China Welcomes the 6th new Ordoz International Circuit

lnner Mongolia, one of China’s biggest province in the north West, made famous to the world because of the all mighty Ghengis Khan, but very little people in and outside China know much about “Ordoz”, Inner Mongolia’s most important city, But if mentioned the magic word “Cashmere” then many people will remember that Ordoz is the world famous Cashmere capital from China, but even less people know that Ordoz, with a mere 1.6 million population is the richest city in Inner Mongolia due to Ordoz has one of the richest deposit of Coal, rare metal ores, Natural gas reserves in the whole of China .

With China becoming the biggest auto and Motorcycle manufacturing in the world in 2009, more and more car and bike manufacturers are looking at promoting their products through motorsport or organizing activities in Race Circuit, so the latest 6th International Circuit in China was built in Ordoz, Inner Mongolia and open its door for business in end Sept, 2010.

The Ordoz International Circuit (OIC) is situated at the new Kangbashi district of Ordoz, approx 30 km from Ordoz city center, the circuit cost close to US$140mil to built and has a 3.75km long FIA approved Grade II circuit capable of hosting any international events except a Formula 1 event.

The OIC hosted its 1st event - CTCC (China Touring Car Championship) the weekend before (25-26/9/2010), although the circuit was still partially under construction, but the CTCC event was ran without any incidents, so on the 1-3/10/2010 weekend, OIC welcomes its 1st important International Racing Event – European Superleague Formula Championship. (http://www.superleagueformula.com/)

The Superleague Championship is a new Formula event started in 2008, Each of the Superleague team was titled sponsored by one of the Super League Soccer Club in most Europe and China, giving the race event a stronger following by some of the World’s most famous Soccer Club’s vast number of fans.

Due to the Inner Mongolia, Erdos and Kangbashi Gov’t has high hopes on this new Circuit, so they have all invested a lot of support to this event and most of the important Gov’t officials will be attending the event, so in order to ensure the weekend’s event will be a exciting one, BG was invited by the Official China Motorsport Federation to operate our famous Pro Stunt show during the weekend, so BG chief Steven, our Stunt Pro Sammo and Mark travelled from Zhuhai to Guangzhou then to Zhengzhou then all the way to Ordoz on Friday, 30/9/10.

Ordoz was a small city as compared to many other cities in China, but the wealth of the City can be seen immediately as the Team got off the plane, there is a new airport terminal under construction and all the roads in and outside of the city are all brand new multi lane motorways with a big number of expansive MPV and Jeeps.

Upon arriving at the Circuit, although certain part of the Circuit are still under the finishing touches, but the main Grandstand, Pit lane and the race track itself is all ready for the weekend’s race. The OIC track was well designed with various degree of elevation and drops , the run off areas are top level with plenty of run off tarmac and Gravel traps making it one of the safest Race track other then the Shanghai F1 track.

BG’s Stunt pro has set up the bikes in no time after arriving at the Circuit on Friday morning while BG’s Steven was invited by the China CCTV5 Channel’s filming crew as a tech consultant to the new circuit and also the Superleague Formula cars.

Sat saw the start of the Superleague formula race, there were 18 teams representing many of the World Super League soccer clubs, the Formula cars are based on the Ex-Champ car from the US with a V-12 engine producing just over 700 BHP.

The Superleague Race format is totally different than any regular auto race events as their qualifying is based on a Soccer league matches seem in the world, 18 cars are divided into 2 groups with each team qualifying against each other, then it comes to a Quarter Final, semi Final and a final 2 car battling for the Pole at Sunday’s race.

BG Pro Stunt team performed 2 shows on Sat, but due to Sat is not a open day for spectators so the race teams and circuit workers all had a great time cheering on the Riders.

Sunday is the main race day for the event, in the morning, there is the 1st Race with all cars lined up according to their Sat qualifying, then there is the 2nd race in the afternoon, the afternoon race was again with a very different format than any other race events, the line of the 1st race was put in reverse at the 2nd race’s grid which means the Car that came last in the 1st race will be at Pole at the 2nd race while the winner of the 1st race will lined up at the last place,

This unusual line up caused a lot of havoc at the 2nd race as all the fast drivers were battling to come to the front right after the start of the race while the slower drivers were blocking all the opening for a quick pass, there were quite a few get together and ran off within the 1st couple of laps, then as the race proceed, more and more cars were out of the race as they all push for a better position to the front, so by the end of the race, only 10 cars finished the race while 8 were out making it a very heavy casualty rate but providing the spectator some great crashing scene to remember.

The Final race named the “Super Final” was a 5 lap sprint race for the Top 6 teams, this is to decide who will be getting the winner’s EU 100,000 purse and a EU 75,000 and EU 50,000 2nd and 3rd prizes.

The Sun noon Opening event at the Starting Grid see some of Inner Mongolia’s most important dignitaries, the D.chairman of China’s National Sports Bureau, Chairman of the China Motorsport Federation, D.Party Sec of the inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Zone’s representative at the People’s congress, Mayor and Party Sec of Ordoz, Chairwoman of the Ordoz Sports Bureau were all there attending the opening ceremony and presenting prized to the Race winner. The event was also attended by some of the world’s top level racing events bosses with the US-Indy Car and FIA-GT President present at the weekend.

BG’s Pro Stunt show was made to perform in front all the Dignitaries while the Spectators at the Grandstand were screaming and yelling for more.

The weekend ended with the BG Stunt show and the Stunt Pros were again surrounded by their new found Fans asking for the Stunt Pro’s autographed posters.

The Weekend was a great success for the Ordoz Circuit and Ordoz gov’t，as being a far inland city that has limited access to the western world, a world class Motor Racing event will for sure put Inner Mongolia and Ordoz in a much prominent position in the world.

There were meetings after the Sunday dinner banquet with BG being invited back for more Stunt shows and also to organize more of BG”s Super Car and Super Bike events at the Ordoz Circuit in 2011.

BG would like to thank the Director of FASC for inviting us to Ordoz, also to the General Manager of the Ordoz circuit for being a great friend and all the support provided to us during our visit and we’re sure we’ll be visiting the Ordoz Circuit very often in 2011.