Macau, China, 7 Oct – The 58th Macau Grand Prix will be held from November 17-20 with a total of 225 racers – both cars and motorbikes – from 34 countries and regions, Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) Director Joao Manuel Costa Antunes revealed in a press conference Thursday.
According to Costa Antunes, the 225 racers including 58 Macau drivers and riders will compete in seven car races and one motorbike race.
French-Italian driver Edoardo Mortara, who last year became the only man to ever win Macau ’s F3 race in consecutive years, will compete in a different race this year, the Star River-Windsor Arch Macau GT Cup.
Scheduled to compete in the 6.2-kilometre Guia Circuit for the SJM Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix are Spain ’s Roberto Merhi, Brazil ’s Felipe Nasr and Finland ’s Valtteri Bottas, among other F3 stars from around the globe.
SJM Holdings is the Macau Grand Prix’s title sponsor this year.
This year’s F3 race also includes the FIA F3 International Trophy.
Macau racer Andre Couto won the F3 race in 2000 when he became the first and so far only local driver to ever win the Macau Grand Prix’s main event. As in the past few years, Couto, with fellow local drivers Felipe C. de Souza and Joseph Rosa-Merszei, will compete in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, also known as the “Guia Race of Macau ”.
The City of Dreams Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix this year will see Britain ’s Michael Rutter trying again to break the local record for the most number of victories with a seventh win on the local circuit – something he has been trying to do for several years.
The budget for this year’s event is 140 million patacas ( US$ 17.5 million) said Costa Antunes quoted by The Macau Post Daily.
Total revenue, including ticket sales and sponsors is expected to reach some 35 million patacas, according to the MGTO director.
Costa Antunes said that the massive spending on the annual event was in fact an “investment” meant to attract more tourists to Macau through the motor-racing extravaganza’s global media exposure.(MacauNews/Sports)
