Chennai: tate Minister for Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin said that all arrangements were underway for the smooth conduct of the Formula 4 (F4) street car races to be held in the heart of Chennai on Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1, and facilities had been made for 8000 spectators to watch adrenaline pumping event.
Speaking to the media at the Secretariat after a review meeting on the conduct of the races was presided over by the Chief Secretary N Murugandham on Saturday, Udhyanidihi Stalin said vehicular traffic would not be affected on the roads through which the race cars would buzz through from next Saturday morning.
People could watch the races free of cost on Saturday morning while the qualifying rounds would start in the afternoon and the races would go on till 10.30 pm.
The Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) is organizing the first of its kind sporting event in the country in association with Racing Promotion Private Limited (RRPL). The race cars would run on the 3.5 km long track, laid down on the side of the public roads encircling the Island Grounds.
According to sources, the track has been designed with 19 turns, multiple chicanes and tricky elevations that would keep the race drivers and the spectators on their toes.
The event that had to be earlier postponed due to Cyclone Michaung will put Chennai, which has a long tradition of conducting car and motorcycle races since the time of the Sholavaram races, on the global car racing map once again.
Subsequent to the Madras Motor Sports Club constructing its modern race track at Irungattukottai near Sriperumbudur, the races that were earlier held on the Sholavaram track in the 1970s and ‘80s, were moved to the new racing venue that had held many events. Sholavaram track was originally an abandoned air strip of the air force during World War II.
Though the work on the laying of the F4 track for the races to be held on August 31 and September 1 has been going for some time and the court had given its clearance on a petition filed against its conduct, not much information was officially provided on it.
Today was the first time the Sports Minister, on whose personal initiative the event was being held, has spoken about its conduct to the media, despite opposition parties and others talking about it several times.
