Is top class racing over at Rio?
How the Jacarepaguá circuit will look when the new sports complex is built.
Top-class racing looks to be all-but dead at Rio's Jacarepaguá circuit, with news that half of it is to be torn up to make way for an athletics village.
Rio's Mayor, Cesar Maia, has approved plans to create a complex for the 2007 Pan-American Games, which the city is hosting. The circuit will be reduced from its current 3.08-mile layout to just 1.67 miles, with a watersports park and indoor sports arena built on the northern portion of the track.
Also disappearing will be the 'roval' course, which has remained dormant since the last Champ Car visit in 2000. The circuit is set to close for the whole of 2006 while the alterations take place.
Motorsports fans have been battling the plans for several years but appear to have lost their battle. Only national-level racing will be possible at the shortened circuit, which will not be long enough to qualify for an international licence.
No MotoGP race
MotoGP bosses have announced that they will not return to the track in 2005 as a result. Rio's slot on the calendar will instead be taken by the Istanbul Otodrom in Turkey.
The new facility will be known as the Rio Speedway Sports Complex, with a velodrome for cycling, indoor arena for gymnastics and basketball, together with the National Aquatics Centre.
The Rio Sports Plaza Association, which will provide full financing for the construction, won a public bid to reconstruct Jacarepaguá and has been granted to right to utilize the Sports Complex for 50 years. Construction on the $150 million project is expected to begin next April.
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