It will be very fast," says Secchi with a smile. "My personal favourite though, will be the vintage zone, a Spa replica, with trees and houses with restaurants outside. It will all be built in the old style, everything from the toilets.

The Dubai skyline © Reuters

"There will be a replica of Eau Rouge and a copy of the tower from the old Nurburgring, which will be restaurants, I think 22 in total. They've done a fantastic job."

"They" are the Toronto-based Forrec company, which has undertaken both Disney and Legoland projects. The Dubai site is no less than 38 hectares and listening to Secchi talk details helps you to understand the realities of life.

"In January 2009 there will be a kind of soft opening," he explains, "with the official one at the end of March, just before the Bahrain GP. Everything is catered for 1.5 million visitors a year, expanding to 3 million.

"Forrec have told me that they are now working much more in China, Asia and Japan, and not so much in Europe anymore. We talked about the Dubai plan for two years, which is longer than the construction will take!

"We worked very closely with Bernie on the park. He was suggesting many things, always nice but sometimes not feasible! But he loves the concept. This is the first one in the world but Union Properties, which owns the F1 Park brand for the next 30 years, wants to develop four or five around the world.

"We have had many requests, all from this part of the world except one in Europe, which I can't talk about, but which would have European exclusivity. We are talking with China, with India, with Korea.

"In three or five years time there will be 10 Grands Prix here and six in Europe," Secchi states matter-of-factly. "Already there's Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Malaysia, New Dehli, Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia. In Europe it's Italy, Monaco, Spain, Germany, the UK and France. So, much more here than there. Here, there is the money ...

"I have very good relations with Qatar people. If they could have F1 tomorrow they would pay a huge amount, but you cannot have more than two in the Middle East. Indonesia, where we will go with Speedcar and GP2, wants F1. And they will have it, because they have the money. With the parks, same as with the F1 calendar, it's about dollars.

"A park like this is a money machine and makes big profits," Secchi says.

"To build it costs, but the money is not an issue here as it is in Europe. The park here costs $350 million, without the land. When we did the study for the European company, labour only, it was 550 million Euros. Here, labour costs are 10 to 15 times less.

"A benchmark for a park entry ticket is 35 euros or 50 dollars. Then we know how much will be spent on Coca cola, McDonalds, etc. If you have 1.5 million through the gate you make 120 million dollars. When you have 600 people here at cost of 200 dollars each a month, it works well, but if it cost 2000 euros a month ... I'm not sure Europe is too interested if 80 percent of the income goes in salaries."

If you ever wondered why you can build Shanghai in a place where they don't recognise an F1 car from a bus, but resurfacing the paddock at Silverstone is a major deal, all this helps you understand. You do start to wonder what an F1 calendar might look like in 20 years time. In the meantime, enjoy the Speedcars!