Shanghai's brand new US$240 million racing circuit is finished and ready to host China's first ever Formula One event on September 26, the track's General Manager Mao Xiaohan said yesterday.
Tickets are sold out for the Chinese Grand Prix, and about 200,000 people - thousands of them from overseas - are expected to watch the race, Mao told reporters at the track in the west Shanghai suburb of Jiading.
"The response has been excellent and we are totally ready for the race," Mao said.
The Shanghai Grand Prix is the third-to-last event on the 18-race F1 schedule, marking China's entry into the international glamor sport which is increasingly looking to Asia to expand its audience.
The 5.4-kilometer-long Shanghai International Circuit, designed by Germany's Hermann Tilke, stretches out in the shape of the Chinese character "Shang" - the first part of the word Shanghai.
The track has been called fast and technical, with a punishing 14 turns and a pair of long straightaways on which drivers will reach top speeds of 326 kph.
Yesterday, F1 organizers were spread out across the sprawling, 5.3 square-kilometer site, unloading furniture and computers, surveying the track surface, and meeting with their Shanghai colleagues.
Workers dangling from a crane hung banners from the main grandstand while others assembled temporary outdoor pavilions for sponsors. Scores of jumpsuited janitors hanging from ropes polished windows and the grandstand's massive red columns.
Race teams, drivers, sponsors and fans are expected to begin arriving Monday, filling the city's hotels, restaurants and night clubs. Qualifying will be next Friday and Saturday, with the race held on Sunday.
The Shanghai Grand Prix comes after Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher has already clinched the 2004 season with 12 wins out of 15 races. However, Mao said he wasn't concerned about the season's foregone conclusion dampening interest in the race.
"It's the first time for Shanghai," Mao said. "It's going to be of huge importance in the economic, cultural and sporting sense."
According to the city's branch of the American Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai agreed to pay US$40 million annually for the privilege of hosting the world's most expensive sport for the next seven years.
The returns, for the image of a dynamic, futuristic and fast-growing metropolis could also be considerable.
"Number one is prestige," said Michael Dunne, president of the Bangkok-based consulting firm Automotive Resources Asia.
"It declares to the world that China has arrived and specifically, Shanghai, is world class because requirements for hosting it are rather stringent.
"Five years ago, China couldn't host it. Today it can," Dunne said.
China has been trying to host a Formula One race for more than a decade, spending nine years developing a circuit near the southern city of Zhuhai.
Although listed provisionally on the 1998 calendar, the circuit was never approved for use after failing to meet international standards.
But Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone has always seen China as an essential ingredient in any truly global championship.