Rockingham weathers the storms

He has been brought in by major shareholder Guy Hands, one of the city's most prominent bankers, as recent heavy rainfall has impacted on the new circuit's business plan. Middleton, who also chaired Nomura's aborted bid for the Millennium Dome, has been involved in the project since November.

"It's business as usual here," said Rockingham managing director Peter Davies. "It's great to have Peter Middleton involved because he's a very experienced businessman and we're honoured to have a man of his reputation join the company. It's a great asset to us."

Middleton has been appointed executive chairman of the track, which is based in Corby, Northamptonshire. The venue's creation - which is costing over £50million - has been badly hit by appalling weather which has slowed its construction.

"If you live in Britain and you've looked out of the window recently, you will have noticed we've had some pretty crap weather - that's not a meteorological term but it's one we're familiar with here," said Davies. "I'm told it's the worst weather we've had since 1716, and I don't suppose there's a construction project in the country which hasn't suffered from that to a greater or lesser extent."

The US-style track is scheduled to host the 225mph FedEx Champ Car series in September. The last time America's top single-seater category raced in the UK was 1978, but this will be the first time they will have raced in Britain on a high-speed oval. Despite the rainfall levels, Davies is confident everything will go ahead on time.

"We've managed to get the two [asphalt] layers of the oval down, so that's all fine," he added. "The weather has certainly slowed us down a couple of weeks, but it won't impact on our opening date. We're looking forward to having a successful event with Coy's at our opening ceremony in the last weekend of May."

Before that, Rockingham plans to hold a club racing meeting on May 12-13th with the BARC as a shakedown event.

"As with anything, if you're opening a new restaurant or whatever, you need to make sure all the systems are working beforehand," said Davies. "It means we can check if the entry systems, the toilets and catering works, and that we can evacuate the grandstands in compliance with Health and Safety. It's a good opportunity to test everything."