Efforts to bring F1 racing back to South Africa continue to intensify as the Grand Prix bid committee has said it hopes to sign a contract by the end of the year to host the sport in Cape Town.

Efforts to bring F1 racing back to South Africa continue to intensify as the Grand Prix bid committee has said it hopes to sign a contract by the end of the year to host the sport in Cape Town.

The committee was applying for a licence to host the Formula One grand prix from 2009 for an initial period of seven years.

Chairman of the South African Formula One Grand Prix Company bid committee David Gant said the proposed event would attract scores of international visitors and about 150 million television viewers.

He said the bid committee had achieved its target of obtaining commitments worth R150 million from its equity partners including the asset finance division of the FirstRand group, Wesbank, construction and engineering group Murray & Roberts and empowerment group African Renaissance Holdings.

"Ninety percent of grands prix in the world are assisted by governments because of the national economic impact," Gant told the .

Gant stated that the bid committee had discussed the proposal at all levels of government, particularly with the ministries of trade and industry, and sport and recreation. He added that the bid committee had approached government for a further R75 million in financial backing.

The committee has also already pinpointed an area adjacent to Cape Town International Airport as the proposed site for the R511-million race circuit. Although the Airports Company of South Africa and the City of Cape Town own the land, Gant said an agreement for the site had already been negotiated, on condition that the committee obtains a licence from Formula One management.

He said the first drafts of the master plan for the new circuit had already been tabled and that he hoped to have the final layouts within the next three months.

It is estimated that the event could generate R1 billion a year for the country and create about 10 000 jobs, while encouraging the staging of more international racing events.

Original article from Car