City Challenge

[Samoan Attorney]

More from the Caucasus

http://www.doubledeclutch.com/?p=5236

[tux]

Hexis Mclaren is just too fast.

[GTKers]

It is really cool to watch the cars in a street circuit but at the same time race has been quite boring and no overtacking

When is next event?

[GT3.14]

Originally Posted by GTKers

When is next event?

None scheduled at the moment. This was just a "friendly". They are hoping to put together a few races for next year if I'm not mistaken.

[Samoan Attorney]

More from Baku

HERE

[Go_For_Pole]

Seriously, everything about this event shouted "expensive". I wonder how much it costed to the local government

[GT3.14]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

Seriously, everything about this event shouted "expensive". I wonder how much it costed to the local government

The whole point of City Challenge is to let cities like Baku show off and generate publicity. Mission accomplished.

[Go_For_Pole]

... at any cost? Not very clever.

[Rodger Davies]

it's advertising, basically - they reckon the exposure gained, combined with the local culture benefit, is worth the gamble on the cost. Small TV channels have carried tourism ads for Astana for years, this is a novel way of both advertising themself to a (small) portion of the world and entertaining the locals simultaneously.

It's no different, in some regards, to London having the Olympics - and I bet this one didn't cost €13billion

Whether they think they got their money's worth.... well I guess we'll wait and see if there's an event there in future.

[urdragon]

Originally Posted by Samoan Attorney

More from Baku

HERE

Wow, cool shots, i've not seen lots of sundown shots in sprint races.

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

... at any cost? Not very clever.

Cheaper than the F1 event in India for sure, where only the exposure is valued according to the poor track assistance numbers.

[polishboy808]

I actually quite like this idea. The racing wasn't anything spectacular, but for once we managed to get a race that wasn't on a highly neutralized street circuit of overly safety minded road course. The fact that its in Baku is really cool too, since the whole country of Azerbaijan doesn't necessarily have a racing heritage, and this is a good way to get advertising as well as a bunch of fast cars in the city. Obviously safety is important, but since this wasn't run by the FIA they got away with a slightly less than passing track (By FIA standards). I hope this entices more cities to try this idea out.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Go_For_Pole

Seriously, everything about this event shouted "expensive". I wonder how much it costed to the local government

Azerbaijan has a shedload of oil money, I think whatever was outlaid this weekend was not a significant amount in the whole scheme of things.

What better excuse to run a motor race in the capital for the purposes of attracting tourists and showing off the country? Win win in my eyes.

[Juntos]

A great GT3 event ... as well as delivering fun events.

[Samoan Attorney]

Final report HERE

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Samoan Attorney

Final report HERE

Thanks John for keeping us up to date with how the event unfolded along with some great pictures from Pedro. Cant find any other coverage of the City Challenge anywhere else, Ill look for race highlights on youtube. Sounds like a successful event, just hope its not a one off and it becomes a annual thing, it brings GT racing to the people who might otherwise not know of it.

[Samoan Attorney]

Originally Posted by rich07

Thanks John for keeping us up to date with how the event unfolded along with some great pictures from Pedro. Cant find any other coverage of the City Challenge anywhere else, Ill look for race highlights on youtube. Sounds like a successful event, just hope its not a one off and it becomes a annual thing, it brings GT racing to the people who might otherwise not know of it.

Thanks, I had an invite from the organisers that I had to transfer to Pedro at the last minute. So I felt little guilty at messing them around and I was lucky to have such a talented pair as Janos and Pedro to provide coverage, an editor's dream.

As to the future, I understand that this is the first of several events planned. I hope so, as we need to get the message out that motorsport is not all F1 and NASCAR, and that the ordinary Joe will get way more out of this style of event.

[GT3.14]

City Challenge Baku 2012 Final Laps Nick Tandy No 8 Porsche GT3R SD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpE52...eature=g-all-u